Leadership as a Process of Persuading - Research Paper Example

Contemporary Leadership Issues Introduction Leadership is an important aspect of an organization and in most cases they are use interchangeably with management. Leaders motivate and inspire their employees while managers organize their staff and provide resources to achieve a common goal and therefore good leadership is a trait of an effective manager (Michael 5). Leadership is a process of persuading and influencing individuals in a group to work towards common goals as well as indivual goals by foregoing personal interests and preferences (Hartog, Deanne and Koopman 166). Individual characteristics of the leader such as accountability, passion, self-confidence, ability to make clear decisions and having a defined vision influences the leadership style one can adapt to a specific situation (Michael 5). Effective leaders are able to influence employees, organizational departments and teams to work towards an organizational goal of outperforming their competitors. Multinational companies operate under different external environmental factors and employ people from different regions across the globe. The leadership must therefore motivate and influence the diverse employees towards a collective organizational goal in different regions (Tayeb 14). Nestle company is among the most successful companies that has been able to influence its employees to forego their cultural diversity and goals to adopt the company’s cultural practices in a vibrant business environment across the globe. This paper will critically evaluate nestle company in regards to its products, operations, culture and leadership. Company Analysis Nestle is a leading international company dealing with dietary, health and well-being foods and beverages. It’s headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland and runs over 460 production plants in 83 nations across the globe and employs over 330,000 staff from all nationalities. The company’s history dates back to 1866 when Henri Nestle launched the first products to save a neighbor kid. Growth of the company is based on nutrition, corporate culture, flexibility and international diversity. In 1905 the company merged with Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company to form Nestle and Anglo-Swiss Milk Company (Zehnder). Over the years the company has launched different nutritional products. The company’s brand mainly consists of food and beverages for all individuals including those with specific health requirements and includes baby foods, nutritional cereals, water, chocolates, coffee, confectionary, dairy products, cold and hot drink products, ice-cream, foods, frozen foods, healthcare nutrition, and pet care among others (Nestle. com). The main objective of the company is to improve the quality of life of its customers by offering quality and nutritious food products as well as the lives of its employees and other stakeholders by adjusting to the dynamic environment whereas its basic values of integrity, fairness and appreciation of people’s health remains the same. The company has a management strategy that ensures diversity, accountability and professionalism across all levels of management. This is portrayed in their executive board of directors that consist of 13 members from nine different nationalities while its headquarters employs people from almost a hundred countries (Zehnder). CEO Bio Paul Bulcke is the current chief executive officer of Nestle Company (Annual Report 2012 6). He was choosing to this position in April 2008 after working in the company for thirty years. Paul Bulcke was born in the year 1954 and joined Nestle when he was 25 years after working for another company in the position of financial analyst (Zehnder). He served in various management in operations, marketing and management positions before being appointed to lead nationwide operations in Portugal in the year 1996, in the year 1998 he was the leader in Czech and Slovak regions and in the year 2000 he was moved to German. During his tenure in these regions the company recorded immense growth in annual revenue and profits. He studied commercial engineering at University of Louvain in Belgium between the years 1972 to 1976. In the year 1976 and 1977 he studied management Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School and later in 1995 he undertook a Program for Executive Development at IMD in Switzerland (nestle.com 1) The chief executive officer of Nestle Company understands cultural diversity and professional diversity as the core aspect of their success in a dynamic business environment in promoting value and growth for their company (Zehnder). In relation to diversity across the global Bulcke can speak fluently six different language and able to effectively communicate with his stall across the globe (nestle.com 1). Like most other international companies the company have faced challenges in gender diversity as majority of its employees are male but the due to the recent rise in the number of qualified women the companies is taking advantage of the emerging talent with main focus being to empower women by providing favorable working conditions such as flexible working hours for parents and access to child care. His major strength has been honesty, inspirational leadership and management capabilities. Company Culture  Company culture is the dominant values, behaviors, characteristics and belief of a group of people in an organization. In an international company setting, people from different parts of the globe, with different talents and skills, and different cultural practices, religions, and beliefs, work together to achieve a common goal. The company’s leadership should be able to identify the positive traits and incorporate them as the company norms over a period of time. As the company adjusts to the changing business environment, the leaders adopt the practices that results to positive outcomes. The Nestle Company has adopted principal values that led to their success