Program Capstone - Performing Management in Unilever - Assignment Example

The paper “Program Capstone - Performing Management in Unilever" is an affecting example of a case study on management. In the current age of globalization, technology, and advancements, the businesses are moving towards resilience and flexibility in the management functions of the organizations. According to them, one of the most significant human activities in organizations is management. The business ensures sophisticated management in order to accomplish the individual and collective goals through coordinated efforts. This paper also describes the significance of management theory for successful organizations.

Management Theory and Functions
The concept of management theory and functions encompasses the planning, organizing, leading and controlling activities. One of the successful organizations performing all these functions in cohesion is Unilever. A brief description is given as follows:

Planning
The planning function in a management theory pertains to setting expectations and chalking out a direction for the future course of action for goal achievement. Being a consumer-oriented company, Unilever performs its resource planning, allocation, and goal achievement task through the integration of Information Technology (Hartman, 2012). Its customer relationship policies, resource planning, and inventory management have all been kept well aligned with the software and IT implementation. It performs its planning function in a strategic manner by looking at its in-market execution capabilities (Unilever, 2011).  

Organizing
The aspect of organizing entails the bringing together of human, physical and financial resources, and developing a productive relationship amongst them for the achievement of organization goals and objectives (Management Guide, 2012). The company organizes a talented pool of human expertise and inspires, motivates and trains them to attain the career goals and unique strengths. It manages its finances by focusing on the strategy of strengthening the competitive positions and gaining volume growth of brands in the industry. Moreover, the company organizes its physical resources by building up good supply chain networks, developing a sophisticated marketing mix, and undertaking creative activities in order to encourage brand communication, innovation, and renovation.

Leading
The function of leading encompasses directing, motivating, supervising, and inspiring the human resources towards goal achievement in the organization. Unilever has created line management teams and various other forms of leadership at the core of the organization. It gets its objectives achieved through leadership which is admired and followed by the subordinates (Unilever, 2011). However, according to the management at Unilever, everyone is a leader at the company and everyone has to take the responsibility to perform their own functions.

Controlling
The controlling aspect of the management theory is concerned with the measurement of the accomplished goals and objectives and then correcting any variations against the set standards in order to confirm. In order to reach their future prospects, Unilever sets targets and benchmarks for its employees to achieve in the long run and performs performance appraisals. The Performance and Development Planning (PDPP) helps the company strengthen its working life and make it longer. The PDP helps it set future expectations from its leadership, resources, and methods of working (Unilever, 2012).

Managers at Unilever
The managers at Unilever are a creative, talented and brilliant pool of expertise, motivated to achieve the long-term strategic objectives of the organization. They are supported and empowered at every step to be taken towards exploring career opportunities. They are focused, ambitious and developed to take up challenging responsibilities.