Value-based Leadership and Ethical Culture – Coca-Cola Case Study

Abstract

Value-based leadership and ethics relate to the self-knowledge required for organizations to work and lead. While the application of the concept Corporate Social Responsibility allows businesses to get the opportunity to be recognized, especially concerning their local communities and, consequently in the global arena, which is a highly endorsed practice to improve their profits and effectiveness. Businesses inefficient in this context become unable to find strength and are not accepted by society, and therefore their sustainability is not assured in the long term. The current study focuses on the organizations’ situation in this regard and deliberately envisions the key points accompanying the topic; on the basis the underlying concepts should be taken into account, enclosing their application in a business.

Introduction

The best form of the leader isn’t the model or the historical figure to imitate. Instead, the leadership needs to be based on who you are and what matters the most.  In a value-based approach, for a leader positioning from values to actions, this leadership style is deeply enrooted in self-reflection, balance, self-confidence and genuine humility. The beauty of a value-based leadership is that it is independent of the people reporting you making any move; instead, you never lose sight of who you are. And what matters to you the most as a self-governing company regardless of the situation, whether in crises or opportunities ( Hendrikz et al., 2019).

Moreover, some of the many benefits that this leadership brings to the companies are enhanced contact, strengthening links, enhanced efficiency, support to accomplish targets and an improved decision-making process ( Ciulla, 2020).  Therefore, leadership based on values is certainly a strong starting point for a company to get positioned. Furthermore, at a time when a company is called upon to increase its profitability and attract and maintain its skilled people, value-based leadership helps create the self-knowledge which is necessary for working and leading others (Ward, 2016).

On the other hand, for companies, the idea of an ethical environment is also essential to adhere to. Ethical environment refers to regulations, rules, laws or principles which help to define and endorse the behaviour expected by everyone in the Company. Companies that breach ethics are not accepted by society, and therefore their sustainability is not assured in the long term. While in the context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), it is needed that a company takes action to ensure that the way the Company works has a positive social and environmental impact ( Mallory et al., 2016). CSR models are not only able to increase Business and sales but also encourage change and development around the world. Companies who disregard social responsibility put their reputation and the bottom line at risk. As customers now want to spend their money on products and services, they believe in and are trustworthy. Thus, the given analysis relies on the coexistence of the above elements. In other words, a company about these essentials achieves sustenance, and this is what renders it from others and provides it with an identity.

Body

Value-based leadership and ethical culture

Coca-Cola, for the most part, has actually worked for over 126 years as the largest soda company in the world, which mostly is quite significant. Since its foundation, its market share essentially has gradually grown over the years, with operations in definitely more than two hundred countries in fact worldwide to this day ( Brondoni et al., 2019), which by and large is equitably momentous. The Company, in addition to Coke, also includes around 400 really other brands, comprising definitely several additional Coke variants to really satisfy its customer’s preferences, needs, and lifestyles, or so they thought. Coca-Cola’s mission constitutes “refreshing the world, body, and spirit, very inspiring optimism through our brand and activities, making value and making a difference in all parts of the world that we work with” (Coca-Cola, n.d, generally contrary to popular belief. (b)) in a big way.

With its sound strategies, Coca-Cola remained a leader in manifesting itself as an example for others to develop and establish in the current competitive Industry. Inside the Company and in its markets, Coca-Cola utilized market-based management (MBM) techniques and value-driven management (VDM) techniques to sustain and preserve its market position ( Cheptegei et al., 2016). Market-based management is designed to satisfy the client by fulfilling demand-supply, as it is always needed to understand the market and then respond to the market accordingly. Additionally, In MBM, the values are merged into value-driven management values since they are essentially a common denominator to add value over time ( Singaaram et al., 2019). Any variable that enhances consumer loyalty, in turn, gives a company value over time.

People are at the core of everything they do – from the workers to the communities who affect the Company in either way. Because the Company believes in a better mutual future, all of us make a difference. It wants people to be proud of their association and love the brand. After all, it’s the people who make us who we are because of the mixture of strengths, expertise, intelligence, experience and enthusiasm. In this way, it values diversity and its inclusion, creating as diverse a workforce as the customers, advocating diversity, pointing to making better decisions as more viewpoints the Company has ( Galli, 2017). It values equality, enabling people to access equal opportunities regardless of who they are or where they come from. It has made various gender equity commitments and works for an even division of leadership positions between women and men. It values people and labour rights, and creates a reputation for faith and appreciation for more than 126 years – wherever it does Business ( Boyd et al., 2017).  Hence, to attract and retain staff, customers, suppliers and investors while maintaining positive relationships with our communities, Coca-Cola actively looks to improve its position as a responsible and sustainable business ( Nguyen et al., 2019).

