International business environment and the factors prevailing there in, have provided a broader base for expansion to the organization cited. The task of sustaining in international market and maintaining a unique position in the market is an extreme complex task. The cited organization has to face number of threats and challenges originating from the factors prevailing in the industry. Company has decided to align with regional business groups orientation to withstand against competition from Proctor and Gamble and Nestle (Cole-Lewis and Kershaw, 2010). Below mentioned are two major changes taking place to align with new orientation adopted by the cited organization:
As mentioned above, it is very clear that Uniliver's path of achieving success and a unique position in the market has not been simple. The cited entity had to undergo various changes that directly or indirectly impacted list of activities carried out within various departments. Managing a change led by external factors prevailing in industrial environment is a complex task. None consideration or avoidance of factors requiring change within organizational structure could lead to adverse effects that might further lead to organizational failure. This section includes determining relevance of changes occurring with that of theories of change management mentioned in the section above. Considering the change in strategic management, it requires to follow a flow of procedure including list of steps as consisted in stage theory of change management (Stanleigh, 2008). For bringing in required changes in strategies, the cited organization analyses the market condition and draws recommendations explaining the need to bring a change in strategies followed. After that, these changes are considered for listing out various benefits that could be obtained by the cited company. Initially procedures followed are then modified in accordance with new strategy adopted, thus establishing new norms signifying specific working pattern for various employees to produce goods accordingly to satisfy market demand. Change in cultural behaviour has relevance to lewin's change model wherein cited company designs new policies to provide equal opportunities to all the employees to sustain them for a longer period of time. New policies designed are then brought into implementation to design a pattern of new cultural environment to be followed.
SWOT is an abbreviation for Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. The analysis is a tool utilised as a concept of management to undertake research for listing out company's strengths and weaknesses. Uniliver is an organization having wide scope of activities divided into functional departments managed by respective senior executive. Company's core competence determine its strengths whereas areas within which company is lacking behind as compared to various competitors is defined as weaknesses (Pahl-Wostl, 2007). The company cited in the report has acquired third largest position in international market by applying available resources effectively in appropriate manner. To keep a check on how effectively these resources are applied, the cited firm carriers out procedure to analyse factors prevailing within organization and affecting internal environment of various subsidiary companies of Uniliver operating in different markets within different industries. The cited company has divided its structure into food, detergent , personal care and home care products, each having own definite structure for successfully performing in respective industries. Some of the common factors affecting each of these segments are mentioned below:
Strength identified
· The cited company, has efficient and capable human resource possessing expertise in performing with accordance to customer's need. Potential human resource can be a supportive factors helping the organization to align with modified strategies (Paulsen and et.al., 2009).
· Structural management of the cited organization, efficiently manages each department to align with external business environment.
Weaknesses
· Despite of lots of efforts made by marketing department, the cited organization is not able to pull potential customers.
· Products manufactured by the cited entity, are less appealing as compared to those of competitors.
Opportunities evaluated
Application of effective measures of change management will enable the cited organization to acquire market share of competitors using smart tactics to attract customers (Steffens, Martinsuo and Artto, 2007).
Possible threats
There is a possibility that Uniliver might face sudden decrease of current market share on account of increased promotional activities undertaken by various competitors.
SWOT analysis conducted in above section, determine a need for change to be accepted by the cited company, to expand its scope of operations in international business environment. With increased competition and number of new entrants in the market, Uniliver needs to understand the importance of studying internal factors prevailing within organizational environment and there considerable impact on different managerial and operational aspects (Trkman, 2010). It has been observed that various companies possess different perspective with respect to determining list of benefits and drawbacks obtained after undertaking examination of organizational environment. List of benefits and drawbacks of SWOT analysis conducted with consideration to Uniliver have been mentioned below:
Objective perspective: Objective perspective of cited organization is constructed after analysing the importance of achieving a leading position in the market. Benefits to be obtained from SWOT analysis include concentrating on acquiring maximum market share utilizing available resources effectively as indicated. Cited company's weakness might be highlighted due to which , it would be facing problems in applying strategies effectively to attain objectives listed in mission statement. Opportunities would determine which activities could be performed by the cited entity, to attain various objectives. Threats would determine risk factors that would arise in future and thereby enable the cited firm to effectively plan for risk management. On the other hand, there are few drawbacks of SWOT analysis such as, it does not include the fact that certain elements are not under control of management leading to failure in attainment of objective (Holt and et.al., 2007).
