Communication Issues in Coca-Cola Company: Analysis and Recommendations

The report analyses the communication issues faced by Coca-Cola Company and provides recommendations to improve the same. The report discusses the different communication issues faced by the company and ways in which the Human Resource Management Department can deal with the same.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
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Executive Summary
The report helped in analysing the communication issues that are faced by Coca-Cola
Company. The different kind of communication issues along with issues related to such
problem has been discussed in an effective manner. Furthermore., as a HR manager, the
issues has been resolved with different implementation of strategies that has assisted in
solving issues appropriately and effectively as well. Lastly, the different recommendations
have been provided that has helped the company in gaining success.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Overview of Coca-Cola Company.............................................................................................3
Answer to Question 1.................................................................................................................3
Issues in Coca-Cola Company...............................................................................................3
Answer to Question 2.................................................................................................................5
Ways in which Human Resource Management Department at Coca Cola deal with the
communication issues................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Answer to Question 3.................................................................................................................9
Recommendations......................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The report has helped in analysis of the different kind of issues that are faced by the
respective organization named Coca-Cola Company. The different kind of issues has to be
analysed as the human resource manager consultant in the respective organization as this will
provide and suggest different methods to solve the issues both in host country along with the
subsidiaries as well. In the present scenario, there are different kind of issues relating to the
communication issues between the different employees and employer in the entire
organization. Proper ascertainment of the issues along with dealing with such issues are
essential in nature to be analysed by the company effectively and appropriately as well.
Overview of Coca-Cola Company
Coca-Cola Company is the largest organizations in the entire worldwide and this is
recognised as the important valuable brand in the entire world (Coca-cola.com, 2018).
According to the survey of 2009, it has been seen that Coca-Cola Company is the successful
companies and this was founded in the year 1889 and they followed the system of franchising
in their company to beat the other competitors in the economy. Coca-Cola Company includes
the different kinds of juices, drinks along with other food items in an effective manner. It falls
under the food and beverage industry and this has been ranked number one in the entire
industry as well.
Answer to Question 1
Issues in Coca-Cola Company
It has been seen that Coca-Cola company is one of the largest food and beverage
companies in the economy. However, there are different issues in the organization that was
related to the communication between the different employees and employer in the entire
organization (Russell et al., 2017). Furthermore, it has been seen that in the respective

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company, there was no such formal communication between the different level of the
employees and there was lack of standards along with lack of consistency in the process of
communication (Norouzinia et al., 2016). The communication problems in the workplace and
there was no such standardization of the methods used for communicating with both
colleagues and customers as well. In Coca-Cola, it was seen that there were issues of mixing
personal and work communications as there were different employees who mix the personal
lives in their professional life and this caused huge disputes among the workplace (Canzona
et al. 2016).
Furthermore, it was noticed that there were different cultural issues among the
employees and employer in Coca-Cola Company (Narla et al., 2016). There were different
issues such as wherein there are employees from different backgrounds and they felt that they
are not being able to be a part of the process of the different working environment of the
respective company. The employers or the higher authority managers do not communicate
with the employees in an effective manner and this caused huge issues and differences in the
viewpoints of the organization (Sutter & Kieser, 2014). The employees were not getting any
kind of freedom and they were not being valued in the organization as well.
Additionally, it was seen that there were different issues such as slow decision-
making process was the main problem faced by the company that created issues in delivering
proper products and services to the customers. Furthermore, it was noticed that the company
did not communicate with the customers effectively wherein these became major issue for
handling the grievances of the customers and the customers were unhappy to get such late
services from such well-known company (Stern, 2015). It was noticed that the respective
company had listening problems among the group that was a major setback for them as the
higher authorities felt that they were right in taking different decisions and the employees are
not in a position to communicate their views effectively as well (Campo et al., 2015).

