A Study of The Organization Culture at Coca Cola

Introduction

The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s leading manufacturer of non-alcoholic beverages, with its products being the most recognized brands in the world. The company owns and market more than 500 brands in more than 200 countries. Manufacturing beverage concentrates and syrups, the multinational company has millions of employees who manufacture, market and distribute the products. The Coca-Cola Company also has ownership interests in numerous beverage joint ventures, bottling, and canning operations, with significant markets existing in all the world’s geographic regions.

It is in the culture of Coca-Cola that all the stakeholders contribute to the growth and development of the company. The company engages its varied partners in long-term agreements that provide significant contribution towards the transformation of the decision-making process. The daily operations of the company are controlled by the stakeholders such as the suppliers, customers, and competitors. With the company’s 2020 sustainability goals, it has a particular way of engaging the stakeholders, with the objectives put in place controlling its actions towards the stakeholders.

Coca Cola Organizational Culture

The culture of the Coca-Cola Company requires that the management of the multinational corporation engages the stakeholders in both formal and informal talks. The stakeholders are often engaged in meetings and dialogue that revolve around the supply and consumption of the products. For instance, The Coca-Cola Company is reported to be carrying out negotiations with the suppliers of bottling equipment on the most appropriate ways that would lead to a healthy business between the two partners (Dumitrescu, Luigi, &Vineraean, 2010, p 152). The company considers the increasing global challenges when discussing key worldwide problems with its suppliers, in an attempt to protect the environment in which the companies operate.

The culture of Coca-Cola Company recognizes the need to protect the environment from global warming that arises because of intense uncontrolled production activities within the company. The culture of the company recognizes the need to ensure the safety of its customers as they may be the victims of uncontrolled production activities. The company strives to protect the surrounding environment from pollution by preventing the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere during mass production and the manufacture of bottles used for packaging (Baah, Sandra, &Bohaker, 2015, p 16). In business ethics, protecting the consumers is an indication of the company striving to consider the natural environment; thus, allowing suitable working conditions for both the consumers and the employees of the company.

As the culture of the company requires, it has mastered the art of working together with its partners and competitors to acquire knowledge on how to improve the quality of services and production. Coca-Cola is known to recognize, learn, and attend to issues of concern that bring together knowhow and information that other partners posses (Baah, Sandra, &Bohaker, 2015, p 18) In the world of business, corporations are known to have varied managerial teams that put different ideas into practice, which when combines, may be significant in achieving far great positive impact on the environment and other issues of social concern.

The issues of social concern may not be addressed by the Coca-Cola Company if its culture does not require that it works together with its partners. The culture of working with competitors has enabled Coca-Cola Company to identify healthy competition practices that are not bound to have negative impacts on the trading companies when implemented.

The management team of the Coca-Cola Company has a culture of combating new entrants into the market, a culture that is distinct from other areas of the organization. The modern world comprises of competitive businesses where new players come into the market on a daily basis. The management of Coca-Cola has been on the spot for their impressive job of carrying out negotiations with the new companies that are cracking into the market.

The negotiations are carried out to come up with various ways of forming trade groups that would be helpful in the growth of both companies. Trade groups are known to enhance businesses by creating connections that were not identified before. Another key factor that has ensured the growth of Coca-Cola Company is industry collaborations, whereby joint venture initiatives are conducted to pave way for new policy engagement initiatives that boost the activities of companies.

The culture of collaborating with other companies has ensured the growth of Coca-Cola across the globe as there is a tremendous reduction in operation costs. For example, by collaborating with recycling firms to set up enterprises next to the Coca-Cola plants, a lot of time and money is saved while transporting the containers (Gupta, 2011, p 60). Coca-Cola is highlighted as one of the huge profit-making firms across the world because of the deals it strikes with other partners to reduce operation costs and to save time.

The risk management department of the Coca-Cola Company has a culture of measuring the risks that the company and its employees are facing during the production and distribution process. By measuring the risks, the company shows concern to its employees who are then motivated to carry out their tasks. Even as the company measures risks that it faces, it is also in the subculture of the corporation that there must be a stable financial system that would protect the stakeholders and the guarantors.

