Coca-Cola HR Strategy-Ethics Linkage
HR functions as a strategic partner for the Coca-Cola Company in a couple of ways. First, it enables the company to meet its business goals and objectives by ensuring that the right people are in place and available when neededùsomething that is no longer as simple as it used to be. In todayÆs global environment, companies must be ready to regroup and make changes at a momentÆs notice in order to retain their competitive edge. To do that successfully, they need an HR department that can have the right people waiting in the wings when that moment occurs.
The change dynamics of todayÆs companies are massive; in many cases, large companies such as GE have gone to boundaryless organizations, where people group and regroup for every project based on the need. HR needs to be a strategic partner in order to anticipate what types of people in what numbers will be needed at any given time. Unlike the old days, when the HR director sat in an office, removed from upper management, HR now needs to be vitally involved with management in order to see what direction the company is going and how soon it will arrive at each milestone. In this sense, it is a strategic partner, as essential to the companyÆs success as the CEO.
Second, HR needs to manage the roles and competencies of employees to deliver strategic results, separating ôtransactional-fulfillment workö from ôconsultative business work;ö Coca-Cola has already done this to great success (Aronson, 24). Coca-ColaÆs HR also uses a ôsingle competencies modelö to integrate talent initiatives (Aronson, 24).
HR also has a hand in ethics, since ethics can involve employees, and HR manages employee issues. In terms of ethics at Coca-Cola, however, the most notable ethics violations have been endorsed at the upper echelons of the companyùhuman rights violations against the companyÆs own workers. Coca-Cola was listed as one of the ...