Social constructionist perspective: List of benefits obtained with context to social perspective determines the importance of promoting moral standards and belief in the society of which the cited organization is a part of. Weaknesses determined under SWOT analysis detects the reason due to which, the cited organization is not able to build a positive image among its customers. Opportunities can be listed out by finding out which areas of society can be considered to achieve better results, by taking sponsorship of various charity campaigns. Threats might occur in future on account of increasing societal issues, which would be ascertained in advance. On the other hand, factors prevailing within regional area of an economy are not considered in internal analysis and this would provide incomplete information regarding factors influencing morals and beliefs of most of the people (Carraher, Buckley and Carraher, 2008).
A change agent is an individual from outside or inside the organization who is to helps an organization for transforming itself by focusing on business effectiveness, improvement and development. It usually focuses his efforts on the effect of changing technologies and organizational structure. The key objective of change agent is to focus on the people within the organization and interact with them. Unilever is the third largest consumer goods company in the world. This company has focused on sustainable growth rather than profit margin. The main role of change agent in Uniliver to serve this organizations as a counsellor and trainer. The agent meets with employee and management to aware them how the Unilever operates and they also involves in process of evaluating the organisation's structure, financial status and use of latest technology. For the process of evaluations in the Uniliver the change agent listen the idea of employees as well as management though (Trkman, P., 2010). And provide authentic recommendations that focus on the benefits of the organization. There are three competencies to become an effective change agent:
The change agent can be of two types i.e. internal or external to the organization. In Unilever, change agent play implement the transforming ideas on change in the business.
Various approaches have been included in modern concept of management, that focus mainly to define number of factors prevailing within and outside an organization. The cited organization has been following problem centric and dialogue approach to address different issues arising on account of changes occurring within an organization. Each of these approaches are explained in detail below along with determining appropriate theoretical conceptualization that underpins each :
Problem centric approach: This approach of change management focuses mainly on determining list of problems faced by cited organization and major reasons lying behind occurrence of such problems (Plowman and et.al., 2007). Uniliver has well applied the concept of problem centric approach to identify areas that require problem resolution by following steps included in Stage theory. Application of this approach, requires creating an environment that consists of real life situation. Personnel is confronted with practical situation , that arises on regular basis and provided with opportunity to express set of skills possessed by him. An individual under training campaign is expected to provide appropriate resolution for the issue. For enhancing skills and abilities of personnel under training, he must be provided with practical situation to analyse how efficiently he deals with the problems with consideration to department in which he might be required to work with. With increasing competency among individuals, it has become difficult to select appropriate candidate for specific job. However, the task can be simplified by exploiting benefits of problem-centric approach. List of benefits and drawbacks of problem-centric approach are as below:
Benefits:
Drawbacks:
Dialogic approach: Another effective approach, that is an important part of change management is dialogic approach. The internal structure of cited organization is such that it appreciates recommendations and ideology of various employees working at different levels. Lewin's model of change can be applied to implement a change with respect to strategical or cultural aspects. It so happens many times within cultural environment of Uniliver, wherein it is ascertained by top level management that present strategies and policies followed by various individuals are no longer appropriate to carry out procedural activities and operational tasks. Uniliver has been following dialogic approach, by appreciating recommendations of various stakeholders and gathering opinion and suggesstion from experts who can provide guidelines for designing resolution structure. Benefits include attaining best solutions and save maximum time by directly bringing in changes recommended. On the other hand, there are certain limitations too. Difference of opinion among stakeholders arises with respect to specific problem, thereby creating an environment of confusion and complexities. (Millar, Stephenson and Stephens, 2007).
Thus, it can be concluded here that changes occur on regular basis, that needs to be considered to avoid any unusual impact on overall performance of the organization. Therefore, Change management requires skilled and experienced personnels who can efficiently manage with dealing various factors that lead an organization to bring required modifications within organizational structure and cultural environment. The cited organization has list of opportunities to exploit for acquiring wider market base along with attracting potential customers. Various theoretical approaches, developed by management experts as mentioned in the report determine the procedure that can be followed by the cited organization to undergo any change and obtain number of benefits by fixing up a permanent position in different industries of which it is a part. The report has well considered the role of changing agent in making the procedure of change management as an effective one to successfully attain list of objectives and goals.
