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Coca Cola has become a captivating culture in today’s world by delivering its unsullied and appetizing products across the globe. It has become a well-known trademark and a household name in terms of carbonated drinks. By the amalgamation of its brand name and the excellent quality drinks, the firm has managed to reach the summit of success and is further heading to become a global leader. The customers associate the brand with different affirmative synonyms such as thrill, fun, ingenuity and hopefulness. Coca Cola came into existence in the year 1886 and was introduced by the pharmacist John Pemberton (Sharman et al. 2019). Since then, the organization has witnessed numerous amendments and alterations for betterment in terms of composition and taste. Coca-cola has a wide portfolio of products that involve Sprite and Fanta. Currently, Coca Cola has become a global brand and is operating in more than 200 countries. The revenue system of the organization is branched into $105b streams (Sharman et al. 2019).
Despite the elevated global productivity, Coca Cola is still struggling with enhancing the employees’ productivity and hence, accomplishing its vision of becoming a global leader. The trailing of autocratic and excessive-monitoring leadership style has resulted in pitiable cultivation of loyalty among the staff (Sharman et al. 2019). This assessment is a comprehensive analysis of Coca Cola's struggle with its leadership and ill-framed organizational behaviour. The assessment is branched into three key sections. The initial section lays prominence on the description and analysis of the leadership issue in the firm. The following section provides an elaborative review of the literary pieces on the topic. The third section discusses the possible solutions for the issue in leadership. The fourth section suggests a valid set of recommendations for addressing the concern. The concluding section highlights the key underpinnings of the assessment.
Organisational behaviour is basically the study of individuals and their behaviour within workplace settings. Organisation behaviour is employed as a scientific method for dealing with the managerial problems and is used for studying organisations, individuals and groups. It is multidisciplinary in nature and acts as an interface between human behaviour and organisation (Wilson 2017). It is closely associated with the organisational effectiveness as it is known to enhance how employees behave in the workplace and are beneficial in developing a comprehension of the ways to increase performance, motivate employees and establish long-term relationships with the workforce. There are certain demerits associated with improperly managed organisational behaviour which can result in the reduced profitability, diminished productivity and missing of the deadlines and objectives (Wilson 2017). In Coca Cola, issues of organisational behaviour are closely associated with the leadership pitfalls which ultimately influence the decision-making process of the firm. The key problems in the organisational behaviour in Coca Cola arise from different changes made in the organisational processes and the supply chain (Odukah 2016).
Leadership is the attitude with which an individual is able to guide the subordinates and accelerate the achievement of the pre-defined set of goal and vision. For optimal effectiveness from leadership, organizational management is required (Mendenhall et al. 2017). Coca Cola is based on the production of non-alcoholic beverage drinks. It faces the issue in its leadership in terms of ineffective decision-making processes. The local operations are accountable for ensuring that the distribution of the products in a particular country they are operating is done in an efficacious custom (Sharman et al. 2019). The issue that the company is facing is in terms of acknowledging the fact that the company officials in a particular country are unable to come up with the effective decisions in concern with the activities, as they cannot make decisions without the consent of the governing body. The issue has adversely impacted the functioning of the company and it has become difficult to handle different branches as well as issues. Since in every country, the regulations, rules, customer behaviour and attitude vary, therefore, with each country, there need to be specific decisions made accordingly. The autocratic leadership style of Coca Cola has not been effective in guiding the subordinates and ensuring that the effectual decisions are taken from the end of the officials (Lacy-Nichols et al. 2020).
This theory of leadership states that effective leadership is also characterized by emotional intelligence. This leadership theory iterates around the fact that by keeping commitments, the leaders are able to create a flexible and creative work environment and foster the performance of the employees as well (Frieder et al. 2018). The ineffective decision making in different branches of Coca Cola and the demotivated employees with their declining performance is an indicator of the fact that this theory is not being trailed within the organisation leading it to not fulfilling its vision.
This leadership theory is a contingency theory as it is focused on the subordinates. It states that successful leadership can only be attained by selecting the appropriate leadership style which is in alliance with the level of readiness of the followers (Meier 2016). This theory shares a closed connection with the path-goal theory that leadership must be supportive or directive enough to ensure that the complex analysis of the situation is done in an effective custom. However, it is perceived that in Coca Cola, the leadership style being followed is autocratic which does not allows the employees or the other supervisors to effectively participate in brainstorming and decision making which often results in the cultivation of the feeling of not being valued and excluded from the overall process (Lacy-Nichols et al. 2020).
