Organizational Development at Coca Cola - Case Study Example

of Teacher 24th April, Introduction Coca Cola is a famous beverage company, known for its products like Fanta and Coke. The company has been a competitor of Pepsi and a prominent brand in many countries. Since the company is functioning in many countries, there are internal issues in the company, which are a hindrance to its organizational development. This paper discusses two problems faced by Coca Cola and the solution for these problems. Organizational development Organizational Development is a plan for increasing the overall effectiveness of a company and to enable the company to achieve its set objectives. The main objective of OD is to develop the organization’s processes, system and structures, which would in turn, develop the organization. The humanistic values of organizational development include providing opportunities for employees, so that they work as human beings, instead of resources. It includes providing opportunities to individuals, so that they can develop their full potential and increase the effectiveness of the organization (Cummings & Worley). Moreover, the OD’s humanistic value is to strengthen interpersonal trust and communication, which could prove to be successful for the organization. Organizational Development problems in Coca Cola The first problem, of organizational development, is the problem with employees; in the recent years, there have been many complaints against Coca Cola, that they discriminate against their employees on the basis of discrimination and also, the employees are mistreated and have to work in poor conditions. A class action racial discrimination suit was filed against the company in 200, where Coca Cola had to pay 192.5 million dollars, as settlement. Three years later, there were protestors present in the annual meeting of the company, and stated that there was no one to represent African-Americana stuff, at the top management level, and they were discriminated based on their race, because they were paid less and fired more, as compared to White people. This is an organizational development problem, because it deals with the structure of the organization and the organization has failed to ensure that the minority workers trust the company when they are making decisions which would impact the minority staff. In 2012, there was a lawsuit filed against Coca Cola’s unit in Atlanta; the lawsuit was filed by 16 current workers and former workers, who were Hispanic and African-American (Greenwald). Their statement was that a culture of racism is found in the management of the company and they have suffered enough. The plaintiffs terms of work assignments were biased, when it comes to hours, the way they were disciplined wasn’t fair and the work environment seemed too hostile to them. The two minority groups are given assignments, which are most dangerous and physically undesirable; they also have to do things, which are not in their job descriptions. For the minority workers, there are no promotion opportunities and the hours of the minority drivers are limited, whereas these problems are not faced by the White worker. In another case, Coca Cola has been sued by two former employees, Samantha Caldwell and Mark Snay. The two former employees stated that they were not compensated for over time, which is against the law of California and Coca Cola has discriminated against them, as they prefer stronger and younger employees and purge the older employees, who are not physically capable (Blackburn). According to the employees, the company is saving expenses and favoring the young, while not respecting the seniors, who have spent years serving the company. Cardwell was told by her boss, that as she is a mother, she is not eligible for promotion and that her career is slowly dying. Sandra Walker tells her own story of how she was sexually harassed and stalked in the first year of being employed in Coca Cola and in her eighth year, she was fired because she told her supervisor that he is a racist, and he lied about what she said and quoted her saying, “You’re a dead man”. The human resource manager treated Sandra differently, and asked her questions which implied that Sandra doesn’t belong in America and even her co-workers made threats like blowing up her house. Theories In order to solve this issue or understand it completely, the first thing is to accept that Coca Cola has a problem, which directly connects with how it treats employees and the lawsuits they have to face. This is an organizational development problem because the minority employees don’t have a good relationship with the top management, they are sexually harassed, are provided with bad working conditions, tough jobs and they are fired on the basis of discrimination or age. Kurt Lewin’s theory is an equilibrium theory, which states that should be a balance point between desirable and non desirable behavior, so that the practitioners of organizational development can move that behavior to one point, with the intention of getting good results (Cummings & Worley). The behavior traits within a process needs to be changed, which means that Coca Cola needs to change its behavior towards minority groups and should not discriminate against any employee on the basis of age, sex and race. The theory of Burke-Litwin states that the organizational change is basically the foundation of transactional and transformational leadership; this model discusses the structure, management practices and system of the company (Cummings & Worley). This model doesnt apply to individual behavior or their development and thus can be applied to the leadership and management of Coca Cola. The minority groups have a lot of problems with the management, as they are the ones who discriminate against them and give them tough assignments. The management needs to change their behavior against the minority groups, if they want to avoid lawsuits and make their employees more productive. The management practices, like not compensating the minority groups for overtime and favoring the White employees, needs to be changed because they are harming the reputation and development of the company. The solution for this problem is to practice equal employment rights and not discriminate against any employee. Employees need protection and a good working environment, particularly the minority groups, as in 2010, eight plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Coca Cola, and the charges were about rape, murder and physical torture of the union leaders; even their families were targeted. Coca Cola has also been blamed for hiring paramilitary mercenaries, for the purpose of assassinating the union leaders, thus, the organization needs to work on its image and internal conflicts, to further develop their organization (Schillmoeller). Model A model which can work as a solution for Coca Cola, is of Porras and Robertson, and is for organizational change. The model focuses on the behaviors of individuals, working within an organization and discusses the premise, that behavior change can impact an organization overall. For example, in the case of Sandra Walker, if she was sexually assaulted and stalked, her supervisors should have taken notice of the matter and action against the person responsible. However, they choose to ignore it, because she was African-American. Moreover, her supervisor misquoted and she lost a job at a company, she had been working for eight years. If the behavior of her supervisor had been changed, by making him accept diversity at the workplace and more tolerant towards other races, then the company would have been able to avoid an employee being fired from the company, who worked for years and left with a bad image of the company in mind. For organizational development, the company needs to make better policies and re-structure it in a way that the minority groups get the same promotion opportunities that the Whites get. There have been too many age discrimination and racial discrimination law suits filed against Coca Cola, that it has become a matter of urgency and there should be an intervention, to make the company realized that these management practices have the ability to distort the image of the company and that they should pay attention to them. Conclusion To sum up, a company like Coca Cola, which has its units running in different countries, all over the world, and is associated with athletes and the entertainment industry, needs to be more protective of their image. Discrimination on the basis of race, is perhaps a movie, which puts a company in the spotlight, where every customer has their eyes on the next move of the company. Even though, not every unit is the same, bad news travels fast and people form opinions that are based on the facts, presented to them by social media and news channels. Thus, the company needs to treat the White employees and employees from other minority groups, equally. There needs to be a sense of teamwork among the employees and they, too, should be discouraged to be offensive to someone, who is from another race, even if it is a White employee. Team work, focus on individual behavior, focus on management practices, are the three things which would play an important part in the development of the organization and they would be able to fulfill their goals, in order to be a successful company. Works cited Blackburn, Daniel. Coke Sued For Alleged Unfair Practices. N. p., 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. Cummings, Thomas G, and Christopher G Worley. Organization Development And Change. 1st ed. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western, 2005. Print. Greenwald, Judy. Coca-Cola Unit Sued For Alleged Racial Discrimination. Workforce.com. N. p., 2012. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. Schilmoeller, Janessa. Labor Practices Questioned As Coca-Cola Workers Protest Unfair Policies Worldwide. N. p., 2012. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. Read More