Organisational change and development assignment on organisational change and development in Coca Colagiuri

Question

Task: You are required to write an organisational change and development assignment examining the change strategy for a specific organisation and put forward your recommendations for approval and implementation.

Answer

Introduction
When a major component of an organization is altered by business leaders it is known as organizational change. Initiating change in the workplace help managers cope with the constant change in the business environment. Moreover, organizational change is also marked as one of the most effective ways that can help a firm gain a competitive advantage (Çetinkaya, Niavand and Rashid, 2019). There is no exception in the case of Coca-Cola. The purpose of this organisational change and development assignmentis to discuss problems that are faced by Coca-cola in the beverage industry and how these challenges can be overcome with Lewin’s and Kotter’s change management model.

Company Backgroundin the organisational change and development assignment
Coca-Cola is one of the largest players in the non-alcoholic beverage industry. The primary purpose of the company is to refresh people across the world and to create a difference in the non-alcoholic beverage industry (Coca-Cola, 2022). Sit is found in the organisational change and development assignmentthat there are several brands of Coca-Colalike Sprite, Fanta, and Minute-maid. The organization is also known for manufacturing beverages with the help of plant-based nutrition. The organization is listed on New York Stock Exchange and the products of this company are currently sold in almost 200 countries across the world. The industry leaders of Coca-Cola have always emphasized innovation. Thus, it has launched a unique product named “Diet coke” to serve the needs of health-conscious consumers.

Problem Factors Initiating Change
In this world, only 4.3% of the population is reported to be healthy. The rest percentage of the population is reported to have several health problems (Rettner, 2015). As per the organisational change and development assignment statistics, among several health problems, diabetes is one such problem that is estimated to increase in the next decade. In 2019, almost 9.3% of the world’s population reported diabetes. Improper health conditions of people have forced them to become health-conscious (Saeedi, et.al., 2019). However, Coca-Cola is known for providing sweetened drinks. These drinks are reported to be the main sources of calories and diseases like cardiac arrest, cancer can take place due to excessive consumption of this beverage (Chua, et.al, 2020). It is reported that consumption of one or two colas a day might increase type 2 diabetes by 20%. Moreover, the intake of sugar is also increasing the level of blood pressure and cholesterol among people across the world. It is found in this organisational change and development assignment that awareness among people is increasing because of the usage of social media. People are getting afraid to consume Coca-cola. This can have a major impact on the financial performance of the firm. Thus, excess usage of sugar in the drinks should be ceased by Coca Cola.

In addition to this, increased players in the non-alcoholic beverage industry can act as a threat to Coca Cola. Pepsi Co. is one of the biggest competitors of Coca cola. If the leaders of Coca cola want to accomplish their targets, they need to tap the BRIC market and expand their businesses in the secondary markets of Indonesia and Vietnam (Food and Beverage, 2015). Thus it is found in this organisational change and development assignment, to fight with competitors and stay relevant in the market, it is the utmost responsibility of the industry leaders to change its operational strategies. Furthermore, the wastage of plastic bottles and the increase in land and water pollution due to excessive usage of plastics across the world is one of the major problems that are further responsible for ecological imbalances. Plastic pollution is a global problem because almost 7 billion tonnes of plastics produced are wasted. This immense generation of plastic waste are reducing the ability of the eco-system to cease climate change (UN, 2022). Coca Cola is one of the largest manufacturers of plastic bottles. These bottles are generally thrown by consumers, post-consumption. Such irresponsible habits of consumers are increasing the level of plastic pollution across the world (Chua, et.al., 2020). Thus, Coca-Cola has received criticism from various stakeholders across the world. This organization has also been accused of clogging oceans and creating water pollution at a vast level (Russ, 2015). From the above discussion in the organisational change and development assignmentif the organizational leaders fail to adopt effective change strategies within the workplace, then it can lead to major losses in the firm. Coca cola might encounter a competitive disadvantage and decrease in share in the non-alcoholic beverage industry. Diagnosis of Problems and Opportunitiesin the organisational change and development assignment Coca Cola has been facing various problems in the recent years, where healthier lifestyle, increased competition and plastic waste have become significant. These create both opportunities and threats for the company in the long run. It is found in this organisational change and development assignment that consumers are now inclining towards healthier lifestyle, which might make it difficult for Coca Cola to sell its sugary and caffeinated products. However, it can introduce new product categories catering to the healthier lifestyle. Besides, the company needs to undertake suitable strategies of differentiation and cost leadership alongside some digital marketing techniques for responding to increased competition. In addition, it must reduce plastic waste that is causing harmful environmental impact for people and society. In this organisational change and development assignment, change management models can be undertaken for making such changes to address the problems.

Change Management Models
Kurt Lewin's Change Model
As per the organisational change and development assignment this is a planned change model that can be undertaken in the Coca Cola for dealing with the problems and opportunities arising from the issues in the company. Lewin’s model of change explains various driving forces and restraining forced required for maintaining status quo and pushing the organization for change process (Hussain, et al., 2018). It consists of three stages, namely, unfreeze, change and refreeze.

