People and Organization Assignment Sample

Iintroduction and Context

People management may be defined as the sequence of activities which involve talent acquisition, on boarding, growth, as well as retention, at the same time offering consistent assistance to the particular employees and to the overall organisation. This comes under the authority of human resource management and involves a vast range of responsibilities. People management further involves organization, compensation and classification, pensions, labour relationships, values and ethics, executive management, occupations health & safety, inclusion & diversity, welfare, talent and performance management, and also employee protection. Collectively, people management is a complicated process which involves each and everything from recruitment to performance handling and retention (Armstrong, and Taylor, 2023). Elements which organisations must keep in consideration in context of people management is hiring and forming a solid team, understanding the team, communication, collaboration and engagement, conflict resolution, diversity and inclusion and recognition and feedback. The elementary purpose or drive of people management is to supervise a company’s motivation and development for improving productivity and lift its performance.

This report will critically analyse and assess the practical approaches to people management within the context of Unilever Plc. The organisation, Unilever is a producer and supplier of swift evolving consumer goods. It is known for its great brands as well as belief that doing business in the correct manner that drives better performance. The company functions in a five different groups which cover beauty and wellbeing, personal care, home care, foods and ice cream. The goal of Unilever is to offer the finest performance with unmissable, market-making superior brands. The chief executive officer of the company is Fernando Fernandez. The business of the organisation is spread over to 190 countries (Unilever. 2025). Further, together with critically assessing the people management approaches, this report will also apply models, studied approaches and theories for this assessment to Unilever.

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Theoretical framework

In assessing people management approaches in the context of Unilever, numerous chief models and theories are used to provide a thorough understanding in relation to the approach of the organisation. These frameworks and models assist in edging the activities of business and also their efficiency in handling people within an international context.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

This theory helps employers to know the needs that employees expect them to fulfil and it is chief in a comprehending the way companies can boost the motivation of its workforce. Often, it is portrayed as hierarchical levels in a pyramid, the five hierarchy levels are physiological; safety; belonging/ love; esteem; as well as self-actualization. Psychological needs focuses on the basic needs of human like food, shelter, living and more, and security needs are related to the protection of family, property and self. Love and belongingness is related to the emotional requirement for the interpersonal relations, connectedness and affiliating. Esteem needs involve self-worth, respect and accomplishment. Lastly, self-actualisation requirements are on greater level within this hierarchy which means realization of an individual’s potential, pursuing personal development and greatest experiences (Molina, et al. 2022). Further, Unilever through its strong emphasis on staff development, wellness and work-life balance, lines up with this theory, as such solid focus addresses different needs of its employees. This framework will be utilised to evaluate the manner the organisation fulfils the differing requirements of its varied staff, improving engagement and motivation among the employees.

Open systems theory

This theory refers merely to the idea that the businesses are powerfully impacted by their atmosphere. An open system that is a business does not work within splendid separation but in an environment, which involves influences outside the company which have an indirect or direct effect on performance as well as on what the business essentially attains and delivers. It helps in comprehending that one cannot fully regulate environmental factors, however can handle transformations, inputs, feedback and outputs within response to these (Chin, et al. 2025). Unilever through understanding that it need to analyse different direct and indirect factors continuously, get highly aware about the facets of people management which impacts the overall organisation or its group of workers.

Equity theory

This theory proposes that motivation among the employees at the work is shaped highly by their awareness of equality and fairness. Employees put in place a mental record of their outputs as well as inputs of job and further use such record in order to compare their outputs and inputs with those of others. Performance, education, experience, skills and effort are samples of inputs, while benefits, promotions and compensation are instances of outcomes. Staff members might feel unsatisfied and demotivated with their work tasks if they feel there is a disparity among their inputs and outputs (Davlembayeva, and Alamanos, 2023). Determinations of Unilever in encouraging diversity and inclusion, as well as justice, mainly through its international strategies on leadership occasions for females and equal pay, is going to be studied further in association with this theory.

Transformational leadership theory

This theory encourages a guidance style which highlights inspiring and motivating employees, and for developing a vision and promoting, cheering them to attain it. It contains different element which exemplify its crucial aspects within any company, these involves intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration, inspirational motivation and idealized influence. This style of leadership motivates positive chances within those led and also invested within the success of each and every member included within the procedure. In addition, the leadership model of Unilever focuses on principled leadership, stakeholder involvement and sustainability that fit in this model. The transformational leadership role within the people management activities of the company will be discovered specifically associated with the way leadership pushes employee involve and corporate changes.

Strategy human resource management

Strategic human resource management (SHRM), also known as people strategy, revolves around developing an intelligible outline for the employees to be recruited, handled and developed in order to assist long-run objectives of an organisation. In order words, it is a procedure of handling human resources which links the staff with chief objectives, goals and strategies of a company. It assists in ensuring that the numerous facets of people management function together for driving behaviour and to fulfil the performance goals (Verma, et al, 2022). Through applying the principles of SHRM staff members can be evaluated and the actions which will result into value addition for the business, could be recognised. Human resource approach of Unilever underlines the significance of lining up people management strategies with the organisational objectives, mainly in relation to innovation, sustainability and talent management. This concept is going to be utilised for analysing the organisation’s human resource practices and donate to the entire success of the organisation.

