Telecommuting Unilever Case Study
Table of Contents
TOC o “1-3” h z u Telecommuting Unilever Case Study PAGEREF _Toc86244341 h 21. Introduction PAGEREF _Toc86244342 h 22. Challenges Leaders Face Due to Ongoing Remote Working in an Organisational Setting PAGEREF _Toc86244343 h 22.1 Lack of Trust PAGEREF _Toc86244344 h 22.2 Communication Issues PAGEREF _Toc86244345 h 22.3 Issues of Time and Distance PAGEREF _Toc86244346 h 23. Evaluation of Traditional Leadership Traits and Practices and their Advantages and Disadvantages PAGEREF _Toc86244347 h 33.1 Great Man Theory of leadership PAGEREF _Toc86244348 h 33.2 Trait-based Theory of Leadership PAGEREF _Toc86244349 h 44. Comparison and Contrast of the Foregoing Findings with the more Contemporary Leadership Styles and Traits PAGEREF _Toc86244350 h 54.1 Transactional Leadership PAGEREF _Toc86244351 h 54.2 Transformational Leadership PAGEREF _Toc86244352 h 64.3 Authoritarian-Autocratic Leadership PAGEREF _Toc86244353 h 74.4 Examination of whether both Traditional and Contemporary Leadership Styles Play a Role in Organizations and Remote Working PAGEREF _Toc86244354 h 75. Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc86244355 h 8References PAGEREF _Toc86244356 h 9
Telecommuting Unilever Case Study1. IntroductionThis paper will discuss challenges that leaders in Unilever are facing due to the ongoing remote working, the traditional leadership styles with their advantages and disadvantages when leading the telecommuting teams and a comparison with more contemporary leadership styles and the roles they play in leading teams and projects remotely to meet strategic business objectives.
2. Challenges Leaders Face Due to Ongoing Remote Working in an Organisational SettingTo succeed as a leader in a remote working environment, leaders face various challenges. The challenges include:
2.1 Lack of Trust
Being a multinational company, Unilever needs to establish successful international alliances which is based on trust. However, virtual teams face uncertainties and do not have complete knowledge of all the team members (Alfehaid & Mohamed, 2019). As a result, trust is considered to be more vital in virtual working environments compared to traditional face-to-face working environments. In fact, it is a necessary condition to ensure success in the organization.
2.2 Communication Issues
Virtual communication is different from face-to-face communication in the workplace because in the former, communication is characteristically based on asynchronous information mediated on a computer (Allen, Golden, & Shockle, 2015). However, traditional face-to-face communication uses turn-taking basis in which only one team member talks at a time (Kilpi, 2020).
2.3 Issues of Time and Distance
Typically, distance is among the major challenges faced by virtual leaders in Unilever. In a working relationship, distance may be physical when it is produced by time zone, geography, or organizational size (Bentley et al. 2016). Geographic distance and overlapping hours of work tend to impose burdens on not only the team leader but also on the team members.
3. Evaluation of Traditional Leadership Traits and Practices and their Advantages and Disadvantages
For a few months, telecommuting has been growing thanks to the pandemic and this has led to considerable changes in the methods of work. Unilever is one of the multinational companies that has implemented the telecommuting method of working amidst the COVID-19 pandemic (Contreras, Baykal, & Abid, 2020). The company has successfully implemented a flexible working methods not limited by location, time, communication technology, and use of information. Successful telecommuting requires technological, organizational, and social support through e-leadership practices in which the emergence of Internet services and digital technology facilitates the progress of telecommuting. According to Samartinho, Silva, & Faria, (2014), global virtual teams tend to face the same challenges as traditional teams in addition to the challenges that dispersion of team members generate and the complete dependence on ICT as a communication media. The communication media application affects a leader’s ability of conveying social presence integral to the traditional face-to-face environments (Mehtab et al. 2017). Therefore, with telecommuting, leaders tend to face diversified challenges which forces leaders to adapt to the new working environments. Below are some of the traditional leadership theories that were being implemented in the past. These theories are not applied in Unilever today but even so, they have their respective advantages and disadvantages.
