Unifying Company Culture

Overview of the global company.

Coca-Cola is a multinational corporation headquartered in Georgia, United States. It manufactures and sells Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, and other non-alcoholic beverages. Since its inception in 1892, the company has become one of the world’s largest beverage conglomerates, with subsidiaries and investments in over 100 countries (Schuch & Stubbs, 2019). Coca-Cola monitors the process of merging with other smaller beverage companies in order to enhance earnings.

Overview of the Fictitious Company

On the other hand, Sweet Company is a burgeoning British beverage manufacturer that targets adolescents. The company, founded in 2000, intends to increase its profit margin and stock turnover through a strategic alliance with a major beverage brand. Given the differences between these two businesses, developing a plan for integrating their cultures is crucial.

Below is an 8-10 point checklist outlining the steps to achieve this goal.

Training programs that teach employees about the firm’s principles and policies are among the most effective ways to unite company culture. New hires can better understand the expectations of their roles and the company’s values through training. As of 2019 (Schuch & Stubbs), Training programs for Coca-Cola and Sweet Company should be designed with onboarding and acclimating new hires as primary goals. Training sessions for new hires must be fun and engaging, with plenty of time for questions and answers.

Make specific groups for collaboration: Having employees work in smaller, more focused groups has improved productivity and cross-cultural understanding. Teams allow workers to benefit from one another’s expertise and collaborate on projects. Teams should be built according to employees’ talents, knowledge, and cultural identities to encourage diversity and inclusion.

One way to lessen the effect of cultural differences is to encourage employee input in decision-making. The new leadership ought to listen to the concerns of all workers about the threats to their partnership. When workers have a voice in making decisions, they know their input matters. This can improve productivity and teamwork by encouraging individuals to take personal accountability for their actions.

If the company’s values are to become one, then communication within it must be streamlined. As of 2019 (Schuch & Stubbs), To overcome linguistic hurdles caused by cultural differences, Coca-Cola and Sweet Company should work to build a shared vernacular. They need to start communicating in a way that is clear, honest, and open (Kazi et al., 2021). Examples are regular team meetings, an open-door policy, and a framework for providing feedback. Conceive a brand-new orientation curriculum: An updated orientation program is required to ensure that new hires are fully briefed on the company’s mission and values. Workers will be able to grasp the unique corporate culture that prioritizes innovation and polite discourse. Company principles, policies, and expected behaviors should all be covered in the orientation session.

Management may get everyone on the same page and working toward the same goals by adjusting the objectives so that they all serve a shared purpose. This will lead to less fighting and less decentralization (Kazi et al., 2021). Coke and Sweet should join forces to create a common goal encouraging teamwork and accepting differences.

Adopt a more distributed mode of decision-making: Smaller decision-making groups bring together the entire workforce in a decentralized system (Schuch & Stubbs, 2019). This allows for more employee input, improving decision-making and building morale. The teams should have decision-making authority within their purviews, with the company’s overall objectives as a compass.

Encourage a relaxed approach to leadership: The success of any organization depends on the strength of its informal leadership. Leaders should be chosen so that they can advise and help their peers. Coke and the Sweet Company must recognize and reward those who take on leadership roles.

The rationale for choosing each of the steps in your checklist.

A wonderful approach to interacting with people from all backgrounds is through training classes. Workers may become more productive and conversant with one another thanks to various collaboration groupings. However, allowing employees to make decisions may negate the advantages of a varied culture. A new orientation program can educate employees about the culture and operations of the company, and streamlining communication can make it simpler for information to flow consistently. By redefining the objectives so they all point in the same direction and implementing a decentralized decision-making process, operational issues like conflict and independence can be reduced. Promote informal leadership to increase employee creativity and productivity.

These actions will enable both businesses to successfully merge their cultures and achieve their aims of increasing revenue, productivity, and global visibility.

References

Schuch, F. B., & Stubbs, B. (2019). The role of exercise in preventing and treating depression. Current sports medicine reports18(8), 299-304.

Kazi, S., Khaleghzadegan, S., Dinh, J. V., Shelhamer, M. J., Sapirstein, A., Goeddel, L. A., … & Rosen, M. A. (2021). Team physiological dynamics: A critical review. Human factors, 63(1), 32-65.