BUS 500 - Leadership Analysis: Coca-Cola's Practices & Issues

This report provides an analysis of leadership practices and associated issues within the Coca-Cola organization. It examines the company's leadership styles, including delegative, innovative, and cross-cultural approaches, and discusses the challenges associated with these styles, such as developing effective managerial skills, motivating workers, and managing internal stakeholders. The report also identifies strengths, such as the ability to anticipate and address tough situations, and weaknesses. Recommendations for optimizing leadership practices, including effective planning and improved communication, are provided. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources for students.

Running Head: LEADERSHIP PRACTICES AND ASSOCIATED ISSUES WITHIN COCA-
COLA ORGANIZATION 1
Leadership Practices and Associated Issues Within Coca-Cola Organization
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Introduction
Leadership practices in the operations of different organizations have a significant role
among workers. It helps in empowering as well as motivating different workers to understand
what they are needed to do at every moment of their operations. Leaders are always responsible
for ensuring that each worker is able to be responsible for their operations by turning the vision
of an organization into a reality. The use of the appropriate style of leadership has made several
leaders within the international business community to be famous for their operations (Mihaela,
2014). However, this research paperwork uses Coca-Cola Corporation as a case study in
examining different leadership styles, practices, and theories that have made it to be successful in
the business sector. Additionally, this discussion presents some of the recommendations that the
management of Coca-Cola Corporation can use to improve their leadership practices. The target
of such recommendations is to illustrate how leadership practices can be optimized for maximum
organizational influence. Besides, this research examines the overall activities of Coca-Cola
Corporation as well as its overall leadership practices. Such practices comprise of leadership
styles, challenges, and leadership development within operations of Coca-Cola Organization.
Besides, this study also assesses some of the strengths alongside the weakness of the identified
eldership practices in the organization.
A general overview of the organization’s activities
Coca-Cola Organization (Coke) was established back in the days of 1886 in Atlanta a city
in Georgia. The company has presently become one of the most successful American based
multinational companies that deal with beverages. The prime product of this company is
carbonated soda generally referred to as Coca-Cola (Gertner & Rifkin, 2017). Besides, it has

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been able to serve non-alcoholic drinks around the world except in regions like North Korea and
Cuba. Besides, this company also manufactures and distributes several other product s that
comprise of bottled water, flavored water, sports drink, together with other kinds of soft drinks
that are customized in accordance to different demands and desires of country. Operations of
Coke Organization also hold the maximum share of the market in saves of cold beverages around
global markets (Mokhov & Ryabukhin, 2018). Nevertheless, it is one of the huge beverage
organizations universally and globally as it is known for marketing the four of the globe’s largest
soft drinks. Such soft drink comprises of Coke, Sprite, Diet Coke, and Fanta.
Overview of the leadership practice within Coca-Cola Organization
Coca-Cola Organization does its business globally but operates at the local level working
with over two hundred and fifty bottling partners around the international community. It does not
own any of the bottling partners but instead operates through various local channels. The
company operations are managed by effective leadership practices (Mubayi, 2014). For instance,
it has the board that comprises of fifteen members. The board members of the company comprise
of CEO of Coca-Cola Ahmet Muhtar Kent. These members of the board of the company are
divided as well as head different committees. Additionally, the vision of this company consists of
6 P’s that comprise of Planet, People, Planet, Portfolio, Profit, as well as Productivity. The
organization believes in operating on a winning culture. The management of this company lies in
its value of leadership, honesty, passion, alliance, accountability, excellence, together with
assortment. The leadership of the Coke Company believed in concentrating on the market to
attain its set vision (Greenhalgh, 2019). Besides, workers are expected by the management team
to act like owners as they work smart to attain the set mission of refreshing the global society.

