Coca-Cola Company Human Resource Management Strategies

The study has been conducted on Human Resource Management strategies in Coca-Cola Company conducted in three countries. The countries were England, Qatar, and Brazil. The choice of the company was based on several factors. The main factors were the geographical location, different environment, different political structures and the study focused on the different cultures that may lead to different Human resource management strategies. From the analysis, we found out that the company has different and unique strategies from one country to another to achieve its competitive advantage in the market (Allen 1994). The choice of coca cola was because is the leading manufacturer of soft drink and it is operational all over the world.

The company started working in the United States of America before it moved to other countries globally. The move outside the United States considered different multinational human resource management strategies depending on a countries political and cultural practice. The coca cola had the vision to accomplish when the started. The visions were to be achieved by strategic goals that will be put in place to accommodate dynamic cultures from one country to another. The main Human resource management strategy was to focus on the workforce. The workforce includes the top management of the casual workers that are involved in the production process. The human resource is coming up with strategies aimed at serving both the company visions and the countries needs. It's good for the strategies to accommodate all the factors for it to address all the need. This is what is leading to different strategies from one country to another.

In England, Brazil, and Qatar some strategies are binding the company to its workers through stipulated policies. This is due to competition from other companies on the same field like Pepsi Company limited. The strategies in England are carefully selected to maintain the goals and the objective of the coca cola company. The strategies are not similar, but at the end of the day they are flexible and integrate into each place with the same purpose. The Human resource department plays a vital role in ensuring that all the given strategies and the policies fully implemented. The department ensures the everyday activities and operation are closely monitored to achieve both the short-term and long-term goals. The management is made possible through the streamlining and close observation on the scheduling of activities from the input process to the last act when the product is consumed. Quality control is observant to maintain the quality of the product that is given to the market.

This activities and strategies have been too good for the company. They have made coca cola as the leading company in the market of every stated country. The Company has made a global phase through its human resources flexibility of strategies in the different region. Therefore the study observed that the different strategies in different regions lead to a better work culture on the people of the country, the close monitoring leads to efficient management of available resources. The company stability both in the market and its running operation give the workers satisfactory rates regarding payment and also lead to increased employment of workers for efficiency.

Introduction

This is a report t generated from a study done on a coca cola company. The study focused on its Human resource management strategies that make it easier for the company to operate globally. That is why the company chose on the three countries that are geographically located relatively far from each other and do have different cultures. This report aimed at giving better human resource strategies that will make an organization operate flexibly in different regions. The study focused on the entire company, from the recruitment procedures to the processing of the finished product. The selection process based on the type of interviews offered in every country as it addressed both the similarities and the differences.

The report does focus on the economic background and cultural background of each country. Given a country like Brazil which has had numerous revolution and fetal demonstration it was given severe priority in civilizing workers on how to maintain peace at the place of work. The cultural differences led to human resource management committee come up with factors that accommodate all the community needs, company needs and the host country needs. The mutual understanding of the common goals within the company and the surrounding to workers, give the best basis towards the company success within the region. The analysis reports also do describe how the infrastructure or structural investment in a country correlates the success of the company. This does not mean that the company is not the only operation in success, but also some challenges faced by the company operates as a result of the mutual management agreements in the host country.

An overview of the coca cola company

The coca cola company is an American beverage company that was founded by John Stith family in the late 1890s. John Stith, a pharmacist who came from Atlanta in George State in the United States of America. The company has grown all over the world. The company deals with the manufacturing, retailing and also marketing within its ranks. It has a well structured human resource system that enables smooth running within the organization in the whole part of the world. The industry mainly deals with the production of non-alcoholic beverages that are sold in different flavors worldwide. It has employed approximately 61,800 workers coming from different parts of the world. The company by 2018 was operating within approximated two hundred countries. Its main bottler found in North America, Atlanta Georgia State in the united states of America which is also the headquarter for the company.

The company has board members who are in charge of the chain of the command. Its structured from the chairman of the board who is the leader of the board members, second in command is the chief executive officer that is responsible for the overall operation of the company. The third in command is the chief marketing officer responsible for the marketing of the product to the end user. The rest are regional manages who is in charge of a block of five to ten countries.

