BSBWOR501 Manage Personal Work Priorities and Professional

Managing Personal Work Priorities and Professional Development Ensure Team Effectiveness Enhance the organisation’s image.Develop Teams and Individuals in a Workplace Learning Environment Determine development needsDevelop Teams and Individuals in a Workplace Learning Environment Types of learning and development.

Unilever is an British multinational organisation which manufactures consumer goods and has presence in more than one hundred and forty countries. The company has its headquarters in London, the United Kingdom and Rotterdam, Netherlands. The global company is present in several markets and works through supply chains spread across the globe.  The acquisition of the raw materials and marketing activities of Unilever is decentralised and carried on by the subsidiaries from the local markets. The company is extremely strong as far as technology is concerned and carries out these activities using modern technology. Unilever uses modern to control its resources and even consumers.

E-procurement

Unilever acquires the raw materials from the various local markets using electronic methods which have helped the company to cut down its operational costs. The eprocurement software Ariba helps to procure the materials electronically. The software initially only allowed the managers to view the particulars of the materials. Today the system has been upgraded and allows billing, invoice reconciliation and management of payment cycle. The electronic system of procurement helps the production managers to integrate a variety of procurement functions and control stocks. The method has helped the global company to reduce the expenditure after paperwork. It helps the company to control and alter its supply channel as per need (Stadtler, H., 2015).

E-invoicing:

Unilever works with suppliers of raw materials around the world which necessitates the company to integrate its acquisition functions. The company has established a global electronic invoicing system which is aimed at providing timely payments to the suppliers and vendors. This allows the transnational company to acquire raw materials at economic prices which allow it tpo keep the cost of production low. The company consequently can offer products to its consumers at affordable prices. Suppliers who deliver products to the European and American branches were the first ones to come under the purview of electronic invoicing.  

Unilever is so committed to make proper payments to the suppliers and vendors that the company has created a page as a part of its official website that caters to the suppliers’ needs. The vendors can get information regarding their payments, invoices and other details from the page. They can also get hard copies of the invoices which are controlled centrally. The page has information for suppliers specific to their countries along with facts about the software Ariba (Unilever global company website 2017).

Web based patent management systems:

Unilever is the owner of hundreds of international patents like Ponds and Axe. The company has subsidiaries like Hindustan Unilever who in turn own patents like Lakme. This requires the company to follow an electronic system of patents which makes management of global patents easy. The multinational company at present owns around twenty five thousand patents. The information about the lifecycles of the global patents make the external parties easily gain information about them. It also helps the companies to enter into business contracts with the parties and protects its strategic data by allow restricted access to its patents. The electronic system helps the company to abide by the intellectual property rights and laws in the various countries (Grimpe and Hussinger 2014).

Innovative systems:

Unilever uses modern technology to allocate its resources among the various locations. It creates new products using sustainable technology and this helps it to control its production methods. The company uses advanced methods like weighted average methods and total quality management to control the flow of production. This helps the company to reduce paper works and contribute towards forestation. The production department does not have to maintain paper records of the production process. The information is maintained electronically which allows the managers posted at different location exchange and use the information (Talk 2016). The company has its research laboratories in several locations in India and the United Kingdom which ensures continuous innovation. Unilever is known to bring about new products and upgrade its product line to meet the ever evolving consumer needs (Laursen and Andersen 2015).

Electronic human resource management:

Unilever employs human resources in over a hundred and ninety countries which makes it important to monitor centrally. The company is a multicultural employer who considers its human resource its key to success. An electronic system integrated globally makes it possible for the company to monitor the employee performances and appraise their efforts. For example, several top performing employees of Hindustan Unilever have been promoted to top positions of Unilever. The human resource department of Unilever uses electronic human resource methods to acquire, control and monitor the employees aligned with the business needs (Fee 2014). The management is able to allocate the human resources according to the needs and exigencies (Storey 2014). This management of employees located globally would have been impossible without electronic and technical support.

Two personality identification tools for recruitment of managers:

Openness:

The managers need to encounter several situations and challenges. They are expected to have the competencies to lead the groups of employees under their locus of control. The global companies usually have an integrated recruitment method which ensures quality acquisitions of managerial talents. The manager should be open and frank about his experiences, qualifications, abilities and other aspects.

The human resource department can frame a set of questions which the probable managers will be required to answer. The company then must conduct an investigation to ensure that the particulars and information furnished by the managerial candidate are authentic. Mangers should be open to the company about their compensation expectations, aspirations and so on. This will help both the company and the managerial candidates to understand each other better.

