Coca Cola Company - Research Paper Example

DeVry University

MGMT591 Leadership & Organizational Behavior

Professor Milford

Introduction

The Coca Cola Company is the world’s largest producer, marketer, and distributor of non-alcoholic beverages. Led by Coca-Cola, which is the most valuable beverage brand across the world, the Company’s portfolio also features 500+ other brands including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Minute Maid, and Del Valle. Even though the registration of Coca Cola Company in the United States occurred in 1893, its history dates back to 1886 when Dr. John S. Pemberton, an Atlanta-based Pharmacist, discovered a distinctive tasting syrup in the course of his lab experiments. The syrup was then mixed with carbonated water, sampled, and approved as an "excellent" beverage. With additional investments, the company has expanded its operation to other regions of the world that including the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and North America. The company’s headquarter remains to be in the United States (Hays, 2005).

Coca-Cola has their mission as: "At the Coca-Cola Company, we strive to refresh the world, inspire moments of optimism and happiness, create value and make a difference." This vision continues to shape the operations of the company as they seek to address the needs and further capture the attention of their customers. With the current market dynamics, for instance, the Coca-Cola Company has significantly invested, through its vast employee’s base, in initiating and introducing the one brand strategy (Hepburn, 2015). The latter is typically meant to enable the consumer to understand the various options available for them in an easier and an effective approach.

Problem statement

Despite the company’s efforts to remain as one of the best beverage company globally, the coca cola company faces quite some challenges in its day to day operations. Some of the most notable issues include the introduction of new policies, which highly suppresses and demotivates the company’s workers at a global scale. This has, therefore, lead to an increase in strikes from the various production lines, a factor that derails the continuity of the production process.

Due to the company complex organizational structure, the human resource base has for a long time been neglected from the decision making process. As a result, the employees have been subdued to poor working environments, harsh labor conditions, and poor pays. This has vastly affected the company especially because the employees no longer work as a team, and importantly they lack the motivation and the commitment of working and being part of the company (Sschilmoeller, 2012). In the light of leadership and organizational behaviors, this paper will critically assess the Coca-Cola Company and the appropriate channels to be implemented in the operational process in order to offer more care and acknowledge the employee's effort. Besides, the paper will also look into ways through which the human resource base can be treated as a way of making them feel the sense of belonging to the company.

Literature review

The Coca-Cola Company is one of the top organization globally. Since its introduction, the Company has progressively grown and even attained and enjoyed the market monopoly for quite a significant period (Walton, 2010). Even then, the company has had problem managing and motivating its workers, a factor that could be linked to the company size and the diversity across the various operation bases globally. This has, therefore, lead to many employees feeling left out by the company’s management hence the poor human resource relation in its various production lines.

Due to the poor organizational structure, there has been a poor bond between the company’s management and the employees. This in return is increasing the dissatisfaction level among the executive level of the Coca-Cola employees (Robi & Jugde, 2014). As a result, the company has progressively been experiencing a high employees turnover rate. Also, many employees in the company are seeking unnecessary leaves, a factor that has adequately affected the company’s operation process especially regarding production (Robiun & Judge, 2014).

Normally, involvement is acknowledged as a key component in the organizational and leadership component in an organization. With an all-inclusive management and human resource, the company is in a position to effectively attain and meet its core objective in an easy approach. The Coca-Cola Company, for instance, lacks this trait and thus has been experiencing a lot of derailment due to the frequent strikes. Due to the poor management process, the company's production and supply has significantly been affected hence the low-profit margins (Pordmoroff, 2016). By involving the workers in the decision-making process, they feel appreciated and taken care of. Besides, when involved in making the company's decisions, they can point out the various hurdles that adversely affect them while in the various production lines.

The coca cola company is operated under a set of rules and policies that in most cases offend and affect the employees in their working state. This is mostly because of the diversity involved in the company operation process in the various geographical locations. This has diminished the leadership and the organizational behavior of the company’s because most employees are not performing as expected (Bruce, 2011). In addition, the workers lack the motivation of working in the company hence the poor performance and production in the company

Despite the invested efforts in finding and venturing into new market globally, the Coca-Cola Company has progressively faced problems of continuity in terms of service production a factor that has limited it from attaining the set economic scale. The company is also said to have a poor leadership and organizational behavior especially when it comes to motivating its workers in their respective fields (The Coca-Cola Company, 2017). On the other hand, the company has been so successful in promoting creativity through its diverse range of products. Even then, the company has faced criticism regarding its low empowerment status to its employees. As a result, employees are confined to the same responsibilities every now and then with minimal or no creativity impact on the production process.

Analysis

In any organization, employees should be the most valued asset because through them the company is in a position to successfully meet its core objective (Robin & Judges, 2014). Notably, through an inclusive organizational structure, the employees feel acknowledged and well taken care of by the organization management. As a result, they work as a team, facilitate creativity in the production process and thus an increased profit margin as well as a profound market irrelevance in the diverse global community.

However, the Coca-Cola Company, which is one of the largest and the leading beverage and soft drink company global, has continuously faced quite a significant challenge in containing and managing its human resource base. As a result, the company has faced a massive derailment of service in terms of both production and supply. Normally, some of the most notable problems with the company's organizational behaviors and leadership are the introduction and implementation of unfavorable policies (Robin & Judges, 2014). These policies include the reduction of the workers’ health insurance funds, a factor that has progressively declined the employee’s motivation (Pipes, 2016). Normally, with the reduction of the health and dental insurance, the employees., who in this case are subjected to poor and low wages, are expected to add up to the insurance cover with the little income (Pipes, 2016).