Application of theories, analysis and discussion

Obtaining from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Unilever has employed numerous programs intended at meeting the needs of the staff members. The organisation provides a thorough benefits set, involving health and welfare efforts, supple working patterns, as well as career advancement opportunities. All such efforts of the company lines up with the Hierarchy of needs theory by Maslow, through addressing basic, safety, and self-realisation requirements of workers. Along with this, the company’s focus on achievement and recognition of employees, like Unilever Future Leaders Programme (UELP), offers staff members with chances to develop in the company and confirm job gratification of employees, aligning with the self-actualisation needs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Rojas, Méndez, and Watkins-Fassler, 2023). Although, the organisation outshines within such domains, issues associated with international diversity of the company’s staff might impact the way such activities are professed and experiences crosswise diverse areas.

Unilever actively assess its external factors such as suppliers, customers, regulations and so no. It also effectively defines the mechanism which involves specifying processes, feedback, inputs and output, as well as illuminating the organisational goals, mission and vision related to the environment. Further, the company create a culture, process and structure in order to attain its goals, selecting technologies, tools, methods for assisting outcomes, and also augments the systems through measuring outputs and taking feedback against expectation and goals. Further, the company also matches with the factors such as present social factors and environmental factors like sustainability and ethical sourcing. All of these practices of the organisation aligns with the open systems theory. However, it leads to challenges such as fundamental shift within the thinking pattern, complication in handling external interaction, reliance on external factors, indecision while forecasting changes, the requirement for swift adaptation and more.

Moving ahead, equity theory is chief to the practices of Unilever for confirming equality and justice within the place of work. The organisation is determined to inclusion, equity and diversity, it desires to see a society and community where each and every one is treated equally. The company is working to develop a more socially involving and fairer landscape, within its business, through the company’s brands as well as within broader society. The organisation has been at the forefront in encouraging gender fairness, in the year 2023, fifty-five percent of its managers were women (Unilever. 2025). In addition to this, the concentration of Unilever on equal pay proves its determination towards confirming equity as well as fairness. Though, regardless of all these initiatives, issues associated with cultural variances and unconscious bias exists, that might affect the complete realisation of fairness within few regions.

Moreover, transformation leadership is apparent within the company’s efforts in order to inspire corporate change, mainly through its emphasis on environmental sustainability. The leadership at Unilever has effectively communicated a goal of living in a sustainable way, that is imitated within their practices in relation to people management. Further, leaders motivate workforce through lining up goals of the organisation with their own principles and values, nurturing a feeling of involvement and purpose. Sustainability initiatives of the company has led to formation of an innovative culture within the company, in which staff members are motivated and promoted to come up with thoughts and ideas which encourage favourable social and environmental influence (Ladkin, and Patrick, 2022). Though, issues might rise in transitioning such goal into the action crosswise different regional terms, in which distinct values as well as cultural standards might impact the staff agreement with the company goals and at the same time their enthusiasm in relation to their work.

Furthermore, Unilever confirms that its HR practices, such as training and performance management and more are directly linked with the its organisational goals. The company also assess the present and future needs of its staff in order recognise surpluses or gaps in talent. Through recognising and rewarding workforce and engaging them in development and learning practice, the company nurtures a culture of consistent development and learning. All such practices of the company are rooted the concept of strategic human resource management. However, challenges might arise in the context of working on the principles of SHRM, such as balancing learning and development without disturbing outcome, legal and regulatory challenges, and more.

Conclusion and recommendations

On the basis of above discussion, it can be concluded that effectual people management straightway affect the engagement, performance and the entire success of an organisation. Further, approach of Unilever towards managing its human assets showcases a solid match with the crux of leadership concepts, motivational theories, as well as the initiatives for encouraging staff involvement, inclusion, diversity and fairness. The emphasis of Unilever on wellness, career advancement, and management authorisation has resulted into a favourable culture at the organisation which assists its tactical objectives.

Although, in spite of such emphasis on important areas, there are numerous issues in completely employing initiatives crosswise the organisation’s varied staff worldwide. In order to further improve, Unilever can offer its employees with cross-cultural training programs for confirming that strategies for motivation and leadership initiatives are properly employed within varied regional backgrounds. In addition, the company should focus more on encouraging a mind-set of learning, starting the learning process in right manner, and creating new and helpful habits with micro behaviours. Further, for avoiding unconscious biases, Unilever can make considered decisions, pay more attention to bias linked to protected features, and make use of rotas to evade stereotyping. The company can consider sensitivity and leadership training and building diverse teams for eliminating diversity issues within the place of work.

REFERENCES

Books and Journals

• Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2023. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice: A guide to the theory and practice of people management. Kogan Page Publishers.
• Chin, T., Shi, Y., Palladino, R. and Faggioni, F., 2025. A Yin-Yang dialectical systems theory of knowledge creation. Journal of Knowledge Management, 29(3), pp.705-722.
• Davlembayeva, D. and Alamanos, E., 2023. Equity theory.
• Ladkin, D. and Patrick, C.B., 2022. Whiteness in leadership theorizing: A critical analysis of race in Bass’ transformational leadership theory. Leadership, 18(2), pp.205-223.
• Molina, R.I.R., Sukier, H.B., Castro, L.C.M. and Raby, N.D.L., 2022. People management model from a sustainable approach: theories and reflections. Procedia Computer Science, 198, pp.596-601.
• Rojas, M., Méndez, A. and Watkins-Fassler, K., 2023. The hierarchy of needs empirical examination of Maslow’s theory and lessons for development. World Development, 165, p.106185.
• Verma, P., Kumar, V., Mittal, A., Gupta, P. and Hsu, S.C., 2022. Addressing strategic human resource management practices for TQM: the case of an Indian tire manufacturing company. The TQM Journal, 34(1), pp.29-69.