Introduction
Organizational performance and consequent competitive advantages in a respective industry depend on the selection of human resource management (HRM) practices. Since human resources are the core asset of contemporary businesses where talent is highly valued, it is essential for business entities to facilitate HRM to engage experts in their respective fields for organizational goals’ achievement. Coca-Cola is one of the successful firms with a global presence and a high level of competitive advantage in the non-alcoholic beverage industry. When justifying the selection of Coca-Cola as a company for this business brief, one might state that the 28,000 employees in 16 countries make this organization’s case relevant to discuss in the context of HRM’s impact on competitive advantage (“Form 10-K,” 2021). The company’s business model entails Coca-Cola’s partnership with bottlers to whom it distributes concentrated beverages and from whom the company sells drinks to retailers (“Form 10-K,” 2021). Currently, the company faces the problem of transforming its HRM toward more digitalized and location-based strategies (“Coca-Cola BIG re-defines HR strategy,” 2021). This brief is designed to explore the solutions to this problem and identify the successful integration of HRM into competitive advantage facilitation.
HRM Practices and Their Impact on Competitive Advantage
Problem
The problem that Coca-Cola needs to solve within the context of its human resource practices is the poor performance in local divisions due to non-customized HRM solutions and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reason why this problem is important is that it directly affects the performance quality of the organization at a global level, ultimately hindering Coca-Cola’s competitive advantage in the market. The questions that need to be answered to solve this problem include: How should hiring and training transform to meet local particularities? How might technology help in modernizing HRM practices?
Evidence
The information that might provide context for the problem originates from scholarly literature and company reports. The competitive advantage of the Coca-Cola company is its supply of a wide range of beverages which maximizes its market presence on a global scale. In addition, it has a thought-through and successfully implemented marketing strategy and high-level professional customer care that allows for consumer loyalty (“Form 10-K,” 2021). All these manifestations of competitive advantage result from an employee-centered culture-driven HRM. Indeed, evidence shows that the company values human rights policies and talent, which is the most appreciated asset in the organization (“Hiring process,” 2022). Thus, engaging professionals and talented experts in Coca-Cola’s teams allows for the company’s competitive advantage enhancement.
Predictions and Alternative Solutions
The failure to sustain high standards of HRM across all markets will impede the competitive advantage. The solution to the problem will minimize the company’s monetary, market-presence, and reputational losses and maintain its leading position in the beverage industry. The research study conducted by Maisoni et al. (2019) demonstrates that leadership effectiveness contributes to the engagement of employees at Coca-Cola, while improved organizational culture facilitates leadership effectiveness. Thus, one of the alternative solutions to the problem is the implementation of stronger corporate culture that would yield better leadership and ultimately enhance employee engagement for better organizational performance. Moreover, Ramyasri and Aruna (2019) emphasize the importance of prioritizing employee job satisfaction when deciding on changes in HRM practices. At the same time, the Coca-Cola company’s centralized HR department has presented a solution of transforming the HR practices in each of the 16 countries with the company’s operations to match their expectations based on their internal particularities (“Coca-Cola BIG re-defines HR strategy,” 2021). Thus, the solutions imply facilitating existing practices to maximize the performance excellence of the recruited employees and attract talent to ensure the company’s competitive advantage.
Decision
Given the discussion of the alternatives, the solution addressing flexible, locally focused HRM practices for each country where Coca-Cola operates is the best option. To justify this recommendation, one might emphasize that in the context of post-COVID market functioning, different countries find different solutions to workforce management (“Coca-Cola BIG re-defines HR strategy,” 2021). Therefore, the best way to enhance talented employee engagement and maximize performance excellence for sustained competitive advantage is by recognizing local-specific features and allowing customized HR strategies.
Implementation
The process of implementing this solution is time- and resource-bound due to the size of the company and the complications related to business operations remoteness. For that matter, the company uses “cloud-based HR solutions” to allow for each plant’s flexibility while complying with the company’s general standards and policies (“Coca-Cola BIG re-defines HR strategy,” 2021, para. 9). Thus, the implementation of the solution will be possible to evaluate upon its completion to draw on the outcomes for the competitive advantage.
Conclusion
In summation, the Coca-Cola company is a large global beverage organization with a competitive advantage granted by a range of products, exceptional customer care, and talented marketing. The problem it encounters is the lack of locally-based HRM practices and the negative impact of the post-pandemic period. The company shifted toward flexible locally-specific HRM solutions unified under the same cloud-based HR policies but diversified according to the requirements of each of the 16 markets. Alternative solutions include the facilitation of corporate culture to enhance leadership roles and improve employee engagement to retain talent and the enhancement of talent-driven recruitment strategies to instill competitive advantage.
References
Coca-Cola BIG re-defines HR strategy to meet the needs of a changing workforce. (2021). Forbes. Web.
Form 10-K: The Coca-Cola Company. (2021). Web.
Hiring process. (2022). Web.
Ramyasri, C., & Aruna, G. (2019). A study on employee job satisfaction with reference to Coca Cola. A Journal of Composition Theory, 12(9), 674-684.
Maisoni, H., Yasri, Y., & Abror, A. (2019). Effect of organizational culture, leadership, and compensation on employee engagement in Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia Central Sumatra. In 2nd Padang International Conference on Education, Economics, Business, and Accounting (pp. 553-561). Atlantis Press.