This reduction of employee’s health insurance is speculated to have been facilitated by the largely overwhelming employee’s number that the company hires globally. On the other hand, the company is adversely affected by government policies, which in this case have failed to reduce the spiraling health care cost. Another issue that has contributed to the reduction in the human resource base insurance covers is the fact that the company has to work with different government all over the world. This has therefore suppressed their workers who often down their tools. Working under such policies and condition is very demeaning and thus the ransom the company has in the recent times experienced such a hard time trying to contain and manage its employees, who in this case lack the passion of being part of the company.

On the other hand, the Coca-Cola Company has had poor an unestablished employee’s forum. Normally, the latter would require that employees who share similar background and interests be assigned and allocated to fields that would unify the respective parties. On to the contrary, this is seemingly an issue that the Coca-Cola Company does not adore especially when assigning and allocating workers in the various production lines. As a result, the human resource has continuously bee subdued to low chances of creativity a factor that then leads to boredom and monotony in their area of work.

The employee’s forum, under an established organizational behavior and a sound leadership management, also requires that employees support each other both personally and professionally as a way of enhancing and promoting growth at an individual level and to the company. Nevertheless, due to the uncoordinated duties allocation in the diverse departments in the company’s production line, the process has been exposed to diverse, unified culture. This has to a large extent demotivated the employees since they are not nurtured and taken care of in a manner to promote growth and creativity.

Despite the worker hard work and working overtime, they are still subjected to low wages and poor working conditions. This has therefore seen many workers from this company leading a poor life yet they report to work on a daily basis. Workers have as a result been demotivated and no longer feel like they are part of the company. Typically, this has highly affected the company production since many workers do not exercise their full production capabilities. In addition, the workers have not been in a position to work as a team due to the unfavorable working condition and environment.

Notably, the low wages are as a result of the poor hiring protocol. On the other hand, low wages could be as a result of the economic fluctuation, which in this implies that the wages offered by the institution are not sufficient to cater and cover for an individual needs and expenses (Powell & Mitchelle, 2014). On that note, the workers end up frustrated, demotivated, and not passionate to work for the company. The Coca-Cola company being a multinational institution should, thus, initiate and implement means and way highly involving the human resource in order to enjoy the benefits of a motivated human resource.

Solution

The Coca-Cola Company being one of the largest beverage and Soft Drink Company globally means it has quite a large number of clients, who in this case sell or even serve their products directly to the consumers. Therefore, the company should focus on enhancing values for its consumers but most importantly provide concrete solutions for its worker in order to facilitate the production process (Lauby, 2005). The introduction of proper human resource mechanisms would make the employees appreciated, which would thus motivate the employees.

Some of the organizational behaviors and leadership solution that the Coca-Cola Company should implement regarding its employee include consistency and adaptability (Bruce, 2011). Consistency requires that the Coca-Cola Company promote effective culture in order to facilitate continuity, coordination, and creativity in the production process. Also, consistency requires that workers who share a similar background and interest in a certain field be assigned to similar duties in the company. By so doing the employees would have a chance of expressing and exploiting their creative aspects. Besides, this move would enable the workers to work as a team, and thus positively impacting the company. However, that can only be attained through an organization that acknowledges the importance of integrating and involving the various departments in the decision-making process. Normally, involving workers, for instance, in the decision-making process enables the top official in the Coca-Cola Company to identify the problems that the workers go through.

The Coca-Cola Company should also aim to resolve the suppressive policies by adopting the adaptability aspect (Pordmoroff, 2016). The latter, through a good organizational behavior and leadership, aids the company in transforming into an all-inclusive kind of an organization both internally and externally (Pordmoroff, 2016). The company should also seek to review its policies and make sure that they favor the workers who in this case are the most crucial asset in the company.

On the other hand, in order to attain the stipulated remedies, the company has to lay down concrete human resource mechanism that would aid in promoting care and effort motivation among the diverse pool of workers. By so doing the company is put in a position to easily and in an efficient way promote its brand and the various social concerns homogeneously all across the globe. Care and motivational efforts, for instance, the employees feel appreciated through acknowledging of their unique contribution to the firm (Friedman, 2017). This, therefore, means that the employees will invest more of their energy and commitment in facilitating an outstanding production process.

Care and motivational effort to the human resource also grant them the opportunity to take the initiative as a result of the care and guidance offered by the human resource department. This, as a result, promotes the organization production process positively with an increased social consideration as well as a widened profit margin (Friedman, 2017). Ultimately, when there are care and effort invested towards the employees, the human resource is motivated to work as a unit, which consequently promotes creativity. The latter thus imply that the supervisors at the various production levels are only allowed to implement the production at the highest levels and not to control the workers who are granted the power of finding their means of handling and resolving issues.

Reflection

My choice to do a research paper on Coca Cola Company was largely inspired by the experience I had working as a store merchandiser for the company. As an employee of the company, I came to understand that the Coca-Cola Company has significantly been struggling with the human resource issues. In this company, for instance, the employee’s feels neglected due to the organizations complex structure. This issue has, as a result, affected the operations because the workers are often on strikes demanding a salary increase or even a review of their working contract and the set policies. During the research, I noted that this issue had affected close to all the location where the Coca-Cola Company operates. It is thus a crucial issue that ought to be addressed in order to enable the organization in the various location to successfully operate as well as promote creativity through the motivated and passionate workers. Most importantly, this research has widened my knowledge about the Coca-Cola Company and the issues that affect its operation. In addition, the research has also made me acknowledge the significance of a good and established organizational behavior and leadership. Through the latter, the company is in a position to operate in a manner that is convenient and favorable not only for the management but the employees as well. In general, this research paper has been a key and an eye opener concerning the Coca-Cola Company and the elaborate organizational behaviors and leadership.