Agreeableness:

Managers need to have positive attitudes and should be open to various contrasting ideas. They should be motivated and optimistic about challenges and changes. The managers should be open to the company regarding their expectations and aspirations. The company should also be open about its employee policies and performance parameters. This will help both to arrive at an agreeable contract based on trust and consensus. The contract of employment should be based on coercion and fear (Kim 2015).  

Managers need to have a positive outlook towards the company and its policies. They should be aware and knowledgeable about the terms of employment and targets. This agreeable attitude will help them to guide their subordinates and juniors. They should agreeable and optimistic about the company and their colleagues(Doucet et al. 2016). Agreeableness results in higher employee retention and productivity. This is also responsible for employee development and job satisfaction (Biron, De Reuver and Toker 2016).

Personal development plan:

Personal development is a lifelong process which has to be continued. This helps individuals to adapt to changes and accept challenges. Personal development encompasses activities like improvement of self awareness, individual potential in various capacities and so on (Baldwin et al. 2014). Personal development leads to improvement of communication skills, management skills, agreeability, moral development, motivation power and optimism. The steps to personal development are:

Identification of goal:

Everybody should at first find out and chalk out the goals. The goals can be personal, professional, emotional or all the three. This will help the person to choose the right steps towards self development. For example, if one wants to bring about professional development, one should analyse the present situation he is in. He can then start seeking ways to bring about improvement in his current position like searching for a better paid job and so on(Locke and Latham 2013).

Conversing:

The person who intends to bring about personal development must speak to the people with whom he confides. They can find out and point out flaws and other areas which needs to be rectified. He should communicate accurate facts to them if he wants helpful feedbacks. One should be agreeable and accepts his faults (Holt 2016).

Create an outline plan:

A person who wants to bring about personal development should set a target time for himself. He should measure his improvement within that time and take steps if he finds his improvements below his expectations. One should set realistic plans and targets from self development. For example, if a person earns AU$ 20000, he can expect pay cheque of AU$ 30000 but not a salary of AU$ 60000. The outline plan should also be based on individual potentials and self awareness. One should not shy away from weaknesses and accept them. He should accept his weaknesses as parts of his personality and should also know that they can be rectified. They should work on their weaknesses and find out ways to mend them as a part of the outline plan. For example, if one has weak communication skills, he can enrol himself in a linguistic course. He can read books and newspapers on daily basis to improve his vocabulary.

Application of newly learnt potentials:

Newly learnt potentials are of no use if they cannot be utilised. A person must use his new acquired skills in order to make them sharper. Communication skills encourage other skills like agreeability, motivations skills and so on. For example, if one has learnt communication skills, he should use them while communication with the people. This will help one to sharpen his skills and work on his weak aspects (Schwarzer 2014). Communication has intricate relationship with personality and social acceptance of people. These factors contribute towards social status, motivation and many other personal traits. The initial applications of communication and leadership skills may not accepted positively and meet with challenges. One should not lose motivation and apply the new techniques till he is able to better them.

References

Baldwin, C., Arturo Garza-Reyes, J., Kumar, V. and Rocha-Lona, L., 2014. Personal development review (PDR) process and engineering staff motivation: A case study investigation in a manufacturing firm. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 25(6), pp.827-847.

Biron, M., De Reuver, R. and Toker, S., 2016. All employees are equal, but some are more equal than others: dominance, agreeableness, and status inconsistency among men and women. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 25(3), pp.430-446.

Doucet, L., Shao, B., Wang, L. and Oldham, G.R., 2016. I know how you feel, but it does not always help: Integrating emotion recognition, agreeableness, and cognitive ability in a compensatory model of service performance. Journal of Service Management, 27(3), pp.320-338.

Fee, M.C., 2014. Human resources management.

Grimpe, C. and Hussinger, K., 2014. Resource complementarity and value capture in firm acquisitions: The role of intellectual property rights. Strategic Management Journal, 35(12), pp.1762-1780.

Holt, N.L. ed., 2016. Positive youth development through sport. Routledge.

Kim, K., 2015. Beyond Coercion. UCLA L. Rev., 62, p.1558.

Laursen, L.N. and Andersen, P.H., 2015. How Early? Quasi-experiments on Early Supplier Involvement in New Product Development at Unilever. In Conference Proceedings of the 32nd IMP Conference, Kolding, Denmark.

Locke, E.A. and Latham, G.P. eds., 2013. New developments in goal setting and task performance. Routledge.

Schwarzer, R., 2014. Self-efficacy: Thought control of action. Taylor & Francis.

Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Storey, J., 2014. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Talk, O.M., 2016. Operations management.

Unilever global company website. 2017. How to invoice us. [online] Available at: https://www.unilever.com/about/suppliers-centre/how-to-invoice-us/ [Accessed 29 Mar. 2017].