3.1 Great Man Theory of leadership
The Great Man Theory of leadership argues that leaders in general, and particularly great leaders are not made, rather, they are born. According to this theory, it is mandatory for leaders to have certain qualities such as charisma, persuasiveness, charm, intuition, commanding personality, intelligence, courage, action orientation, and aggressiveness (Rüzgar, 2019). It asserts that these qualities are not taught and can never be learned formally. Leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, among others are considered to be born with leadership traits and as a result, they were successful in their domains as leaders.
One advantage attributed to this leadership theory is that there is some level of credibility to an extent that great leaders in particular and leaders in general have some mystique about them and their followers view them with awe (Rüzgar, 2019). In some respects, the actions and qualities of such leaders tend to inspire implicit respect.
However, this theory has its fair share of disadvantages; firstly, it is based on the great leaders’ blind faith which happened in history. It looks at the change that these leaders brought without insights into their selfish motives and the real actions behind those changes (Rüzgar, 2019). Secondly, there is lack of great logic behind the great man theory of leadership. It is only based on assumptions and myth. Thirdly, the theory did not take into account the great leaders’ upbringing and childhood and also disregarded the impact of culture, environment, and society in their development. Finally, this theory lacks any scientific evidence to back it up.
3.2 Trait-based Theory of Leadership
This theory of leadership focuses on the identification of various characteristics and personality traits linked to successful leadership across different situations. This research line emerges as among the earliest forms of studies into the effective leadership’s nature and is linked to the great man theory of leadership. According to Hammershaimb (2018) extraordinary leaders continue to shape history. He asserts that the ability to be a leader is something than an individual is born with, rather than something that is developed. The ideas of Carlyle inspired earlier studies on leadership, whose focus was entirely on inheritable traits. Trait-based Theory of Leadership was based on the following rationale; certain behavioral patterns are produced by certain traits, patterns tend to be consistent across various situations, and that individuals are born with traits of leadership (Hammershaimb, 2018). From the standpoint of training and development, this theory implies that if an individual lacks the ‘right’ traits of leadership, then they will not lead effectively and their leadership will not be as successful as natural-born leaders. Furthermore, Hammershaimb (2018) claims that to some degree, training and development can nurture leadership abilities but the most important aspect is to possess the right personality profile or traits.
An advantage of this leadership theory is that is boasts over one hundred years of research to confirm its approach and provides a benchmark for the identification of leaders. It also has disadvantages; firstly, this theory is leader-centric and its focus is exclusively on the leader and not the situation or the followers. Secondly, the Trait Theory research does not take into account the way leadership outcomes is influenced by specific traits. Outcomes can be productivity, performance, and satisfaction.
4. Comparison and Contrast of the Foregoing Findings with the more Contemporary Leadership Styles and TraitsIn leadership just like every aspect of human activity, technology has permeated. With the constant evolution of technological advancements, leaders have experienced different challenges and opportunities in quest to accomplish the organizational objectives and goals. Along with other leadership styles, organizational leaders practice e-leadership irrespective of the size if the organization. As seen from the discussion above, e-leadership allows for leaders and team members to not only share but also improve communication. However, there are disadvantages with each style of leadership which include among other things breakdown of links, technological advancement, handling virtual teams, and lack of social connections among team members. Also, there are costs associated with the implementation of styles such as e-leadership.
An overview of traditional versus contemporary leadership styles reveals contrasts and similarities, yet the ultimate goal of every system is to motivate, guide, and inspire people towards a goal. According to Hussain et al. (2020), traditional leadership styles and traits are all about boundaries, control, regulations, and an array of rules. In the same vein, Bentley et al. (2016) remark that contemporary leadership approaches tend to provide more freedom in terms of thought and decision making, allows more room for innovation and creativity, welcoming new ideas, value the outcome, and embraces multiple perspectives in the decision-making process. Due to these differences in styles and traits, 21st century leaders who are still focused on traditional leadership approaches are unable to make lasting impacts and barely manage to motivate, inspire, and uplift people. For example, a modern-day leader who does not embrace the concept of shared ideas, multiple perspectives on issues, warm welcome on innovative and creative opinions, and a relaxed environment in terms of rules often ends up frustrating the younger generation of employees. As such, only contemporary leadership approaches would fit the modern business environment that makes the people a part of leadership and makes the organization vision a united objective.