Path goal theory states that a leader should be supportive or directive or should be able to demonstrate the dependence of behaviour on the complex investigation of a particular situation (Phillips and Phillips 2016). The theory confirms that leadership can be either supportive or directive. Supportive leadership is associated with high performance and satisfaction of the employees and will structure tasks whereas, directive leadership is perceived to be redundant among the workforce with high experience (Phillips and Phillips 2016). There is a need of supportive leadership in Coca Cola because the organisation operates in different countries and it is cardinal that all the executives and the officials are able to make decisions from their end so that they can effectively amalgamate the culture, attitude and viewpoints and the behaviours into the decisions made. However, the autocratic system of management is in effect in Coca Cola where the employees are controlled by the managers and strictly directed to follow the orders of the managerial team.
The structure of Coca Cola is hierarchical one as there are a number of hierarchical levels on which different officials operate. The preliminary level of hierarchy begins with the board of directors and the advisors which is followed by the CEO who is accountable for the management of new products, risk, insurance and legal activities (Serôdio et al. 2018). Following this, chief financial officer, the sales team, the marketing team, the public relations team and the human relations team is accountable for managing subordinates and ensuring that operations are conducted in a virtuous custom. Since there are a number of hierarchical levels, the information from the employees to reach the directors or the managers and vice versa is intricate and henceforth, the communication is also barricaded. This is the reason that the sales team of Coca Cola witnessed a lower profit margin. The net revenue declined by about 6 per cent which accounted for around $7.1 billion in the initial quarter of the year 2019. Authors Serôdio et al. (2018) have stated that for maintaining the optimal productivity within the workplace is called so that the employees are continually motivated for accomplishing the targets. With the practising of autocratic leadership, the decision-making processes are being delayed as well as the motivation of employees is also diminishing. The autocratic process also results in the decisions being made non-inclusive.
Different leaders respond to different organisational conditions in a different way, this is relied upon the five personality traits that the leaders follow. These traits involve extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness (Stajkovic et al. 2018). In the last 2 years, the revenue of Coca Cola has declined from around $41.9 billion dollars in the year 2016 to $30 1.9 million in the year 2018 (Chua et al. 2020). The extensive franchising of supporting operations is been regarded to as the major cause of the same. The introduction of the constant changes in the bottling operations has resulted in chaos in the workforce and hence, employees are not well informed about the same. The leaders witness a downfall in the enthusiasm and encouragement of the employees. This is not only a result of the poor leadership style but is also a consequence of the organisational behaviour which is continuously diminishing as employees do not feel that their personal goals are being maintained. Among the unmotivated staff in Coca Cola, 36 per cent of the American workers felt being underutilized whereas 32 per cent of the employees believed that they were over-educated in comparison to the job profile in which they were working (Chua et al. 2020). The Australian franchise of ‘Coca Cola Amatil’ came into limelight for slashing the wages of the employees and underpaying them even though the workers were doing overtime.
Employees tend to work with elevated enthusiasm and performance when the leaders invest their time in monitoring the employees' performance as well as providing them the independence to perform their tasks (Anderson and Sun 2017). Employees often feel pressurized when their leaders continuously administer their performance. In Coca Cola, the employees are continuously administered as a part of the autocratic leadership style and they are pushed to perform beyond their limits. This is a good tactic for improving the sales and revenue, however, in the long-term, it will not be beneficial for Coca Cola as the motivated and enthusiastic staff forms a backbone of a firm in terms of its profitability, performance and market value (Gehani 2016).
Many employees in Coca Cola have often complained about the high stress and long working hours which result in a disturbance in the work-life balance. Most of the employees in Coca Cola have also reported that the organisation is trying to squeeze the benefits out of them. The leaders simply provide the orders and do not look into the requirements of the employees or considering their opinions (Gehani 2016). Being a multinational franchise, authority is also not given to the country officials for taking decisions without the role of governance. This is the reason that employees often feel frustrated and it contributes to demotivation.
Motivation is the process of improving an individual’s persistence, intensity and direction of efforts towards accomplishing a specified organisation goal (Jonas 2016). The persistence, direction and intensity are the three key elements of motivation. It means how hard, how channelled and persistent an employee is towards the perusal of the objective. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory states that by fulfilling the basic needs of the employees, they are motivated to work in a more productive manner (Jonas 2016). Psychological and safety needs are the key requirements of the employees apart from which the social factors and self-esteem follow.
The safety and psychological needs of the employees are fulfilled within the firm as they are provided with a safe workplace and basic hygiene, good atmosphere, orientation and control. However, the self-esteem needs of the employees are not fulfilled within the firm. This is so because the employees are not valued in terms of making decisions and this is reflected upon their productivity and overall completion of the tasks. The employees have the desire to participate in different activities as a part of their profession, however, in Coca Cola, there they are often deprived of sufficient opportunities.
