The report provides a brief overview of the management, leadership, conflict, and negotiation in the organization. The management and leadership is an integral part of the organization. None of the company can survive its business without effective and dynamic management and leadership. Along with this, the report explains the role of the conflict and negotiation in Unilever. Conflict refers to an issue and disagreement which arise in the organization. It can affect the success and growth of the company. Unilever has been selected in the report to show the impact of management, leadership, conflict, and negotiation on the culture of the organization. Unilever is one of the biggest brands in food and beverage industry. Further, it also maintains CSR and sustainability within the organization. It describes that how Unilever develops and builds a dynamic culture in the organization to increase the productivity of the organization as well as employees.
Unilever is a British transnational consumer’s goods corporation with its headquartered is located in the London United Kingdom. The company is dealing with various products such as beverages, food, and personal care products. It is one of the biggest consumer goods companies evaluated by the revenue. Unilever is the oldest multinational corporation in the UK. The company provides its products in more than 190 countries. There are approx 169,000 employees employed in the organization. In today’s era, the firm is expanding and flourishing its business activities and operations globally (Unilever, 2017).
The management is the process of planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, directing and controlling the activities of the business enterprises. The planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating and controlling are the function of the management. The management helps to assign the task and responsibilities to the people in the organization (Mujtaba, 2013). It also helps to attain the long-term goals and objectives of the firm. There is a close relationship between leadership and management. Further, leadership is the ability to influence and control over the subordinates in the organization (Cummings et al, 2010.). The leadership is the action and process of leading people in the organization in order to accomplish the goals and objectives. Leaders influence the behaviors of other people in several ways. A leader and manager set a clear mission and vision for the company and they motive the employees to increase the productivity and efficiency (Rowe, 2007). The managers and top management manage the employees by providing guidance and suggestions and they build and develop morale among the employees. Along with this, many companies use leadership styles to motivate and encourage the employees. The leadership styles have been discussed below.
Autocratic leadership: This leadership style is used by the many companies to maintain control over the supervisors in the organization. In this leadership style, leader’s holds power and responsibilities and they do not delegate the responsibilities and authorities to subordinates. The managers and leaders take decisions on their own without discussing with employees. There is no flexibility in the autocratic leadership style (Nam Nguyen and Mohamed, 2011).
Democratic leadership: In this leadership style, employees are involved in the decisions making the process of the firm. The democratic leadership style is based on the subordinates in the organization. The democratic leaders exercise their responsibilities and authorities to the subordinates at the workplace. The final responsibilities are held by the leaders in order to influence the subordinates within the organization (Brauckmann and Pashiardis, 2011).
Transformational leadership: The transformational leaders motivate and encourage other people to do work effectively and efficiently. They set the typical and challenging expectations in order to attain the higher performance within the organization.
Laissez-faire leadership: Under this leadership style, leaders assign responsibilities and authorities to the workers in the firm. They provide freedom to subordinate for doing work without any pressure and interference (Antonakis and Day, 2017).
Transactional leadership: This leadership involves in the exchange process. Feedback is collected by the top management under this leadership style in order to determine the growth and success of the firm in near future.
Team leadership: The team leadership style provides motivation and inspiration to the workers to do work effectively and efficiently. But this leadership style may fail due to poor leadership qualities in the organization (Iqbal, Anwar, and Halder, 2015).
Cross-cultural leadership: If there are various types of culture in the country then cross leadership style is used by the company. Cross-cultural leadership style is used by the many companies to evaluate and identify the culture of the different countries (Robert et al, 2010).
In addition, the company uses models of the management to increase and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness. There are various management theories used by the company to increase and maximize the productivity and efficiency. The theories of the management include contingency theory, systems theory, and Chaos theory. The management theories have been discussed below.
Contingency theory: The contingency theory is effective and dynamic management theory. It depends on the management behaviors and specific situations. This theory is used by the various companies in order to gain success and growth within the organization.
System theory: In today’s era, system theory is one of the significant theories of the management. A system theory is used by the companies to evaluate and identify the marketing elements which affect the profitability and growth of the business. This theory helps to maintain coordination and collaboration between employees and employers as well (Hatch and Cunliffe, 2013). The organization uses system theory in order to attain the long-term mission and vision of the firm.
The conflict management may be defined as a process of minimising the adverse aspects of conflicts while maximizing the positive aspects of the conflicts. The main objective of the conflict management is to enhance and increase the learning and outcomes including performance and effectiveness within the organization (Kilgour and Eden, 2010). The conflict management plays a vital role in every organization. The significance of the conflicts has been discussed below.
There are many potential and effective causes of conflict at the workplace which have been discussed below.
The outcomes of the conflicts have been discussed below.
If the conflict arises in the organization then the company needs to resolve the conflicts to accomplish the long-term goals and objectives of the firm. There are various ways to manage the conflict and dispute in a business that have been discussed below.
