K/507/1308 Strategic Human Resource Management

Unit Level 6

Learning outcome 1: Critically analyse the role and importance of human resource management in achieving organisational effectiveness

Learning outcome 2: Evaluate the formulation and implementation of human resource strategies

Learning outcome 3: Critically analyse the application of a range of HR strategies designed to improve employee and organisational performance.

Learning outcome 4: Demonstrate knowledge of different perspectives and key areas of controversy within the strategic management and strategic HRM literature

Scenario Case study

Introduction

The Coca-Cola Company is truly global, and its main product is recognised and consumed worldwide. The Company organises and structures itself in a way that reflects that fact. At the same time, the Company looks to meet the particular needs of regional markets sensitively and its structure also needs to reflect that fact.

This Case Study illustrates the way in which the Company has built an organisational structure that is robust and yet also flexible enough to meet these particular requirements.

A global and local strategy

The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company and is the leading producer and marketer of soft drinks. The Company markets four of the world's top five soft drinks brands: Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite.

The success of The Coca-Cola Company revolves around five main factors:
A unique and recognised brand - Coca-Cola is among the most recognised trademarks around the globe
Quality - consistently offering consumers products of the highest quality
Marketing - delivering creative and innovative marketing programmes worldwide
Global availability - Coca-Cola products are bottled and distributed worldwide
Ongoing innovation - continually providing consumers with new product offerings e.g. Diet Coke (1982), Coca-Cola Vanilla (2002).

The illustration shows the worldwide distribution of sales of Coca-Cola products by quantity in 2003. Although CocaCola is a global product with universal appeal, the Company actually operates in local environments around the world, with each country having its own unique needs and requirements.

So while Coca-Cola is probably the only product in the world that is universally relevant in every corner of the globe, the Company feels that its responsibility is to ensure that with every single can or bottle of Coca-Cola sold and enjoyed, individual connections are made with their consumer.

That can only be achieved at a local level. The challenge facing The Coca-Cola Company today is therefore to continue to build an organisational structure that will deliver a global and local strategy.

The relationship between strategy and structure

An organisation's strategy is its plan for the whole business that sets out how the organisation will use its major resources. An organisation's structure is the way the pieces of the organisation fit together internally. It also covers the links with external organisations such as partners.

For the organisation to deliver its plans, the strategy and the structure must be woven together seamlessly. The goal of The Coca-Cola Company is 'to be the world's leading provider of branded beverage solutions, to deliver consistent and profitable growth, and to have the highest quality products and processes.' To achieve this goal, the Company has established six strategic priorities and has built these into every aspect of its business:

Accelerate carbonated soft drinks growth, led by Coca-Cola
Broaden the family of products, wherever appropriate e.g. bottled water, tea, coffee, juices, energy drinks
Grow system profitability & capability together with the bottlers
Creatively serve customers (e.g. retailers) to build their businesses
Invest intelligently in market growth
Drive efficiency & cost effectiveness by using technology and large scale production to control costs enabling our people to achieve extraordinary results every day.
There are many ways to structure an organisation. For example, a structure may be built around:
Function: reflecting main specialisms e.g. marketing, finance, production, distribution
Product: reflecting product categories e.g. bread, pies, cakes, biscuits
Process: reflecting different processes e.g. storage, manufacturing, packing, delivery.

Organisational structures need to be designed to meet aims. They involve combining flexibility of decision making, and the sharing of best ideas across the organisation, with appropriate levels of management and control from the centre.

Modern organisations like The Coca-Cola Company, have built flexible structures which, wherever possible, encourage teamwork. For example, at Coca-Cola Great Britain any new product development (e.g. Coca-Cola Vanilla) brings together teams of employees with different specialisms. At such team meetings, marketing specialists clarify the results of their market research and testing, food technologists describe what changes to a product are feasible, financial experts report on the cost implications of change.

The corporate segment -Head Office
The Coca-Cola Company has a corporate (Head Office) segment that is responsible for giving the Company an overall direction and providing support to the regional structure.