Fig 1: Lewin’s Change Model
(Source: Bakaria, Hunjraand Masood, 2017)

In the first step of unfreezementioned in theorganisational change and development assignment, the managers of Coca Cola need to prepare organizational members and employees for the desired change to address the current issues of healthier lifestyle, increased competition and plastic waste (Bakaria, Hunjra and Masood, 2017). Here, all the employees and members would be made aware about the threats of customers not buying Coca Cola products that are sugary and caffeinated for making them understand the need for change. Besides, they would also be communicated about the increasing competition and plastic waste becoming potential threats for the company. In this stage, addressing employee concerns, compelling communication and developing strategic vision is necessary. It would also require informing employees about introducing healthier products, analysing competitors’ offerings and reducing plastic waste. Furthermore, in the second stage of change, an agile and iterative approach would be considered for implementing the change process. Here, employees would be communicated clearly about the positive effects that could generate from the changes (Pawarand Charak, 2017). This stage mentioned in the organisational change and development assignmentwould encourage them to deal with changed processes in a proactive manner alongside continuous information flow. In the third stage of refreeze, Coca Cola needs to make employees feel comfortable with the changed processes. These processes should be reinforced into the organizational culture as well. However, the top-down approach can disregard employee feedback about the change process. Despite this, the model can be beneficial for the company’s change agents by following the sequential steps of planned change.

Kotter’s 8-step Change Model
This model mentioned in the organisational change and development assignmentprovides an emergent approach towards change undertaken through an eight-step process. It helps in contributing towards organizational success in the dynamic business world (Laig and Abocejo, 2021). Coca Cola can use this model for bringing change in the organization to address the three significant issues of healthy lifestyle, increased competition and plastic waste.

Fig 2: Kotter’s Change Model
(Source: Laigand Abocejo, 2021)

At first, the managers would create a sense of urgency amongst organizational members and employees by making them aware about potential threats arising from the ongoing issues. The second step involves forming a group for initiating the changed processes of introducing healthy products, undertaken differentiation and cost leadership strategies and reducing plastic wastage through sustainable packaging (Haas, et al., 2020). This is achieved by creating a guiding coalition. The change manager would be responsible for developing the change vision by communicating about opportunities arising from the newly introduced processes and strategies. It is further essential in the organisational change and development assignmentto convey this vision to the employees for involving them in the change process. This can be helpful in understanding their concerns related to the process. Empowering others to act on this vision can become easier by addressing their challenges and concerns (Dijeshand Mary, 2017). Coca Cola managers would also plan for various short-term wins for overcoming the problems associated with initiating the change process. This would lead them to consolidate different improvements and produce more change for implementing new processes and strategies. Lastly, new approaches would come into play for planning long-term implementation of the processes. Thus, this change model would help in addressing problems and opportunities associated with the ongoing issues in Coca Cola.

Justification of Change Interventionin the organisational change and development assignment
Various problems and opportunities can arise from the changed processes and strategies required for addressing the issues of healthy lifestyle, increased competition and plastic waste. In this regard, a continuous change intervention can be undertaken in Coca Cola for addressing the problems and opportunities. Here, change and improvement would be obtained through small steps and gradually over time (De Waaland Heijtel, 2016). As per the organisational change and development assignment analysis this would be beneficial in making employees and other organizational members accustomed with the new processes instead of sudden implementation of the same. Thus, this would enable them to adjust themselves slowly with such processes by embracing the change process.

Possible Issues or Barriers and addressingthemin the organisational change and development assignment
Coca Cola might face various issues or barriers while implementing the continuous change intervention. These include lack of executive support, ineffective communication, lack of participation from employees, change-resistant culture and attitude and limited knowledge and resources required for change management.

The change intervention can face lack of executive support in terms of their role in change management, purpose and required resources. This needs to be addressed by making them understand the urgency of the change process in Coca Cola in solving the ongoing problems. Furthermore, smooth information flow across all management levels should be ensured for avoiding ineffective communication (Fernandezand Rainey, 2017). It is advised in the organisational change and development assignment the change managers and team members should encourage employees to participate and contribute in the change process by listening to their concerns and worries and reassuring them about the importance of change intervention. Besides, the change-resistant attitude and culture of employees and members can only be addressed by letting them express their opinions and viewpoints about the change process. It can help them to better comprehend the positive consequences of the change intervention. Lastly, the change managers should formulate a budget and anticipate the resources that would be required in this process for avoiding any disruption.

Analysis of Ethical Issues and addressingthemin the organisational change and development assignment
Some ethical issues that might arise while implementing the change intervention are lack of transparency, discrimination and harassment, unrealistic and conflicting goals and absence of a safe environment. Lack of transparency can hamper the change process in the organization. It is essential for Coca Cola to ensure that the change intervention is clearly communicated to all organizational members by being transparent about its goals and intended outcomes. Furthermore, each employee and member should be treated with dignity and respect during this continuous change and each of them should get the equal chance of participating in the change process irrespective of any gender, race, cultural background or others. As per the organisational change and development assignment this can be helpful in reducing discrimination and harassment during the entire process. Besides, setting unrealistic or conflicting goals can create confusion, stress and frustration amongst the team members and organization, thereby disrupting the change process. This makes it important for the change managers to create short-term wins by setting clear and simple goals. It can help in improving the change process and ultimately achieve the intended outcomes. In addition, health and safety of all the organizational members must be ensured during the change intervention and process of change in Coca Cola.

Conclusion
The purpose of the organisational change and development assignmentwas to analyse the ongoing issues within the selected company Coca Cola and use change management models for addressing them. Three significant issues identified were healthy lifestyle, increased competition and plastic waste. In this organisational change and development assignment, the two change management models of Lewin and Kotter were used for analysing the problems and opportunities arising from the current issues. These models further helped in identifying a change intervention for the company and recognize ethical issues and barriers to change. Lastly, strategies for addressing these issues were also provided in the organisational change and development assignment.

References
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