The Organizations Culture at Coca Cola - Assignment Example

Describe the organization’s culture and include the factors that lead to your assessment. The organization’s culture at Coca Cola is one of positiveencouragement and overall happiness. I came to this conclusion about the assessment by reading various information about Coke. Coke is a very successful organization and they attempt to keep their success by keeping their employees happy. Therefore, they use various inspirational techniques and make sure that their employees are well educated and well trained to keep their jobs. They also keep an eye on their employees via management, but offer to help out individuals within the culture. In his interview with Juan Johnson, vice president at Coca Cola, Vasquez (2004) discusses the organizational culture as one of success, and one that focuses on employee happiness. How do the organizational members learn the culture? Organizational members of Coca Cola learn the culture through interaction with other members as well as attending various employee training programs. In his interview with Juan Johnson, vice president at Coca Cola, Vasquez (2004) discusses this concept. The members and Coke are constantly interacting with each other and by doing this, they learn what the organizational culture is all about. The training provided by Coke allows them to gain a very great understanding of what the organization wants in general. Since group work and collaboration is always expected, Coke expects that its workers will learn how to work well together and take lessons from management on how to stay motivated. How management motivates there organization can affect the productivity and thus the profitability of an organization. Coke is very focused on strong motivation within the company. Motivation defined is the individual forces that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a persons effort expended at work. (Vasquz, 2004) There are different ways to motivate one’s workforce. Is the culture generally positive or negative? The culture at Coke is generally positive, although there are conflicts within the organization. All organizational cultures have conflicts within them. Management must find ways to deal with conflicts quickly and fairly. Not all conflicts are negative. Tension between senior managers and line management during a budget formulation is an example of a beneficial conflict. This conflict can add efficiency in the company. It requires the line management to stretch their limitations in order to achieve results. In order for positive results meetings must be managed well so that managers can be motivated. Negative conflict must be managed as well. If the conflict involves a workflow process a manager can reduce interdependence. Coke uses a few methods to approach this. One way is to reduce the required contact between the two parties. Or if the situation involves two groups a buffering method could be used. For example, if 3 two manufacturing departments are in conflict because one is slower that the other management may implement a buffer or extra inventory between the two departments so that the process can flow smoothly again. A conflict can also be resolved through hierarchy referral, which is another strategy referred to by Coke. This makes use of the chain of command for conflict resolution. (Vasquez, 2004) When there is a problem the supervisor makes the decision. A productive way to solve conflicts is to hold meetings or chat sessions. By letting employees give input on how to solve conflicts gives them a more active role and usually allows for a better response to change. If a conflict cannot be handled by lower management senior management can use different methods to combat conflict. The management can take part in resolving the situation, appoint a committee to deal with the problem or hire a mediator to resolve the issue. What affect does the culture have on organizational goals? Culture can have a profound affect on organizational goal. An organizational culture is the system of shared actions, values and beliefs that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members. (Vasquez 2004) No two cultures are the same but they have a huge impact on an organization. Five ways management can either maintain or modify a culture include strategy formulation, motivation, management control, conflict management and customer management plans. Strategy formulation is the way a firm defines itself and its overall direction. A good way to do this is through a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat analysis. Through this process management examines there organization and focuses on their strengths, weaknesses and treats. This will affect the organizational culture by giving it a strategic direction. What are your recommendations for the culture? My recommendations for the culture of Coke are to continue to use strong management control processes to maintain positive culture. Management control processes at Coke include programming, budgeting, measuring and reporting. Programming is adjusting the decision making process to ensure that programs are consistent with the flow and strategy of the company. (Young 13) Making sure everybody is focused on the same goal is important to an organizational culture. A mission statement is a good program that shows the entire organization what they are about. Budgeting is another important control. Budgets set the limitations of Coke’s organizational. Management must address several issues when planning a budget. Setting profit goals for each area and dividing the budget fairly. Measuring and reporting activities can be designed to each persons responsibilities. Through this method each employee has quotas or expectations which they are measured against. Reporting is usually directed at a supervisor or a designated team lead depending on the organization. Keeping all of this on tract guarantees that members of the organization will stay happy, and therefore a positive culture can be maintained. In general, how do the human resource practices of your selected organization shape employee attitudes and behavior? Do they have a positive or negative influence? Why? The human resources attitudes of Coke have a positive influence. Human resources have learned to be very friendly when hiring individuals and also provide adequate training. Human resources has an emphasis on being “there” for its new employees and walking them through the hiring process. There is an expectation that all new employees should be given time to adapt. All of this has a positive influence on the employees (Vasquz, 2004). How is the performance evaluation process used at your selected organization? What recommendations do you have for modifying the process and how would your recommendations improve performance? The performance evaluation process at Coke is fairly straightforward. Employees are reviewed when reviews are needed, and their overall output level as well as their skills are assessed (Vasquez 2004). Often they are monitored by their bosses or management and this often lets the company know about their overall production levels and success. Overall, I feel that Coke has a very good and regular monitoring process involved, since their employees are monitored on a daily basis. One way to improve performance would be to allow employees to submit anonymous surveys about their co-workers to show how they feel about other people’s performances. This would help to gain feedback in some other areas for management (Stein, 1994). What could the management team do to promote diversity within the organization? Include how you believe this would improve the overall organization effectiveness To promote diversity within the organization, the managers of Coke can make sure they bring in a wide range of diverse activities and speakers to various training programs (Stein, 1994). They can also train their employees about diversity and diverse markets. Diversity training would help the organization overall because the better understanding the company has of diverse individuals, the more markets they can reach out to, and hence the more items they can sell. How do the organizational members learn the culture? Organizational members learn the culture through their interactions and associations with co-workers, their initial interactions with human resources, and the training they receive. They continue to learn the culture on a daily basis the more they work at the company, and the more training seminars they attend. In his interview with Juan Johnson, vice president at Coca Cola, Vasquez (2004)confirms this approach to members learning the culture. References: Stein, H. (1994). Listening Deeply: An Approach to Understanding and Consulting in Organizational Culture New Jersey: Westview Press. Valesquez, M (2004). The Coca-Cola Company and a Conversation with Juan Johnson Vice President and Director of Diversity Strategy and Culture and President of the Diversity Leadership Academy. Retrieved Autust 2, 2009, from: http://diversitydtg.com/articles/cokeseries.htm Read More