Product support

The way The Coca-Cola Company works reflects the many countries and cultures in which it does business. It owns or licences nearly 400 brands in non-alcoholic beverages serving consumers in over 200 countries. An essential part of the organisation's structure therefore focuses on ensuring that individual products are given the best possible support in regional markets.
Within the Company, different teams concentrate on particular products and use their specialist knowledge of the brands and consumer needs to support the sales and promotional effort. In some cases a product is developed solely for local consumption and an example of this is the product Lilt, which is only available in Great Britain and Ireland. Examples of other products available in Great Britain include:

Carbonated soft drinks- Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite
Juice & juice drinks- Schweppes' Tomato Juice Cocktail, Oasis, Five Alive
Waters- Malvern
Energy drinks- Burn
Sports drinks- Powerade
Squashes/cordials- Kia-Ora, Rose's Lime Cordial.
Structure and culture
Structuring an organisation is not only about organising internal relationships, it also involves external ones. The Coca-Cola Company has built well-structured relationships with a range of external groups including bottling partners. People often assume that The Coca-Cola Company bottles and distributes its own beverages. For the most part, it does not. The Company's primary business consists of manufacturing and selling beverage concentrates and syrups - as well as some finished beverages - to bottling and canning operations and other distributors.
The concentrates and syrups are generally sold to bottling partners, which are authorised to manufacture, distribute and sell branded products. The business system consisting of The Coca-Cola Company and bottling partners is referred to as 'the Coca-Cola system'. The relationship The Coca-Cola Company has with its bottlers worldwide is a key source of strength. The Company works together with them to ensure that concentrates and syrups are made into finished beverages that are produced and distributed to consumers around the globe with unmatched quality and service.
Every organisation has not only a structure but also a culture. 'Culture' describes the typical way an organisation does things, including patterns of behaviour and relationships.
Important aspects of culture at Coca-Cola Great Britain (which reflect the culture of The Coca-Cola Company as a whole) are an emphasis on teamwork, and empowerment. Coca-Cola Great Britain sees its employees as its most important asset. Motivated employees provide the engine that drives the Company's growth. Organising people into teams (e.g. marketing, sales or product teams) encourages people to feel valued. Within a team they are encouraged to contribute ideas and to be innovative. If they feel that something could be done better they are encouraged to voice that opinion. By creating a friendly, innovative culture, Coca-Cola Great Britain is able to depend on a high quality workforce that helps it to maintain brand leadership in Great Britain and in every other market in which it operates. Trust is at the heart of every relationship, whether it be:
Customers' and consumers' trust that the Company will provide the highest level of service and attention to their needs
Bottling partners' trust that the Company is operating in the best interests of the Coca-Cola system
Employees' trust that their contribution is being valued in an open culture.
Open communication channels provide the means to support a culture based on relationships.
Coca-Cola has a number of communication channels, including:
monthly leadership team meeting (involving function heads)
weekly department team meetings
monthly employee team briefing sessions
consultative employee groups for each region (with representatives meeting in a European Council)
Surveys to monitor employee views and feelings.
Conclusion
The CocaCola Company has built internal and external structures to support the delivery of its business goals. The regional structure is the best way of supporting this growth, allowing attention to local requirements while at the same time building on a clear strategic direction from the centre.
A culture of innovation, teamwork and partnership means that the Company has a firm foundation of relationships and open communication channels on which to build its growth.

Task 1

Instructions

With reference to the Coca Cola case study and another organisation of your choice, describe what Strategic Human Resources Management is and analyse its role within both organisations

With reference to Coca Cola and another organisation, examine how Human Resources Strategies are planned, developed and implemented as well as the possible approaches they could have taken.

Analyse the HRM processes used by Coca Cola or another organisations. You will need to find more details than the information in the case study since you will need to analyse:

Workforce planning
Recruitment
Human Resources Development
Performance Management
Talent management
Delivery and Submission

Task 2
Instructions

With reference to Coca Cola or another organisation of your choice:
Identify and analyse the HR strategies that were used
Compare the HR strategies in used to other strategies that could have been used
Delivery and Submission

Task 3
Instructions

With reference to Coca Cola (or another organisation of your choice), identify and analyse contemporary issues (at least 3) that can affect Strategic Human Resources Management. Make sure you use theory to support your arguments.

Attachment:- Strategic Human Resource Management.rar