Recently, The Executives Breakfast Club, a non-profit organization made up of over 100 members of a mixture of foreign and really local companies committed to developing ethical business practices, really was presented with the first pretty annual Pollard Prize for Creativity Business Ethics to The Coca-Cola Group ( Gehani, 2016), or so they specifically thought. This is mostly because the Company actually has shown its commitment to having local ethics representatives in each business unit to kind of implement the ethical prospects and carry out anti-bribe audits throughout its global business in a subtle way.

Summing up, these considerations help serve its customers in the provision that the customer needs, to have an excellent tasting menu drink, in parallel offering them a wide range of options to satisfy their likings, necessities and routines.

Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility

A good leader is a good citizen. For a company, in addition to profitability through the supply of goods or services that consumers can purchase, this can have a progressive impact on the rest of society, with local communities around the world in the instance of corporations. A well-informed enterprise understands that socially responsible management or carrying social responsibility is in its interests because an improved public image is more desirable for investors, staff, clients, consumers, suppliers and host governments (Kim et al., 2018).

Coca-Cola Corporation (TCCC) has an excellent social responsibility approach. The Business is proud that it still takes a deep, liable concern in people and groups at the local level, regardless of where it functions, as a globally renowned global brand. The Company is committed to contributing to the societies in which it works, and this commitment is exemplified in Great Britain’s operations (Taylor, 2018). Coca-Cola has been a long-standing affiliate of Industry in the Region of Great Britain, partnering with associates and the “Prince’s Trust” to engage big and small businesses in their native crowds.

A group of top companies at the domestic and international levels that make an essential contribution to their societies in efficiency improvement, Coca-Cola is also a fellow of the “Three Percent Club”. These companies must, for the most part, contribute to the group at sort of the last 0 5 of their pre-tax profit to qualify for membership in a beautiful way ( Alrowwad et al., 2017). Concerning its stakeholders, Coca-Cola feels responsible for engaging with the different actors that may have competing interests needed to be balanced, including the opposing ones. Indeed, various parties concerned would emphasize differently what they want of their holdings. In the direction of strategy growth, Coca-Cola’s business plans are structured to set a specific set of concrete targets for all facets of its operations. A variety of unique programs that have an intense influence in two main sectors, the surroundings and the society, have been created to fulfil the Company’s social responsibility. The ecosystem is regarded as the Company’s environmental management scheme. ecosystem turns the concept into action by creating a structure for the effective management of the Company’s ecological performance worldwide ( Herlin et al., 2017). The Company works in means that conserve, protect and improve the environment.

Coca-Cola aims to “We are collaborating with public, private and government agencies to solve environmental challenges. We are geared towards those activities and issues in which we can contribute in a constructive and meaningful way.” The Coca-Cola company recognizes the worth of “doing precise things” as it creates and fosters powerful brands concerning local and global environments. In three main areas, energy efficiency and substantial waste abolition and minimization, water efficiency and quality, the Company is pursuing progressive action that minimizes the environmental impact, seeking continuous betterment ( Melton et al., 2017). It also promotes local projects with an optimistic effect on the climate. In connection, they help foster a flourishing future.

Coca-Cola currently pursues special environmental programs. They are revised regularly to guarantee that they are compatible with persistent strategies. Over the period of 30 years, the Business has funded the “Tidy Britain Community” while additionally including “the People and Places initiative”. This assists native authorities in their attempts to keep the local community safe, e.g. in minimizing and removing waste, vandalism and disposing of the damaged useless material ( Suliman et al., 2016). Every April, the newly renamed Just Bin It National Spring Clean Initiative takes place to get local grottoes cleaned by schools, Businesses and local governments.

Coca-Cola UK exists as a founding sponsor of “Green Environment 21 Club”, the most extensive UK-based environmental awareness campaign ever undertaken. A leading supporter of the Ecolabel, a European-wide project aimed at sensitizing students on the environment through classroom studies, the Coca-Cola Youth Foundation ( Austin et al., 2016). The project inspires young people to take an active role in benefiting the environment in their school and society. It offers practical measures on how schools can reduce environmental effects. It is crucial that the performance of strategies and operative activities can be calculated in any business operation. The best method of measuring the progress of plans and programs to make suitable changes is to evaluate efficiency. Coca-Cola uses a comprehensive collection of success metrics to encourage social responsibility for certain aspects of its operations. Indicators of Community success include community program impact assessments ( Gertner et al., 2019). These include educational success, progress and conservation metrics.