4.1 Transactional LeadershipTransactional leadership is a style that values order and structure and it is the one that Unilever leaders mostly implement being that they operate in a large corporate environment. Being a multinational corporation, the leaders in Unilever require that the team members follow specific rules and regulations in order to complete the teams and individual objectives (Jensen et al. 2016). The advantage of transactional style of leadership is that the team members are always self-motivated despite the physical and social distance inherent in telecommuting. In addition, this leadership style enables work to be done in a highly structured directed environment and is focused on ensuring that results are produced above anything else. Although employees are working virtually, they are motivated to achieve organizational and personal goals because there are clear consequences and rewards offered (Jensen et al. 2016). However, within an innovative environment such as Unilever, it is difficult to develop achievable goals within the teams. Goals are only achievable when the ending points are defined. Transactional leaders tend to create such end points as a part of an organizational structure. This implies that each step that team members take has been outlined for them and this limits the achievable level of innovation (Kalsoom, Khan, & Zubair, 2018). Transactional leaders also follow a structured policy which dictates actions rather than common sense, thus, it is not easy for team members to demonstrate their creativity when the leaders dictate their level of creativity.
4.2 Transformational LeadershipTransformational leadership allows leaders to transform themselves through changing their actions and behaviors, they connect and interact with the team members. As a result, higher levels of morality, motivation, and performance are created. Unilever leaders practice transformational leadership during telecommuting through online interaction on zoom and other platforms (Budur, 2020). The leaders implement a dual dynamic between them and the team members to achieve organizational objectives. Through online interaction, transformational leaders at Unilever try to let the team members feel that they have mutual goals and that they are working together to achieve those goals. The disadvantage of this leadership style is that transformational leaders always assume or think that their subordinates will always be in agreement with their ideas and that they will always be motivated by their ideas (Kalsoom, Khan, & Zubair, 2018). This is a setback because there are situations where there is need for change.
4.3 Authoritarian-Autocratic LeadershipAuthoritarian-Autocratic Leadership is considered as one of the earliest or possibly the first style of leadership to be established. These types of leaders are described as power-orientated, closed-minded, and controlling (Hussain et al. 2020). At times, they practice transactional leadership style. Furthermore, autocratic leaders are portrayed dominant and overbearing and they control their subordinates with demands, rules, punishments, and threats. Unilever leaders do not practice autocratic leadership style because they believe that it would lead to the employees having resentment towards the organization and leaders alike. In addition, an autocratic leadership style is not friendly thinking outside the box nor is it innovation friendly which leaves employees feeling stifled intellectually (Hussain et al. 2020). Despite all the disadvantages of the Autocratic leadership style, one advantage is that subordinates are aware of what is expected of them and what happens if they underperform. This way, the organizational and personal goals are achieved no matter what which improves employee productivity.
4.4 Examination of whether both Traditional and Contemporary Leadership Styles Play a Role in Organizations and Remote WorkingTraditional leadership styles present several communication issues. While traditional face-to-face communication is richer in para-verbal (auditory) and nonverbal (visual) cues, it also means the current issue that has demanded organizations to use remote working as a necessary requirement cannot occur. Secondly, there is a lot of information that is lost because of the multiple communication channels that team members use simultaneously. Thirdly, virtual communication minimizes feelings of conversational involvement and social presence. Moreover, virtual communication in the workplace may result in leaders losing contextual or social information such as a member’s expertise level thanks to anonymity (Allen, Golden, & Shockley, 2015). This happens because communication in a virtual setting occurs through electronic channels and that there is a lack of physical contact.
Overall, both traditional and contemporary leadership styles have a major role in shaping the success of remote working or otherwise. From the discussion above, the benefits of a contemporary leadership style in regard to remote working outdo the problems with traditional leadership styles.
5. ConclusionWhether in traditional or contemporary leadership style, the objectives are related. The fundamental objectives of leadership have not changed and that they continue to tackle the issues of direction, vision, inspiration, and motivation. In this regard, contemporary leadership wins in the effort to effectively apply remote working at Unilever.
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