Managing Diversity at the Unilever Company - Case Study Example

Managing Diversity Introduction Diversity in an organization is the composition of people from different backgrounds, race, religion, gender, and experience. Organizational diversity brings about the exchange of different kinds of ideas from people with varying experiences. It is important to note that everyone has his own strong points and qualities; therefore, a mix will bring together a more efficient working environment. Diversity allows people to learn from one another’s experiences, culture, and background. An organization that hires employees with different abilities improves their productivity because of the hand-on experiences at the workplace. Over the years, diversity management has emerged as an essential tool of the management to match the modern business environment where everything is changing. Change is essential to allow matching of present organizational resources to meet unlimited and changing needs through diversification of the various business strategies. Diversity calls for the reorganization of the organizational structures and other components that have an impact on the performance of an organization. Corporate executives seeking to regain a competitive edge need to do more than improve efficiency and tighten control by executing a fundamental change to transform systems firmly along with established inhibitive cultures. The internal, external and organizational components influence the organizational diversity and performance outcome within an organization. Critical Analysis The managers should lead the way for the establishment of improved business practices through interaction with peers in other countries. Such managers should establish elaborate audit mechanisms and accounting to enhance professionalism, as well as transparency. Managing an organization that has a workforce from diverse cultures is not easy. The diverse character, language, religion, and background among the personnel are a major headache challenge to issues such as communication (Bell, 2012). Identifying the individual differences is important for effective administration and supervision of the organizational activities. The interaction between managers and their business environments is dependent on the foundations such as the cultural values and behavior that govern and shape interests of the organization. The idea of behind teamwork and motivation in the company is to increase employee and customer satisfaction while lowering costs. They execute the principle of teamwork by encouraging management team and employees to pool resources across all departments, and with end users and suppliers, to identify areas that need improvement. The control process should take into consideration factors such as code of ethics, standards, and statements of good corporate governance in their business operations and regulations (Bell, 2012). At present, the management team in an organization should be aware that both internal and external environments of the organizations are subject to change at any point of time, and hence the need for strategic management. It is important to have flexible legal provisions have removed hurdles in the regulation of businesses as well as the improvement of business standards. The legal and political frameworks have tried to help in managing business risks through harmonization of existing regulations. It is important for international business operators have a broad understanding of culture, management styles, and cultural orientations in the country of operation. A manager working in a firm that has employees from diverse cultures should develop prerequisite attributes that will help in meeting business objectives. These qualities include; quality control, interpersonal skills, communication skills, organizational skills among others (Von Bergen, Soper, & Parnell, 2005). Quality control involves measuring the variations of actual performance from the regular performance, identifies the causes of such deviations, and recommends appropriate measures (Lauring & Ross, 2004). The control process should take into consideration factors such as code of ethics, standards, and statements of good corporate governance in their business operations and regulations. A manager who has good human skills has a high degree of self-awareness and the capacity to understand the feelings of other employees. The managers are expected to have highly interpersonal skills that enable them to cope with the various personalities working in the organization. The leadership role of the management team involves providing direction even at times of crises in the company, motivate the employees, and guide the implementation of the company’s plan. A leader comes to the forefront in case of crisis, and can think and act in creative ways in difficult situations. In the planning process, the team should address the challenges, expectations, targets, and company goals. Therefore, there need to be participative management, continuous improvement of existing processes and proper utilization the teams within the organization. This ensures that the policies and key decisions made in the organization have the input of all employees. The manager should help in devising relationships with various institutions that play a part in the success of a business. The action plan should be focused on both the internal and external customers; processes and results oriented empowerment of employees, proper decision-making mechanisms and appropriate means of handling feedback. The success of quality management is dependent on the quality of procedures, administration, organizational values, behaviors, and relationships. Diversity differences should not be a hindrance in the success of an organization (Herselman, 2004). Managing Diversity at the Unilever Company Unilever is one of the largest consumer goods company in the world, which demands the company to diversify its strategies to meet its business objectives. Most of its products are in mainstream categories of foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Unilever Company