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Nevertheless, mission, customs, and vision of Coke Organization clearly have been created over
various years working towards advancement. The organization achievement in present time is
apparently due to the exceptional practices of leadership.
As stated by Graham (2013), it is impossible for any organization such as Coke Company
to survive in food as well as beverages market for over the century if the leaders are not aligned
to the goals of the organization. commencing from Griggs Asa Candler to the present CEO
Muhtar Ahment Kent, the organization n has been led by intellectuals as well as effective
businessmen to be one of the most reputed corporations around international society. Practices
and style of leadership in the Coca-Cola Organization is itself of the delegative approach. A
glance at the structure of Coke itself illustrates that the company believes in the need to delegate
as well as rule instead of taking all the responsibilities. The idea has been effective in dividing
the organization and its operations based on the purposes (Shishanov, Naletov, & Naletov,
2016). The idea also ensures that all the purposes are not under that management and control of
one entity and utilizing small alongside medium enterprises to operate in every function division
depend on policy and an apparent instance of delegative leadership.
Innovative style of leadership
The organization uses innovative leadership practice in performing different operations.
The idea of innovative leadership within the operations of Coca-Cola Organization has been
coined by Dr. Gliddon David to comprise of ideas of generation, implementation, along with
evaluation. With roots of the company on path-goal theory, leader-member exchange hypothesis
and the improved need for creative as well as efficient techniques ways to empower, motivate,
and offer guidance (Norbom & Lopez, 2016). Hence, various leaders within different branches of

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this company presently can be classified as an innovative leader. For instance, the current CEO
of this company Ahmet Kent is one of the leaders that use innovative practices to offer guidance
in operations. Besides, the agenda that are five-folded of any CEO makes the approach of Ahmet
Kent to be innovative in the way to improve the operations of Coke Company. The CEO, Ahmet
Kent Muhtar believes in the necessity to invest in the survey as well as development. Kent also
works by believing in improving the welfare of different workers and attaining advanced
techniques to staff the targeted client by displaying characteristic of valuing the available
resources (Engel, Dirlea, Dyer, & Graff, 2015). Collaborative nature leaders within the
operations of Coke Organization improve activities of partnership with several organizations.
The corporations CEO encourage innovative views in the process of marketing, finance, and
almost in every sector of operation in the operation of the corporation. The idea is essential in
ensuring that the operation ideas of different workers are counted in each and everyone mind in
the corporation of value. All these leadership practices and skills offered by innovative
leadership style make an extremely significance expression of the lead by example to be
principal in operations (Antunes & Franco, 2016). The development in this practice of leadership
is effective in improving the operations of the Coke Company. In most cases, the CEO expects
subordinates to be innovating in their operations and creative in their operations.
Cross-cultural leadership style
Just like it is quite necessary for any company that is operating at a global level to have
people in the company that can adapt and works with different customs, so is Coke organization.
Though the heads of different states working Coca-Cola are always selected from the native
workers, being the chairman or president for the whole region that covers several customs is

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quite tough. Nevertheless, Coke Organization uses the leadership style of cross-cultural
effectively for different workers to have the ability to work in different areas around society
(Lofquist & Matthiesen, 2018). For instance, the current chairman of the Pacific group, Singh
Atul has been able to successfully implement this practice of leadership. Chairman of Asian
Pacific group is responsible for making operational decisions for over thirty-six predominant
marketplaces in the region. Besides, Singh Atul works with different workers that hail in five
distinct business units. Such units comprise of Japan, Korea, India, China, together with other
countries within Asia (Miska & Öner, 2015). The practice makes the company to establish a
vision and expects each worker to operate towards attaining that set mission.
Leadership challenges identified and leadership development activities in the organization
Some of the leadership challenges comprise of the need to develop effective managerial
through innovative and cross-cultural practices. It is a challenge for the management of Coke to
create relevant techniques such as prioritization, management of time, strategic thinking, proper
policies of making decisions, and getting up to speed with the assigned tasks to be more effective
at work (Poutvaara, 2014). The other challenge posed by theories and styles used by the CEO of
the company is to effectively inspire other workers. The need for motivating workers to ensure
that they are satisfied with their newly established functions remains to be a headache for CEO.
Additionally, cross-cultural leadership practices make it tough for the CEO of an organization to
create a leading team in different regions within a short time of operations. It is challenging to
create team development, team-building, as well as team management through practice if the
cross-cultural style of leadership (Sloane-Seale, 2014). Specific challenge pose by this practice is
the need to instill pride, how to offer support, how to lead a big number of workers, as well as