Communication is not just downward one but is also upward as well as lateral (Ntoumanis et al. 2018). It is integral that Coca Cola eliminates the barriers to effective communication which can also be a hurdle in the effective decision-making process. It is crucial that not only the directions are communicated from the leaders to the managers and vice-versa but also communicated to the employees and the subordinates at the lower level. It makes sure that the amalgamation is fostered and integration of the team is placed in the first place. Effective communication ensures a transference and understanding of the data and information is maintained. It is also a key factor in fostering motivation and providing the release of emotional expression.
In Coca Cola, the pitiable leadership can be effectively dealt with by safeguarding that the interpersonal communication among the employees and among the employees and the leaders is promoted (Lacy-Nichols et al. 2020). The key benefit of the same is that the feedback loop is maintained and the speed of the information is also fostered. However, there are some demerits in this such as it may be time-consuming; it may result in the misperception of the gestures or distortion of the message. However, the same needs to be overcome by indulging in effective non-verbal, written and oral communication and maintaining transparency. Electronic communication must be used in Coca Cola so that the messages are quickly sent, stored and the cost of distribution is minimal. This will ensure that all the employees at once get the relevant information.
Training of the staff is imperative so that any glitches in the performances are eradicated. Frequent meetings with the leaders will also accelerate, as a result of the training process. Henceforth, Coca Cola must design its organisational development interventions in such a way that a four-phase approach is followed. The leaders must ensure that the assessment of the needs of the employees is done. Post evaluation of requirements, an effective design of the training curriculum must be made. It must be implemented and its results need to be evaluated at a regular interval so as to ensure that it is working in an effective custom. The needs assessment will be helpful in identifying the discrepancies between the skills that employees possess and the skills that are actually required. It will also be helpful in evaluating the skills required in future for conducting the operations. The leaders must also allow the employees to participate and provide feedback to the leaders so that the leaders can also make efforts to focus on correcting the substandard performance.
With the fuming competition in the beverage sector, Coca Cola faces strong competition with Pepsi Co. it is integral for Coca Cola to ensure that the competitive edge is sustained in the market and satisfied framework of the customers is maintained (Chalikias and Skordoulis 2017). For ensuring this, it is continuously coming up with the tactics to improve the content of the drinks such as low sugar beverages and the health-oriented drinks so that the customers are lured for buying the products. It has also made definite advancements in its bottling operations in Australia. Keeping pace with this change, it is essential that the same is disseminated to different hierarchical levels of staff in the organisation. Lack of relevant information also is a major cause of differences and conflicts between the employees and contributes to the diminishing of organisational behaviour. The organisation can improve its decision-making process by ensuring that the resistance to different changes is identified and addressed.
The changes can be either as a result of individual or organisational factors. The organisation can bring change in its different operations by ensuring that the change efforts overcome the resistance of individuals as well as a firm and the implementation is done followed by the stabilization process (Bakari et al. 2017). In terms of stabilization, Coca Cola can compensate the employees and provide some incentives for making extra efforts or doing overtime (Odukah 2016). Considering the scenario of the organisation underpaying its employees, it also needs to be changed and with the assistance of this change model, accounting and the salary dissemination process must be altered and strict administration of the salary dispersion must be done.
The assessment has brought forward a clearer picture of the leadership issue in the firm which is also associated with the organizational behaviour concerns as the firm has been dealing with the missing deadlines and low revenue. This assessment discusses the organization’s poor leadership style. It is belligerent with improving the employees’ efficiency and hence, accomplishing its vision of becoming a global leader. The following of autocratic and excessive-monitoring leadership style has resulted in deplorable cultivation of constancy among the staff. This is the reason that the organization’s efficiency has demurred in the last few years. The critical analysis of the same reveals that the underlying reasons for the same are associated with the strict and autocratic leadership style that involves demotivated staff members, underpaying poor communication and training structure.
It is contingent from the assessment that the employees tend to work with eminent enthusiasm and performance when the leaders invest their time in monitoring the employees' performance as well as providing them with the independence to perform their tasks. Also, successful leadership can only be attained by selecting a suitable leadership style which is in coalition with the level of willingness of the employees. The proposed suggestions involve amending the leadership style and following a supportive leadership stratagem. The self-esteem needs of the employees must be fulfilled in the firm and they must be allowed to participate in different activities. The assessment also highlights that it is vital that the Coca Cola discards the obstacles to effectual communication which can be a possible hurdle in the effective decision-making process. Coca Cola can promote organizational learning and restructure the payment and incentive system so that incentives are provided as well as the cases of underpayment are eradicated.
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