Coca-Cola chains a range of services for students on ecological issues, comprising “Our Planet, Our Duty” – an inclusive school environment guide developed under the auspices of the Environmental Education Council by the RSPB, which generally is relatively significant ( Richards et al., 2017). “Wise Up to Waste, the Dustbin Kit” – illustrating recycling facets, in collaboration with the Waste Watch, for primary and secondary school students in turn in a subtle way. Find out about packaging – covering the history, use, and proper disposition of wall-chart packaging in a pretty big way and finding out About Waste Management – including all waste management aspects in a kind of significant way ( Mirvis et al., 2016). During the work with education, it is considered essential to ensure that support initiatives are connected to the brand, or so they thought. For example, Coca-Cola advocates can recycle and kind of is interested in subtly learning about recycling issues.

The Youth Respected Initiative by Coca-Cola is an inclusive Program.  In particular, an equitable policy meets the societal and financial inevitabilities of individuals who would else be omitted from the advantages of existing standards. For 15 years, the “Coca-Cola Youth Valued Initiative” has been working in the United States, aimed at wanting to give the maximum contribution to society to all, not just the privileged ( Donia et al., 2016). Being at the risk of dropping out, secondary students are allowed to mentor elementary school scholars, letting senior scholars to impact younger ones’ lives. This Program has been demonstrated by practice to improve student-tutor self-respect and educational accomplishment. The tutors work together with a primary school mentor leading to a versatile learning package tailored to fulfil better the needs of the individuals involved. The theory of the Program comprised; it is possible to educate every student and must be respected, to demolish discrimination ( Lin et al., 2017). Any student should contribute actively to his or her education and training. Every pupil, parent and teacher has the right to contribute to the establishment and maintenance of good schools fully. School excellence leads to economic development, prosperity and change, both individual as well as collective. Including teachers, students, and parents in setting goals, making choices, tracking improvement and assessing performance is a dedication to educational excellence.

A variety of other projects are also being funded by Coca-Cola Great Britain. The UK Special Olympics, for example – is an organization that strives to change the environment for people with learning disabilities through sport. The 2001 Cardiff National Summer Games and 2003 World Games will take place in Dublin ( London, 2018). The Company is an employer of, for all intents and purposes, equal opportunities dedicated to equitable and prosperous organizational diversity policies, health and security, the work-life balance, training, and personnel growth tremendously. The organization conducts successful bilateral consultations with its staff. It has a team representing each role and meets every fortnight to discuss the issues and developments with really senior management.

The world needs truer global settings where government, Industry and civil society can address our most significant problems – climate change, lack of capital, equality between people and society – together. Around the virtual opening of the UN General Assembly, in a panel discussion, CEO and President James Quincey continued to invest in its main sustainable development priorities – consistent with the “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” ( Pasricha et al., 2018). In addition to its previously announced objective to invest $1 billion in different suppliers by 2020, Quincey spoke about the step the organization is taking to encourage racial equality and counter structural racism in the United States. It pledged an additional five-hundred million dollars to Black-owned companies over the period of subsequent 5 years ( Hansen et al., 2016). Moreover, Coca-Cola assesses 17 SDGs and focuses on where it can considerably affect the partnership. Quincey said that its North Star would emerge more strongly from the crisis in corporate foundations, sustainability outcomes and stakeholder involvement ( Kleinman et al., 2017).

Coca-Cola and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). initiated a global campaign on water conservation dated 5 June 2007. Coca-Cola Company’s global water management programs outline the efforts of its managers and workers to contribute to the benefits of society and the environment in which it worked to restore all the Water used for its operations ( Gaither et al., 2016). As one of the world’s largest beverages firms, Coca-Cola was central to its company strategy through Water Sustainability programs, as the Company’s control of Water was a significant factor.

The organization was aware of the effect on the world of a large enterprise, so it agreed to introduce a broad spectrum of programs aimed at improving the quality of lives of its consumers, its workers and society as a whole. Though its partners have acknowledged Coca-Water Cola’s Sustainability efforts, activists and environmental experts have criticized Coca-Cola for allegedly depleting Indian groundwater supplies ( Kumari et al., 2016). Furthermore, the Company was accused of dumping dangerous and radioactive waste in its bottling plants and disposing wastewater in farmers’ fields.