Case study

Coca-cola is a big company and if found in almost every country. For this study to cover global location, it settled in three countries. The countries are England, Qatar, and Brazil. This was arrived at because of the countries, geographically located in different continents. It’s also we needed to analyze the countries and how coca cola is operating within them under the different human resource management and different institutional rules and local culture. Since each country has a different culture and human resource institutional strategies, the business environment keeps on changing from time to time. It requires market assessment for an organization to come up with the changes that suit the organization at a time. The strategies mostly are focused on improving or maintaining the profits that the organization is getting from the operations. The changes from one country depend on several. There is increased globalization, increase in population, and change in the workforce available hence it heavily requires intellectual capital and the technological changes to have the issues addressed. This prompts the country to come up on with the resolution on how to address the issue. The main role of this study was to know human resource strategies that address the competitive advantage of coca cola. In this case policy and decision making mainly come from the top management brass of the company at the headquarters in Atlanta in the United States. For the regional managers, we have a country station manages that directly report to the regional headquarters. The station managers are responsible for policy and decision making of every operation in its richness. The managers have ways to collect relative information from both the workers, consumers and the people who intend to be employees of the company. The study is analyzed to bring up the company strategy towards the competitive advantage to an extra level. Therefore there are human resource strategies that are usually formulated to come up with the real picture to show what the managers, employees and the market need. The human resource strategy hence will not be brought it at once it will require a chronological way of addressing it. A step-by-step approach on how to handle it, for example, the human resource strategy may need a certain kind of behavior within its employees. Therefore, it will need seminars and training periodically to address the issue that is burning. The study hence recommends in each host country that after coming up of the strategies, they also need to come up with a way of how to employ and deliver it to the relevant people who in this case are the employees. This will require the human resource department to come up with a strategy on how to pass the information to the people. Therefore a special task force has to be formed for smooth training and overseeing the entire delivery process. The practices may include many important things about staffing. Staffs are the core factor of the competitive advantage. The staff will require people who will oversee their formal behavior when they are on duty for proper service delivery.

Difference in cultural and institutional setting

In the feasibility study, it found that the three countries (England, Brazil, and Qatar) have different cultures and different institutions governing their jurisdiction. The political structure also differs. In England, they are ruled by the queen, but they do also have a prime minister and a powerful parliament. The kingdom is inherited, and the royal family gives a king or a queen after the incumbent passes on. The prime minister is elected from a competitive election according to the constitution of the national a while the members of the legislation also elected to the parliament. It’s very difficult to have a policy implemented since it will require the approval of all the three arms of the England parliament. The institution is put in place to manage the operation of companies. The institution requires the company to awarded several papers as a certification of operation. The institution evolved from the national to municipality level. Hence the licenses required for operation are too many for the setting up of a firm in the country. The working environment is a bit complicated due to immigrants. The host citizens pay taxes differently not the same as the others who have migrated. The workforce required is too much that not only the citizens of the country can solve the workload. It requires imported labor from immigrants. The immigration departed is so strict for immigrants to work in the country. The working environment is not conducive to immigrants due to subjection on heavy taxes. Apart from that the process of acquiring a visa to England is very tedious that many people give up on the way.

Coming to Brazil is completely different where the workers are treated equally and whether the locals or the immigrants. All the tax dues are the same as they are only taxed using the same and uniform formula. The political structure is well organized only for the underpayment of the workers. It’s very critical because the country has very strong trade unions. The trade union usually leads to a series of strikes destabilizing the working environment. Hence it requires a very stable contract between the coca cola company and the workers to avoid any possible demonstration. Hence the situation requires a lot of risk-taking for its operation. The native citizens are dived into different tribes. There are always tribal conflicts in a place of work, especially where there is mischief in favors in the working environment. Hence a company has to be well insured to prepare itself during the demonstrations or strike of workers. Hence coca cola has come up with ways of promoting peaceful coexistence among the members of the communities. Activities like organizing musing festivals usually referred to as the coke studio brings together many communities. This reduces tension with the tribes that may arise when it could have focused on one tribe. The human resource strategy uses it as a strategy of employment hence making the festival competitive. It also promotes marketing since the event highly marketed. As a unifying factor, it has made coca cola as the leading company in its stock exchange.

Qatar is a leading oil-producing country. Its environment is hot and dry. There is a great need for the cold drink refreshment of the cold drink. The country is a second world country (Fanjiku 2015). Its development is due to the strong belief of its religion. It’s an Islamic state and has a strong following of about 96% percent in the whole country while the rest religion shares the remaining 4%. Hence the company observes the country law and the Muslim culture. This consolidates the support for profit making in the company and the peaceful running of the company.

Having looked at every country cultural and institution background, the study realized some values are observed uniformly across the three countries. The countries greatly respect and observe the human right through their human resource department. Over the years from its launching, the coca cola company has been promoting the values of trust and respect that involve the workers and the management of the reason. The set values that are part of the employment contract have set integrity standards within ranks that are always observed in the system. The company has strictly observed the united nation guiding policy to maintain business and human rights. The main aim of coca cola it to make sure every worker enjoy his or her right within the region or community that coca cola is operating. The Human right policy is the cornerstone of a peaceful existence in countries with different cultures.

The coca cola company comes up with the notion that shows that the community owns, they manage and has majority shares within the company. Hence this has given the employees the responsibility of ensuring that each one human right is being observed and respected. One should not be subjected to any form of harassment or discrimination. The company provides a channel on how to report if one feels his or her right has violated. That an employee can report any case of violation to his or her manager or to the company legal counsel for action to be taken. The company has set a goal of solving the disputes within the shortest time possible. It has a target of 98% that all the workers will observe the global human right policy.