exists as a fast moving manufacturer of consumer products leading in product development. The strategic leaders of the Unilever Company have enabled the organization to survive in the competitive industry. Regardless of how long one remains in office, corporate leadership work involves a demanding and challenging task. The primary role of the executive officers is to create a strategic vision and mission for the entire organization to energize its human capital and attain positive outcomes through forward thinking (Seymen, 2006). Diversity initiatives at the Unilever Company will guide the entity through the ways creating goals stretching all units and individuals to improve performances. This will form the foundation of success facilitated through the development of appropriate strategic actions and structures throughout the implementation stage. The company’s operations in the US are faced with a myriad of challenges such as competition and diversity. The internal features of diversity are beyond the control of an individual. The internal dimensions create the basis of a number of diversity endeavors (Connerley & Pedersen, 2005). They include components such as race, gender, and color of an individual. United States is home to people from diverse cultures; thus, the Unilever Company needs to align the business operations with respect to the prevailing conditions. With diverse workforce, the organization can understand the dynamics within the global marketplace. Therefore, having a wide variety of employees in a company results in better performance compared to an organization with a limited variety of employees. The diversity model reflects the globalization in the world today and changing market trends. However, internal dimensions affect the control in the management of an organization because of trying to cope with people from different cultures and language. Some aspects of the internal dimension, for instance race, affect the mode of communication in the workplace and the content of information relayed both negatively and positively (Lauring & Ross, 2004). In any case, improper communication is a major inconvenience to any kind of activity involving individuals and/or institutions, which is set to take place, regardless of their professionalism. Ineffective communication, conflicting decision-making process, and excessive control over employees by the managers are part of the organizational factors that are likely to result in stress on the employee. The potency of the organizational culture is an important factor in determining the organizational performance and much more significant is the extent to which the pattern of behavior supported by it is in line with the requirements of an organization. It has a tendency to unite members of the organization towards a common goal and contributes to the smooth working environment (Seymen, 2006). Poor management of the workforce diversity leads to stiff working relationships that are indefinite about the ethical issues and problems affecting the employees. Aligning the internal aspects will help in creating an enabling environment, which will face off the competition from companies such as Nestle Inc. The external dimensions include components that people have significant control and may change over a period. It forms the foundation for different working styles and formation of a company’s business strategy. Hiring, firing and promotion of employees is largely dependent on the external dimensions. Adopting the elaborate external dimensions will enhance the long-term viability by articulating a clear vision along with the maintenance of short-term financial stability (Bendl, Fleischmann, & Hofmann, 2009). Moreover, it will help in forecasting the future needs of the company. Well-defined external components will help improve the interests of all stakeholders concerned through ensuring that the company maintains the accepted ethical business values and business techniques. Additionally, improved institutional procedures, centralized flow of information and controlled systems ensures continuous improvement and innovation in all aspects of the business. The organizational diversity is mainly concerned with the features of culture created within an organization. Culture is the shared behavior amongst members of the organization and consists of the beliefs and habits, cultural trends, values, working language and existing systems. Culture is shared amongst all associates in the organization thus forming a collective behavior in the organization system. It is important to note that a strong organizational culture tends to build in strictness in the organization hence discouraging change and holds back creativity. Therefore, a very strong organization culture may be appropriate for organizations working in a vibrant setting (Bell, 2012). The organization dimensions are useful to both the organization and the individuals. Ideally, workforce planning should be focused on both the internal and external components and empowerment of employees and proper decision-making mechanisms. Organizational behavior looks at organizations from a cross-cultural perspective and as entities, the forces that shape them and the impact they have on the components of an organization. Organizations cannot survive and effectively manage performance in this competitive and constantly changing world without a proficient mechanism. Understanding organizational behavior will help in acquiring knowledge on attitudes, ethical values and goals of an individual and the entire organization (Cox, 1993). Unilever Company should make their organizational behavior flexible to benefit both individual and organizations, now and in the future. The approaches in its structure should be based efficiency and authority of an organization to handle diverse challenges. This is largely dependent on the behavior amongst members of an organization and consists of the beliefs and habits, cultural trends, values, working language and existing systems (Von Bergen, Soper, & Parnell, 2005). Organizational behavior informs the organizational components on when and how to respond