Further, for its alleged illegal business activity in developing countries, Coca-Cola was also one of the most boycotted corporations in the world. Despite criticism, the organization has supported a range of programs to ensure water availability, including rainwater harvesting, groundwater resource conservation, efficient management of water supplies, shoreline safety, community water initiatives, and global awareness and action initiatives for informing under-served communities about the Value of Water ( Raman, 2018). It has also been stated that Coca-Cola spends millions of dollars promoting a “green” and “environmentally friendly” image while failing to look after the basics to run its enterprise ethically. The critics thought that the attempt to greenwash the brand value of Coca-Cola in India was stagnating while its sales took off. By 2010, the Company was, however, preparing to become a water-neutral company ( Blenkhorn et al., 2017).

Currently, during the pandemic, the organization continued to tackle a range of critical goals, including water conservation through collaborations with access to clean water to over 10.6 million persons since 2010. In collaboration with the “WaterAid” to encourage reach and access to sweet waters at the top of the Company’s plan before COVID, following this Coca-Cola joined the “UN Global Compact Water Resilience Coalition” as a pivotal support to carry the processes in collaboration, thus making the smart move. The global coalition, Business for Nature, also indulged to accompany this work and joined the organization in calling policymakers to take immediate action to protect the natural resources of the planet ( George, 2017).

Coca-Cola continues to, for the most part, push a “bottle collection” generally worldwide without waste – besides mostly guaranteeing the packing material is entirely recyclable and uses pretty much more recycled actual material – or can be sold internationally by everyone, contrary to popular false belief. Coca-Cola notably has partnered with manufacturers and partners to, for the most part, push recycled plastics available. In contrast, recycling collection rates have impaired with the current coronavirus situation – reasonably getting virgin plastic cheaper than recycled plastic due to low oil prices pertaining to the market (Wang et al., 2017). “For example, in March, the Philippines Coca-Cola Beverages agreed to set up PETValue as the nation’s most extensive recycling plant, its Thai-based partner Indorama, having per year the capability to process nearly two billion plastic bottles.

Quincey also noted that “Circulate Capital”, an investment company that funds businesses, infrastructures and innovation, preventing plastic waste from moving into the world’s oceans, was an inaugural investor. The Fund has raised more than EUR hundred million till now and revealed its first two investments in April 2020; an Indian company that transforms “high quality recycled plastic granules” into flexible plastics and in Indonesia a female-owned company that is specialized in recycling “PET “bottles into “rPET” bottles that are used to make other goods and packaging it. ( Suharso et al., 2018).

Conclusion

Coca-Cola, for the most part, is clear, healthy, and timeless, which mostly is relatively significant. To generally make the organization both people-pleasing and the global benchmark, it has dedicated itself to supervising its success in social responsibility against benchmarks, contrary to popular belief. Coca-Cola guarantees that incredibly top management retains the organization’s culture, which officially records its principles and communicates them to all workers. The fairly top management mostly is leading the way in the management of policies to specifically ensure the generally effective execution of the rules and values, or so they specifically thought. The conduct of employees is routinely investigated, which is relatively significant. The Coca-Cola company should not surprise us that it has one of the world’s best distribution networks and is explicitly able for its structure and leadership to enter markets where no company can replicate it, basically contrary to popular belief. Another unique aspect is its alliance with its bottling partners, in collaboration with the Company, to implement the localized strategy. Coca-Cola is there to generally give benefits and refresh to those who are affected, which is reasonably significant. Part of this promise is to act actively as a corporate citizen, influencing business decisions in the societies where it operates to enhance the quality of life in a big way. Consequently, overall, Coca-Cola has mostly been a leading entity, but still, it needs to captivate waste management properly in a significant way and to save its position concerning health risks involved with the brand.

Recommendations

There are pretty several items that can be indicated. The rising health concern about being carbonated is the most significant problem in the drinking industry, or so they thought. The Coca-Cola packaging does not kind of affect PET (polyethene terephthalate) and Cans greatly, which is relatively significant to adhere to if the Business is tending to process the packaging content. There’s no need to mostly think about lowering the prices in a fairly significant way. Take that into account, regardless of the packaging material, as long as the concept and the form essentially are very appealing in a subtle way. For customers, the volume, for the most part, is a significant factor they prefer to have with the enormous sharing size for them. Due to the competitor, the price for Coca-Cola must be controlled surface, and some customers mainly prefer to generally find every soda at the kind of the best value price – For them, which for the most part is quite significant. It mainly is, therefore, essential to benchmark the price strategy of the challenger, or so they specifically thought. Additionally, Coca-Cola must ensure a waste management system in all the franchises worldwide so that it saves its integrity.

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