and every employee is expected to practice the company’s norms regardless of their position in the company (Nestec Ltd 3). The company’s main focus is on its people, trade name and products by being committed to the welfare of their employees, consumers, shareholders, distributors, suppliers and customers. The company achieves this by focusing to deliver value for their shareholders, committing to environmental sustainability, providing their consumers with quality products and effective customer services, appreciating individual’s cultural diversity and dedication to work moral values, integrity, openness and observation to appropriate bylaws and regulations (Nestec Ltd 3). All the employees should appreciate and work towards a better working environment for all the stakeholders despite their cultural background. The company supports cultural diversity by employing individuals from over a hundred nations. At Nestle Company leaders and managers in teams, departmental and operation levels are dedicated to motivating and influencing their staff to work towards the company’s collective goal and betterment of the surrounding community. This requires dedication and commitment of all the employees towards the company’s commitment to the people. The main challenge has been the changing environment in regards to customer preferences, competition and changes in social patterns. Therefore, managers should understand the dynamism of the business environment and take advantage of the available opportunities. The company culture is in line with its mission of providing nutritional foods for healthy people and the basic management principles that include consumers, its people, suppliers and customers, human constitutional rights and labor laws and environmental sustainability Alignment  Nestle is an international company with the main objective as providing healthy and nutritious food to its people and recognizes that for them to achieve business sustainability the community in which it operates must also prosper. The company commitment to sustainability is through quality products, its values, environmental sustainability and social growth sustainability (Nestle in society 3). The business sustainability principle on environment states that Nestle is committed to environmentally friendly practices in all processes of production through sustainable utilization of resources, use of renewable resources and aim to attain no waste. Nestle uses perishable agricultural food materials as the raw materials for their products and therefore the company must protect the environment to ensure sustainability of their business. Their practices are in alignment with international standard ISO 14001:2004 (Nestle in society 153). In agricultural practices the company supports and motivates the farmer to use environmentally friendly practices. For example, Nestle has identified hotspots for its products and agriculture is one of them as the company utilizes agricultural raw materials and currently the company has sustainable farming imitative plans in about 46 nations. In the manufacturing stage the company focuses in reducing emissions by maximizing their production efficiency, reduce energy consumptions. In the packaging the company is using recycled materials to minimize landfills with waste materials and in distribution, Nestle has shifted to railway and water transport from the road transport. The company has received international recognitions in its effort to environmental sustainability such as RobecoSAM Silver Class, 2012 Philippine Environmental Partnership Program (PEPP) Track 1 Award among others. The major challenges have been to educate the consumers on the ecological impacts of its goods, lack of precise environmental data for making conclusive resolutions, regulating agricultural practice by the farmers and lack of appropriate recycling plants. Nestle should conduct research on the environmental impacts on their product and educate the farmers on the environmental friendly practices. Conclusion Nestle is an international company that produces healthy and nutritious foods for all individuals and its focus is on quality products and sustainability. The company has embraced cultural practices that encourage diversity of its people in all levels of management and the managers are tasked with responsibility of influencing and motivating people rather than use authority towards achieving company goals. The company also understands that for them to achieve business sustainability in a dynamic business environment the company must promote community wellness and environmental sustainability since their most important assets are consumer and agricultural raw materials. The company has attained its objective by being recognized globally in regard to environmental conservation, leadership and compliance to the appropriate laws and standards but there is need for more research on the environmental degradation, carbon emissions and waste management and reduction. Works Cited Annual Report 2012. ‘Nutrition to enhance the quality of life’. Nestle S.A., Cham and Vevey Switzerland 2013 Hartog Den, Deanne N. and Koopman Paul. ‘Leadership in Organizations’ Handbook for Industrial, Work and Organizational Psychology Vol.2. 2001 Sage Publication 2011 Michael, Alexi. ‘Leadership’ Topic Gateway Series No. 30. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants 26 Chapter. London, United Kingdom. 2007. Nestle.com. Curriculum vitae: Paul Bulcke, Chief Executive Officer, Nestle S.A. Nestle.com. ‘Our Brands’. Nestle.com ‘2013 Nestle in society. Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2012. Full report 2013 Nestec Ltd. ‘The Nestle Management and Leadership Principles’. Principles Mandatory Nestec Ltd., Vevey, Switzerland. 2011. Tayeb, Monir. ‘Cross-cultural leadership in a global business landscape: What effect does national culture have on leadership styles and behaviours? business guide 2005. Zehnder, Egon. ‘An interview with Paul Bulcke, CEO, Nestle S.A’. The-focus-magazine. 2012 Read More