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Due to such communication issues, there were different issues related to the decrease
in morale of the employees along with issues related to productivity of the organization as
well. As these were the major issues in the organization, the productivity of the entire
organization was affected and this decreased morale of employees as they were not in
position to communicate their viewpoints or suggestions that could help the organization to
improve the communication process effectually as well. It was noticed that as a human
resource manager, this is essential and required to improve the entire communication process
effectively to understand the viewpoints of all the employees and provide them with different
alternatives as this will increase the profitability and productivity of the organization
effectively (Davis, 2016).
Lastly, there are different kind of knowledge-inadequate problem that created huge
issues in the set back issues as there is ineffective communication process and solve the
issues effectively with implementation of different strategies in an appropriate manner. The
communication process is essential in nature to improve the process and the communication
will be suitable for the organization to gain success.
Answer to Question 2
Ways in which Human Resource Management Department at Coca Cola deal with the
communication issues
In the previous section, it was observed that the Coca Cola organization was going
through business communication problems. These communication issues mainly comprise of
various communication issues in between the different managerial levels between the host
countries and the subsidiaries. This is because the host countries and the subsidiaries have
different cultures and thought processes which then make it difficult for these companies to

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interact with one another and communicate effectively. The communication problems lead to
the given stated problems:
1. Slow decision making- When the communication problems exist it leads to slow
decision making in the firm.
2. Ineffective strategies- The strategies which may take place, may be ineffective
because they are not communicated effectively and there may exist a lag in
implementation.
3. In effective operations- The operations of the organization may also be quite
ineffective and this might lead to issues in the future (Alfes et al., 2013).
4. Restricted success- The success of the organization may be quite limited.
Hence, given below are certain are certain practices which may the human resource
management organization may initiate in order to address the issue:
The first step to ensure this is to ensure that each employee is made to feel valuable.
This is because, when the different employees are made to feel valued then they may
contribute well to the idea generation of the organization which may ultimately lead to the
fostering of an environment which is very encouraging (Purce, 2014).
This may be done by allowing regular team building sessions for which the
employees may be allowed to interact freely in an environment where their ideas are being
valued and respected. If the employee feelings and idea are respected then they may feel that
communicated with effectively in the regular business practice of the organization (Renwick,
Redman & Maguire, 2013).
Secondly, the organization needs to look out for ways in which there exist certain
mediations of the major issues and the minor issues are resolved in between the host team and
the subsidiaries. The main underlying objective of the Human Resource Management team

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needs to be that the issues are not escalated (Chelladurai & Kerwin, 2017). Secondly, they
need to train the employees effectively in order to ensure that the communication which takes
place between the different members of the organization have a clear and effective goal at
place
The third effective step which may be taken by the Human Resource Department is to
ensure that there is an atmosphere of trust and cooperation between the different members. If
the different members of the organization do not have mutual trust and consideration for one
another, then the communication issues between different continents will not be solved
properly. Hence, it is the duty of the HR team to infuse trust and cooperation between the
different members by encouraging regular group projects and outings so as to ensure that the
organizational communication and relationship is ensured (Brewster, 2017).
The Human resource management department also needs to ensure that they engage
the different members to share the information. This means that as the different organizations
and their sub units are located in different continents, they need to be encouraged so that they
are willing to share information with one another. Very often the different organizational
members in the different sub unit countries might have formed certain pre-conceived notions
with respect to each other and thus, this notion needs to be mitigated and the members are
comfortable in sharing information with one another.
According to Bratton and Gold (2017), another effective way of solving such business
communication barriers between the different parties is to ensure that they are given certain
problem solving situations. It is a well-known fact that when organizational members are
amidst a problem, they perform best and the best situation is presented accordingly
(Chelladurai & Kerwin, 2017). Therefore, for this reason it is very important to see to it that,