to change in the recommendations and creates strategies for managing these demands. This tendency will advance the corporate identity of Unilever and contribute to positive performance. The personality diversity includes values, beliefs, and traits of an individual. Experiences and the environment mainly shape an individual’s character. Personal character shapes the members in the organization towards a general manner of perceiving, thinking, and feeling. In fact, the characters of individuals influence the formation of an organizational culture that the way people and groups interact with colleagues, clients and other stakeholders. Unilever Company should seek to adopt a strong organizational culture where employees in the organization will have similar beliefs and behavior patterns (Herselman, 2004). The success of the team in business organization relies on a balanced set of complementary styles and personality types. The management team should adopt an approach that will help in gauging the characters of the employees and the likely influence on the performance of the company. Strategic approaches depend on business leaders who must develop a people’s strategy and form of leadership style to maximize business performance and accomplish the company’s vision. The second case study is on managing quality within a reputable multinational company in Singapore. The company produces high quality of chemical products with four plants in Singapore. As part of its expansion plan, the company set out to build more plants in other countries. There was much pressure on the construction management team to finish the planned developments within the established timeframe. However, the quality assurance manager found himself in a fix since the constructional personnel came from diverse backgrounds, countries, and experiences. The team was comprised of people from Malaysia, United States, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand among other countries (Low & Alfelor, 2000). It was even more difficult since the plant had to conform to the building and environmental standards as established in Singapore. There were emerging conflicts at early stages of the project between the Singapore and U.S. consultants due to differences in quality and design procedures. Moreover, conflicts were experienced due differences in nationalities among the management team. For instance, the construction manager, safety manager and administrative manager were Americans while the field superintendents were comprised of professionals from Australia, U.S., Philippines, and Singapore. Differences also emerged in the management styles between “Westernized” style practiced by U.S. managers and “Asianised” styles. The American managers value employee as a resource while Asian managers are more understanding, thus regards employees as “human beings” who can easily make mistakes. With this in mind, the quality manager established “inputs-process-outputs-feedback” components between various departments. This was meant to have an overall project information system that would enhance flexibility without compromising on the quality of the construction process (Low & Alfelor, 2000). In the two instances, it is evident that the managing individuals in a diverse organization require elaborate leadership styles and understanding of the working environment. This is crucial in order to realize positive business outcomes. The globalization of enterprises and the multi-cultural structure of employee’s demands that managers need to develop the diverse capability. It is equally important to exercise tolerance in the working environment. The approaches should be based efficiency and authority of an organization to handle diverse challenges. Using an incorporated management approach, the organization should ensure that the management processes are blended and balanced with existing diverse initiatives in both organizational and human resource management systems (Cox, 1993). The principles of management in a diverse environment should be attended to as an important system that bring together, integrates, supports, and maximizes the other systems to beat competition in excellent quality performance irrespective prevailing differences. Conclusion The internal aspects get primary recognition in thriving diversity initiatives, although the external and organizational components determine how treat people including the recommendations for hiring and job promotions. For a manager to be successful in a diverse working environment, it is crucial to understand the objectives of the prevailing similarities and differences. Success in today’s management revolves around the ability of the leader to manage organizational culture as an important skill. Considerable interest in present constraints to the business community focuses on the visions for change and understanding the strategic direction for the organization to pursue. By defining the various diversity dimensions, firms are able to cluster the different groups and diversity in order to improve the business processes. Likewise, organizations’ success and sustainability need practical steps to accept adopt and implement changes in accordance with the changing trends, technologies, clients’ preferences and future concerns. References Bell, M. P. (2012). Diversity in organizations. Mason, Ohio: South-Western College. Bendl, R., Fleischmann, A., & Hofmann, R. (2009). Queer theory and diversity management: Reading codes of conduct from a queer perspective. Journal of Management and Organization , 625-638. Connerley, M. L., & Pedersen, P. (2005). Leadership in a diverse and multicultural environment : developing awareness, knowledge, and skills. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Cox, T. (1993). Cultural diversity in organizations : theory, research, and practice. San Francisco, Calif: Berrett-Koehler. Herselman, S. (2004). Dynamics of diversity in an organisational environment. Pretoria: Unisa Press. Lauring, J., & Ross, C. (2004). Research Notes: Cultural Diversity and Organisational Efficiency. 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