Cross Cultural Perspectives

Cross Cultural Perspective

ETH 316

Thursday November 15

For this paper I will examine the cross cultural perspectives of management within the Coca-Cola Corporation. Coca-Cola sells in more than 200 countries, has been in business for 125 years, and has almost 140,000 employees ("The Coca-Cola Company", 2011). Coca-Cola started in 1886 by a pharmacist named Dr. John Pemberton ("History of Coca-Cola", 2011). In the 1900’s Coca-Cola expanded its’ bottling operations in Guam and Europe. By the 1920’s Coca-Cola expanded its’ bottling operations to 10 other countries. In the 1930’s Coca-Cola entered three more countries. Cola-Cola introduces its products in Egypt in 1948 ("History of Coca-Cola", 2011). Today Coca-Cola operates in most major countries.

Social responsibility is a large part of the company’s initiative. Coca-Cola publishes a sustainability report on their website every year which, gives insight to how they are handling social issues such as recycling, water use, human rights, and promoting healthy lifestyles to, name a few. In 2006 Coca-Cola became a member of the United Nations Global Compact ("United Nations (UN) Global Compact", 2011). Joining this organization strengthened Coca-Cola position on world ethical issues.

Coca-Cola’s global presence means that the company must understand different cultures, the laws within the countries, and the environments. Cola-Cola has adapted the United Nations Global Compact’s Blueprint for Corporation Sustainability Leadership (“Blueprint for Corporation Sustainability Leadership,” 2010). The Blueprint offers guidelines for global companies to follow to ensure they are offering the best global initiative programs.

A cultural issue that Cola-Cola faces is human rights within each country. Cola-Cola’s human rights statement lays out the company’s expectations. According to "The Human Rights Statement" (2011), “We have expressed these shared goals in a global framework for good corporate citizenship...