The firm uses effective and dynamic conflict management strategies to resolve the conflict and dispute of the people. The conflict management strategies and approaches include accommodating, avoiding, compromising, competing and collaborating strategies to reduce the key issues and problems. Many companies use conflict and negotiation theories to attain the goals and objectives. The collaborating approach helps to develop and find the solution to resolve the conflicts easily. Further, if the company needs to take urgent and immediate decisions then competing approach is used by the organization to eliminate the conflict. In addition, compromising approach is used by the firm to overcome the conflicts and barrier in the organization. Along with this, accommodating approach is one of the most significant and passive conflict resolution approaches within the organization. The firm maintains a reciprocal relationship with employees by using accommodating approach to eliminate the disputes. Avoiding is the final approach to avoid and remove the conflict at the workplace (Deutsch, Coleman, and Marcus, 2011).
Along with this, the firm uses negotiation to settle and resolve the disputes and conflicts of the employees. Negotiation is a method and approach by which employees settle their disputes and differences. It is a process by which agreement and compromise are reached while ignoring the disputes and argument. The main aim of the negotiation is to attain the best possible outcomes and results for their position in the organisation. The organization uses two types of negotiations strategies such as distributive negotiation and integrative negotiations in order to increase the profitability and revenue of the firm. Under distributive negotiations, two parties try to maximize and increase the amount of the value within the organization. This strategy provides competitive benefits in the global market. Apart from this, the organization uses integrative strategies in order to gain the competitive advantages globally. The integrative strategy is also called cooperative negotiation strategy. Further, it is based on the value creation concept. Under this strategy, problems and barriers are solved by the employees mutually. Along with this, behavioral approach and attitudinal approach are also used by Unilever to resolve the conflict and disputes within the organization.
The organizational culture refers to values and beliefs which have existed in the organization for a long time. The management and leadership highly affect the culture of the organization. Unilever is a food and beverage company where effective leadership and management are essential to attain the corporate goals and objectives of the firm. The effective management helps to maintain a healthy and safe working environment in the organization. It also helps to provide job security and job satisfaction to the employees. Effective leadership helps to increase and enhance the productivity and efficiency of the employees. By using leadership styles, the company is able to understand and evaluate the needs, expectations, and requirements of the consumers. Further, Unilever manages the business activities and operations smoothly in order to determine the long-term success and growth of the organization. Leadership is the part of the management which is used by the company to influence the behavior of other people in the organization. The role of the managers and top management depend on the culture of the organization. The top management and managers perform task and duties effectively to maintain a favorable and dynamic culture within the organization. The management functions include planning, organizing, direction, and controlling which are completed by the managers. Along with this, management models are also used by the firm to carry the business activities and operations smoothly. Apart from this leaders affect the effectiveness and culture of the organization. The leadership skills and traits are useful for promoting and enhancing a healthy organizational culture in Unilever (Mobley, Wang, and Li, 2012).
The conflict and dispute adversely affect the culture and environment of the organization. The conflict influences the productivity and efficiency of the employees. The employees are not able to work effectively and efficiently due to conflict and dispute. Therefore, it has a negative impact on the culture and reputation of Unilever. If the conflict arises in the different department then it disrupts the production, efficiency, and sales of the company (Gelfand et al, 2012). Due to conflict, employees are not able to provide effective and unique products and services of Unilever. As a result, it decreases the revenue and profitability of the company. Disputes and conflicts damage the business of Unilever therefore, the firm needs to resolve the problems and key issues of the employees. Unilever must maintain the code of conducts and business ethics within the organization in order to resolve the dispute and conflict of the employees. Along with this, negotiation has a positive impact on the culture of the organization (Ybema and Byun, 2009). Through negotiation, employees settle and resolve their disputes and conflicts within the organization. Therefore, it helps to make a favorable working environment and culture at the workplace. Negotiation is the flexible method to reduce and eliminate the conflict in the organization. Various negotiation approaches are used by Unilever to overcome the conflicts and disputes (Redpath et al, 2013). It will help to make a good position in the global market and it will also increase the profit and revenue of the company in near future. Negotiation helps to reduce the cultural differences and values of the organization. It also helps to maintain a good communication and collaboration within the organization. The conflict also arises due to different culture because people come from different countries for doing work in Unilever. Therefore, negotiation system is used by Unilever to eliminate barriers and key issues of the organization. By using effective negotiation strategies, the firm is able to maintain an effective and dynamic culture in the organization (Gates, 2011).
Conclusion
On the above discussion, it has been concluded that management and leadership are essential in every organization in order to meet the long-term goals and objectives of the firm. Unilever uses effective and unique leadership styles to motivate and encourage employees within the organization. Apart from this, conflict and negotiation strategies and approaches are used by the company to eliminate the barriers and key issues of Unilever. Management, leadership, conflict, and negotiation are the part of every organization in order to maintain a favorable working environment and culture within the organization. By using management and leadership strategies, the company is able to build and develop a good position in the global market. In addition negotiation system handles the conflict and disputes of the employees. It also helps to develop and build a dynamic culture in the organization for doing work effectively and efficiently.
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