Books and Journals
Anderson, D. and Anderson, L.A., 2010. Beyond change management: How to achieve breakthrough results through conscious change leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Baregheh, A., Rowley, J. and Sambrook, S., 2009. Towards a multidisciplinary definition of innovation. Management decision. 47(8). pp.1323-1339.
Battilana, J., Leca, B. and Boxenbaum, E., 2009. 2 how actors change institutions: towards a theory of institutional entrepreneurship. The academy of management annals. 3(1). pp.65-107.
Bilton, C., 2007. Management and creativity: From creative industries to creative management. Blackwell Publishing.
Carraher, S.M., Buckley, M.R. and Carraher, C.E., 2008. Research challenges in sustainable strategic management: Change and sustainability. International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management. 1(1). pp.2-15.
Cole-Lewis, H. and Kershaw, T., 2010. Text messaging as a tool for behavior change in disease prevention and management. Epidemiologic reviews. 32(1). pp.56-69.
Gershlick and et.al., 2007. Role of non-invasive imaging in the management of coronary artery disease: an assessment of likely change over the next 10 years. A report from the British Cardiovascular Society Working Group. Heart. 93(4). pp.423-431.
Heller, N.E. and Zavaleta, E.S., 2009. Biodiversity management in the face of climate change: a review of 22 years of recommendations. Biological conservation. 142(1). pp.14-32.
Holt and et.al., 2007. Readiness for organizational change the systematic development of a scale. The Journal of applied behavioral science. 43(2). pp.232-255.
Kotter, J.P., 2008. Force for change: How leadership differs from management. Simon and Schuster.
Luo and et.al., 2009. Adaptation to climate change of wheat growing in South Australia: analysis of management and breeding strategies. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 129(1). pp.261-267.
Millar, C.I., Stephenson, N.L. and Stephens, S.L., 2007. Climate change and forests of the future: managing in the face of uncertainty. Ecological applications. 17(8). pp.2145-2151.
O'Flynn, J., 2007. From new public management to public value: Paradigmatic change and managerial implications. Australian journal of public administration. 66(3). pp.353-366.
Pahl-Wostl, C., 2007. Transitions towards adaptive management of water facing climate and global change. Water resources management. 21(1). pp.49-62.
Paton, R.A. and McCalman, J., 2008. Change management: A guide to effective implementation. Sage.
Paulsen and et.al., 2009. Charismatic leadership, change and innovation in an R&D organization. Journal of Organizational Change Management. 22(5). pp.511-523.
Plowman and et.al., 2007. Radical change accidentally: The emergence and amplification of small change. Academy of Management Journal. 50(3). pp.515-543.
Stangerup and et.al., 2008. Change in hearing during ‘wait and scan’management of patients with vestibular schwannoma. The Journal of Laryngology & Otology. 122(07). pp.673-681.
Stanleigh, M., 2008. Effecting successful change management initiatives. Industrial and commercial training. 40(1). pp.34-37.
Steffens, W., Martinsuo, M. and Artto, K., 2007. Change decisions in product development projects. International Journal of Project Management. 25(7). pp.702-713.
Trkman, P., 2010. The critical success factors of business process management. International journal of information management. 30(2). pp.125-134.
Weber, B., Reichert, M. and Rinderle-Ma, S., 2008. Change patterns and change support features–enhancing flexibility in process-aware information systems. Data & knowledge engineering. 66(3). pp.438-466.
Online
10 Principles of Change Management. 2017. [online]. Available through<http://www.strategy-business.com/article/rr00006?gko=643d0>. [Accessed on 6th January 2017].
10 Types of Organizational Change. 2016. [Online]. Available through<http://management.simplicable.com/management/new/10-types-of-organizational-change>. [Accessed on 6th January 2017].
Change Management. 2017. [online]. Available through<https://www.pmi.org/learning/featured-topics/change>. [Accessed on 6th January 2017].
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