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they are provided with complex issues as this may lead to brining different managers of
different sub units closer and enable them to work together as a team.
Another step for the Human Resource Management Department is to establish team
values and goals. The team values and goals need to be infused into the different team
members in different organizations so as to ensure that the members realise that their goals
and objectives are the same which is the welfare of the given organization. They need to be
infused with questions like their view about job performance, the general success of the
organization and the steps that they are required to adopt in the first place (Cascio, 2018). If
the different employees share similar values then they will be able to contribute well towards
the success of the organization and help in achievement of its overall vision.
Another way to ensure effective communication is to make use of a consensus. A
consensus can be described as a shared objective which is generally made use of to solve the
problems and initiate a proper plan for implementation (Brewster, Chung & Sparrow, 2016).
If there does not take place any consensus, the different organizational objectives are not
spread out then, and there will be a lag of communication. Hence the consensus will provide
a basis of clear goals and objectives on which the communication shall be based effectively.
If all the organizational members are aware of their objectives then it will be easier to
communicate and maintain a protocol. This way the different members may have different
roles which they are already aware of and no problems may occur.
Lastly, listening and brain storming sessions throughout the organizations may be
encouraged. This is because, listening helps in clear communication and the brain storming
sessions help in infusion of ideas. For this, the human resource department can encourage
regular meets to have effective communication sessions.

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Hence, the human resource department has a key role to play in ensuring that
effective communication is ensured because they help in managing the managers as well of
employees of different subsidiaries and it is thereby their duty to ensure that the
communication remains effective throughout.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the communication issues in the workplace Coca-
Cola Company that has to be analysed and reduced in an appropriate manner. Furthermore,
the issues related to communication has to be analysed in such a manner wherein the
communication pattern has to be horizontal in nature in reducing such issues and gaining
more competitive advantage in the entire competitive market. The process of communication
plays a major role in managing different kind of conflicts effectively and solve the issues
appropriately as well.
The communication plays a major role in the organization wherein the cultural issues
has to be reduced and there are different kind of other issues wherein it was noticed that there
was no such connection with the employees and employer in the organization that has to be
analysed and improved in a proper manner. Furthermore, different recommendations are
essential in nature to improve the condition and solve the issues effectively. The listening
problems has to be reduced in an effective manner that will make and initiate the entire focus
on the group requirements and the proper chance is required to be provided to all the
employees in order to improve the process and make it more effective as well.
Answer to Question 3
Recommendations
Coca-Cola is one of the most popular corporation to be working on yet there are some
communication issues that the management needs to bridge immediately. Therefore, some

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strategies which will contribute to the productivity and overall management are needed to be
applied.
Coca-Cola has its own set of internal knowledge which all the employees need to
understand. This helps to understand how the company does things starting from protocol to
the process of preparing client related documents to the other types of best practices.
Therefore, this sticky information needs to be easily accessed by the employees. The
company must help the employees learn this information faster through including it as part of
their training process and creating internal information to be used for references.
The company despite has a good communication among the team members it needs to
have improve this among the employees and the managers also. The vertical communication
should be enhanced. The company policies need to address these concerns in the training
processes in one hand and engage the managers to increase involvement with their
employees. Thus, the managers will be able to address their employees concern which will
definitely increase the employees’ involvement with the organisation.
By creating open dialogue, the company needs to keep its employees up to date about
the recent changes, progresses and its future plans. This can be done through bi-monthly
newsletter and company meetings. Furthermore, encourage the questions as well as
comments. This shows that all the ideas of the employees are welcome. The employees are
more likely to communicate well and they have impression they have part to where the
company is heading.
There are various online tools that ca be used for facilitating communication in the
workplace. These tools can be used in the process of facilitating communication in the
company by keeping trach of the progress of various projects. This will help the employees

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and managers to know what is to be done. Despite the fact that face to face communication
can always be helpful, online tools aid this process by saving efforts and time.
Communication is mainly information exchange. Therefore, the managers need to
explain and clarify their thoughts or ideas particularly as to play a leadership role. As a
manager, it is vital to the business that their communication efforts must inspire the team and
educate them. Therefore, it is mandatory to plan ahead for the meetings as well as
conversations consequently can mix information with inspiration in the organisation.
The company needs to create opportunities for the employees to meet one another
outside the office. Nothing hinders the communication more than the fact that if the
employees of the company cannot truly meet each other. This is the reason why the company
need to plan a happy hour or a holiday party after works. This gives the employees somewhat
to move forward. This can facilitate an improved engagement as well as stronger
communication in the organisation.

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References
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line manager behavior, perceived HRM practices, and individual performance:
Examining the mediating role of engagement. Human resource management, 52(6),
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Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
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