The risk measurement allows the company to protect the lives of its consumers and those who are involved in the production process. An example of a worker who carries out poor quality work and causes harm to other people is a builder. A builder who does a wrong job that leads to loss of lives may be put to death; hence, the importance of the stable financial system in the company.

The Impact of the Organizational Culture on Overall Functioning of the Organization with Particular Reference to its Decision-Making Processes and Performance

The culture of Coca-Cola Company to collaborate with other firms has led to the sustainable initiative by Coca-Cola to recycle used cans across the United States. The decision to recycle used cans was arrived at after negotiations with recycling companies to come up with a recycling plan that would make use of the latest technology in the world. Coca-Cola brands being used widely across the United States; there was the need to come up with a sustainable recycling plan that is well financed.

The decision to recycle used cans has also ensured that every community in America is actively involved in the collection process; thus, improving the living standards of the consumers. In business ethics, creating employment opportunities for the consumers is an indication of social responsibility to the stakeholders who influence the operations of the company (Gupta, 2011, p 60). The healthy relationship between the Company and the consumers has been witnessed upon the increase in consumption of the Coca-Cola products.

The culture of maintaining the position of world’s leading beverage manufacturer by combating new entrants into the market has been of help to the management team in making managerial decisions that would ensure continued growth of the Coca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola has implemented a sustainable initiative to use the systems theory of management since it is feasible for the company.

The theory of management has been effective in assisting the management team with various tasks that maintain the company’s top position in the world. The management team is well informed and guided by principles of management as per the culture of the company. The management team follows specific procedures when there is the need for changes to be implemented in the organization. With the company growing to the levels of a system, the systems theory is important in looking at the entire organization and its daily operations.

The collaboration of Coca-Cola Company with other firms allows the managerial team to make decisions based on the systems theory of management as the company comprises of departments that work together. The systems theory asserts that an institution is a collection of parts that have been combined to accomplish certain objectives. Coca-Cola Company has been in a position to work with minimum interruption in the activities that are associated with the manufacture and marketing process.

The culture of working with the company’s competitors creates an opportunity for the company to diversify its operations to suit the existing customers and find new customers in the market. Currently, Coca-Cola’s major competitor, Pepsi, has been noted by health officials to be a health hazard, a factor that has led to its reduction in sales (Hartogh, 2007, p 1).Initially, Coca-Cola was faced with the challenge of low product diversification as compared to its competitor, Pepsi.

With the reduction in sales of Pepsi products, Coca-Cola Company has the right information on how to market the lesser selling products in markets that were initially dominated by Pepsi. In marketing, promoting the lesser selling products is a strategy used by corporations as a result of a proper supply chain management (Hartogh, 2007, p3). The threat of indirect competitors is a factor that could drastically bring down the growth levels that have been achieved by Coca-Cola; thus, combating the new players in the market and collaborating with indirect competitors has led to the continued growth of Coca-Cola.

The culture of mastering the art of working together with all the stakeholders has contributed to the brand equity in Coca-Cola. Moreover, Coca-Cola brands are probably the most costly in the market; hence, earning more revenue to the company. A strategic management system is significant to Coca-Cola as the company is currently the most valued company with assets that allow mass production.

Coca-Cola is noted to be operating in more than 200 countries across the world, collaborating with the beverage companies on various continents. Coca-Cola has the largest market share, with its only competitor being Pepsi. Working with its competitors has been beneficial in reducing the damage that unhealthy competition can cause to the growth of the company (YouTube, 2018). Marketers rate the marketing strategies used by Coca-Cola as impressive as they have led to the increase in loyalty to the company’s brands. Coca-Cola is evenly distributed across the globe; thus, leading to its identification of new markets.

Measuring the risks that Coca-Cola may face has led to strategic management methods product promotion that has led to brand loyalty across the world. In the field of insurance, measuring risks that corporations may face is regarded as impossible is the measurement is based on the probability distributions that are more of financial markets. Such measurement is characterized by errors that may make the organization impossible to control. The coordination between departments in Coca-Cola has allowed the risk management professionals to come up with strategies that have continued to boost the image of Coca-Cola Company as any slight misunderstanding could damage the company’s reputation; thus, leading to a decline in global sales.

