How to create a homogeneous culture across boundaries?

Résumé du document

We have decided to study the company Unilever for several reasons. Firstly, Unilever is a European company that is one of the biggest multinationals in the world. Secondly, as we have chosen to study the corporate culture of multinationals, Unilever presents a particular corporate culture. Indeed, as opposed to most of the other multinationals, Unilever presents values based on human relationships and local autonomy. Finally, we had the opportunity to get an interview with a Unilever executive called Stéphane Verhaeren. He is the Brand Manager for the Knorr Culinary Aids.

Extraits

[...] In the branded olive oil category they are a leader, the most important brand being Bertolli. They are the world's leading ice cream producer, with brands such as Algida and Wall's in Europe, and Ben & Jerry's in the United States. They are the largest seller of packet tea in the world through our Lipton and Brook Bonds band. They lead the home care market in much of the world, which includes cleaning and hygiene products. Many of their home care products are market leaders including Brilhante, Cif, Comfort, Domestos, Omo, Skip and Snuggle. [...]

[...] Soap and margarine were to remain at the heart of the Unilever's business. Unilever's historical development included a uniquely wide geographical spread. The firm's predecessors had been among the ‘first' multinational firms, which, during the second half of the nineteenth century, had begun to build factories in foreign countries rather than merely export products to them. Indeed, in 1890, “Lever Brothers” began to switch from exporting its soap to building factories in foreign markets. Factories were built in other European countries, in the richest markets of the British Empire such as Canada and Australia, and in the United States. [...]

[...] What are the points in Unilever corporate cultures that change from one country to another? Power distance: as it has been said in the theory, Unilever's culture is Dutch and British. Those two cultures have a low Power Distance which means that both cultures enclose in general flat hierarchy in their companies and that managers most of the time consult interested people before taking important decisions. Therefore, it is possible to think that this low Power Distance is an international characteristic of Unilever's common corporate culture but it is not the case. [...]

[...] Indeed, he told us that Unilever is going towards a global culture and integrated strategy where people from different countries will have to work together. In the beginning, quite less businesses were centralized. But few years ago, Stéphane Verhaeren attended the first international meeting in which projects were discussed together with all the countries where Unilever is present. As a result, Unilever launched the “project an ambitious project that aimed to harmonise the management structure and the global culture in order to reach better efficiency. [...]

[...] From its origins, Unilever was a culture in which dishonest actions were not allowed. The concept of integrity was wider than honesty. Indeed, working for Unilever was never the way to get rich. Unilever managers were, or were expected to be motivated as much by their work as by their salaries. After the Second World War, the concept of corporate social responsibility was added to this first value. This concept means that firms should be concerned with more than profit making. [...]