Managing global labor relation

Globally some rules are governing the labor relations between employers and employees. This is to ensure no one undermined in the working environment. The country does have its trade union that accommodates the same labor relation from one country to another. Failure to live up with the relation does make the party be subjected to trials in a court of law (Guthridge and Lawson 2008). This has made many multinational companies agree on a global labor relation that will ensure the proper running of the employees’ affair. During the study, we found out that coca cola as a multinational company was experiencing several hitches from its operational from country to country (Aartle and Claycomb 2013). The challenges we observed were a risk of exposing sensitive information about the company. This may be as a result of over trusting of managers who are from the host country. The leaking is dangerous to the company especially if its information regarding the worker's discipline. There were also negative public relation and extra cost in management. The coca cola had to use agents from the global trade unions to come up with a formula that will protect both the employers and employers. Hence the trade unions came up with ways of increasing the worker's power that made them look superior. This has made workers working diligently without fear of being harassed by their employers. The act has ensured maximum profits from the company operation (Eothi Sree and Jyothi 2012).

Coca-cola had to join an agreement by signing a global framework agreement. This is a framework is typically an agreement between a multinational company and the host nation or municipality about the relation of the workers and the relation. They hold a consultative agreement by involving the native citizens. They also formulate rules that should govern the foreign employers (Mellahi 2009). The regulation does also observe the obvious global ones. These are like the one protecting child trafficking, improved working environment, keeping the environmental standards and among many others( Filla and Abraham 2016).

Impact of cultural differences on Coca-Cola Company

Impact on talent development strategies

The study greatly was focusing on the cultural practices that do affect host countries.

The company focuses on integrating itself in the neighboring society. The integrating is done by coming up with factors that will improve talent management and the improved company profit. For organizational development, it will need a motivated environment. The talent development is done in regular steps periodically (Gulmer and Conger 2004). That’s how the strategy structures developed on how to improve the talents. The talent development is very important and has its advantages to both the company and the citizens of the host country. This is according to the coca cola managers and employees:-

i) It improves the morale of workers.

ii) Breaks monotony of working environment.

iii) Improves efficiency through improved leadership skills

iv) The attraction of talent will come with other skills that might help the organization.

v) It improves steady management strategies for the managers through their talent management schedule.

Talent development also does come with its shortcoming. Some of the notable shortcomings are listed below:

i) Disagreements may arise from the competition hence interfering with the harmonious living of the residents.

ii) It may bring laxity from the job once one realizes that he or she has talent that can cater for his or welfare.

Impact on compensation

For an organization to have a cordial relationship with the government of the host country or community, it has to compensate for it. Compensation was done in several ways. The organization had a compensation platform to give them back facilities to the society. The effectiveness on compensation to employees can be given in the form of training for the professionals (Scullion and Collings, 2011). The employees were taken to inductions to improve their professional skills. Their children have been subjected to proper infrastructure and medicine facilities. The company through the agreement with the community had to introduce charity activities that could help improve the living of people in the community. The compensation also does have advantages and disadvantages to the community and the organization (Mahmae , 1989). Coca-cola realized that there was an improved working environment after giving back to the community. Since it directly involved them and family, the employees and managers were encouraging their relatives to seek employment at the organization (Gesle, 2002). It was easier for coca cola to get employees without necessarily going through the tough advertising process.

Conclusion

According to the research analysis, it was clear that there is the best set of human resource management strategies from this coca cola company. The strategies are very applicable to other multinational company or organization. Therefore the study recommended the following to be adopted for competitive advantage (Welery, 1998).

i) The managers and the employees should interact often. The talking should be on around by one-on-one interaction. This will be important because it will enable the employees to air out their views on their welfare. The meeting will work to the advantage of the company since it will prevent strikes and go slow.

ii) The managers should identify and honestly consult with talented employees. It's much is easier for an employee to identify how to improve services in his or her area of specialization. The employees too should be involved in the decision making. It's important because the employees will feel to be part of the project. It will also show that the company has a caring gesture towards its workers.

iii) An organization or a company should work closely with the government to identify talents of the employees. This should be through lucrative attraction training and show need for further development of the talent.

iv) The company should come up with a system of suggestions and recommendation or complaining. The system will ensure efficiency through instant reaction on the raised matters. It will also enable criticism of the underperforming managers and employees hence improving the running of the organization.

v) It suggested that the managers should trust employees and give them more responsibility with less supervision. This will enable the employees to get more motivation to work for the organization because they will feel that they are fully part of the organization.

vi) For the reward, the study recommended that the company should provide the employee's community with proper infrastructure, improved education and better healthcare. This will ensure that people living near the company will want to associate with it. It will motivate employees due to better schools, better hospitals, and housing. This will motivate employees hence realizing better service delivery to the organization

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Appendix

Figure 1: organization structure of coca cola