Relationship between Culture and Strategic Management within the Organization

An excellent corporate culture is a significant condition that paves way for the formulation of corporate strategy. Corporate culture also highlights the characteristics of the enterprises, the formation of values that are common among all the stakeholders, and has a distinct personality. In the Coca-Cola Company, the corporate culture has been useful in developing strategies that are different from other companies and are vital in combating competitors. For example, the corporate culture in Coca-Cola Company highlights the company’s organic habitat in which the organization’s strategy lives. The corporate culture used by Coca-Cola is equally emotional as it considers the well-being of all the stakeholders and the environment in which the company operates.

In modern business, strategies implemented by corporations are just the headline of the companies’ story while culture requires that a commonly understood language is used to embrace and tell the story (Kotter, 2008, p4). For example, Coca-Cola has ensured that all its stakeholders understand its mission, vision, the values that the company stands for, and the clear expectations from all the stakeholders. The common language among the stakeholders ensures that all the strategies are implemented to achieve a common goal for the company.

Corporate culture is a significant means of implementing a corporate strategy as it determines and measures desire, engagement, and execution of the strategies. It is a requirement that an active and effective implementation of the strategy is carried out after corporate strategy development (Kotter, 2008, p50. For instance, the existing organization structure in Coca-Cola stimulates the enthusiasm of employees and the unified stakeholders who jointly strive to achieve the goals that have been set by the company’s management team. Before the implementation of the strategies, it may be important to ensure that the strategies are corporate culture oriented and that there are cohesion and motivation of the corporate members.

Corporate culture and corporate strategy ought to adapt to each other, mutual organization and strategy development, business culture should be altered with the formulation of strategy. However, changing corporate culture may not be possible once the culture of an organization has been formed (Nawaser et al, 2014, p 178). It is, therefore, required that corporate culture maintains greater rigidity and certain continuity in the implementation of corporate strategy.

Coca-Cola Company aims at earning profit so that it could survive and have a source to grow. In most cases, earning profit is used as a measure used to access the performance of a company. For non-profit organizations, the success of the institutions may be viewed from different angles such as providing free education to students. A holistic view of the performance of an organization depends on the achievement of the organizational objectives. The strategies in Coca-Cola are often implemented in relation to the corporate culture in an attempt to maintain the profits and success of the company. In various types of industries, different cultures could give rise to different types of strategies implemented for the success of the organizations. Companies such as Coca-Cola have flexible and adaptive cultures that can be of help in producing innovative products that result in a successful strategy.

The strong organizational culture in Coca-Cola Company has been one of the most sustainable competitive advantages that the company has. Despite the presence of competitors, copying an organizational culture may be difficult as culture is defined as a collection of norms that are shared within the place of work. Different companies have different ways of carrying out their operations, some of which have a positive impact on production while others contribute to organizational problems.

Since organizational cultures are unique and offer strategic advantages, it is a clear indication that companies would opt to consider culture in strategic management. Cultures that do not align well with the company objectives often lead to the failure of businesses. For example, a high-performing company that has a corporate strategy of providing fun and an environment that is customer friendly would not align well with the stagnant culture. It may be appropriate for the company to hire workers who are fun, friendly, and customer-oriented employees instead. The balance between external and internal strategic elements aids in carrying out corporate missions and visions that state the company’s purpose and values. Strategic management that supports culture is often intended to offer direction for the company as it interacts with its stakeholders.

The relationship between culture and strategy is a two-way relationship in which culture influences strategy and strategy alters the culture. Organizational culture influences the people working for the company at different levels to work for a common goal. The employees are then influenced to change their strategies in the strategy development process. In many organizations, the resultant strategy is often the manifestation of the organization culture (Janicijevic, 2012, p 128). There may be the need to change the corporate culture when there is a change in the environment and the existing corporate culture does not produce a strategy that is fit with the new environment.