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what to do when taking over a different team in a new region. Furthermore, there is a challenge
of offering appropriate guidance of change when the organization concentrates on the use of
innovative leadership theory. Most workers tend to have difficulties in changing with ever-
shifting practices of manufacturing, distributing, and sales of coke products. Guiding change
within innovative leadership practice remains to be the challenge in line with mobilization,
management, understanding, and leading in variation in operations. besides, guiding change in
innovation leadership style comprises of the idea of understanding how to mitigate
consequences, overcoming resistance to change, as well as dealing with reactions of workers
towards change. The other challenge posed by these two leadership practices within Coke
Organization is the ineffectiveness in the management of internal stakeholders. For instance,
managing internal stakeholders is a significant challenge of managing relations, image and
politics within operations of Coke Company (Emira, 2013). It includes issues such as gaining
managerial support, getting buy-in from different departments and managing up from different
groups of stakeholders.
Strengths and weaknesses of leadership practices in the Coca-Cola Organization
Innovative leadership practice makes leaders of Coke Company to rapidly and cleverly
comprehend the tough situations as well as forecasts all the possible solution. The aim of such
solutions is to save the organization from being in tough operating conditions before their
situation in global marketplaces is affected (Hazy & Uhl-Bien, 2013). The practice is used by the
management of the company to create different opportunities that focus on minimizing the
effects of cases that affect global business operations such recession, government regulations,
and globalization, technological advancement in operations, among other aspects. Through this

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leadership practices, company’s CEO has to be able to define the company’s long-range
operation strategies to be in line with the short as well as lasting targets to be aligned with the
mission and vision of the organization (Charney, 2015). It is apparent that the customs and styles
of working in each nation are completely different. Such effects make the company to focus on
the use of cross-cultural leadership practices to aim at achieving its set objective of refreshing the
global community.
Recommendations on how the leadership practices can be optimized for maximum impact
on Coca-Cola Organization
Effective planning
Management of Coca-Cola Company needs to improve the planning of its operations.
Such idea can comprise of the need to improve how the management and workers set their
operational goals, develop strategies of operations, outline different operation tasks, and later
make a decision on an efficient way of accomplishing such aspects. The idea can be effective in
improving their innovative leadership practice as they can then be able to develop more
important products to meet ever-growing desires of consumers (Kane, 2017). Through the ideal
process of planning, every individual within operations of Coca-Cola Organization will be able
to understand what they are needed do to at each and every level of operations. Hence, workers
will be able to be innovative in every operation that they are assigned to perform. Planning is
also vital in the process of making operational decisions (Foster, 2014). It will ensure that
managers of different department of Coke Company are able to make decisions that are
centralized.
Organizing operations

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According to cross-cultural leadership practice, people tend to have free will and can
select whether to follow orders of management or not. Hence, management needs to improve on
how they organize their operations. The idea can help Coke Company to attain the economies of
scale through solving different operational problems and having lesser needs for the guidance of
the workers (Odoardi, Montani, Boudrias, & Battistelli, 2014). Thorough improved organization
of operations, executive of the organization can be in-charge of specified roves that they have the
knowledge and much-needed skills about rather than assigning different workers same duties
while they are unable to perform.
Setting operational goals
Management has to be proactive in the process of setting operational alongside
establishing timelines. Therefore, in the process of setting goals by a leader, they need to ensure
that the set goals are specific by putting down the detailed explanation of what accomplishing
such goal would consist of in different departments (Greenhalgh, 2016). Such goals must also be
measurable by ensuring that the management set targets that every stakeholder can quantify to
assess progress. The goals of leadership must e attainable as a way of ensuring that each
objective of a leader is fine. However, leaders through element if making goals that are attainable
they can ensure that every worker is able to achieve goals as set in their operations (Antunes &
Franco, 2016). Besides, set goals by leaders must be realistic and timed to enable management of
a company to create a deadline for different operations as a way of improving the completion of
the company in the global business society.
Delegation of duties

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Leaders of the Coke Company can improve their operations by being productive and
empower workers to take more ownership in operations that they are assigned to perform.
Effective process of delegating duties need more than just attaining an operation off management
desk, but it consists of the repeating cycle of different steps. Therefore, management can
improve their operations by understanding the preferences of workers and other stakeholders,
understanding the desires of subordinate, and rewarding hardworking workers (Hazy & Uhl-
Bien, 2013). By considering such operations, management can effectively implement the use of
innovative and cross-cultural leadership practices in their operations
Conclusion
Leadership theory, styles, or approaches is significant to success in any business
operation or set up. It is evident from this examination that effective leadership practices have
improved how the management of Coca-Cola Corporation coordinates and aligns their
operations in different marketplaces. Coca-Cola Organization has been able to improve its
operations by adopting the delegative style of leadership. Such style of leadership helps the
company to improve its operations as well as aim at attaining its broad objective of refreshing the
world. It is clear that innovation and cross-cultural leadership styles have helped the management
of Coke Company to remain competitive in different markets.

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