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Coca Cola CSR

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Coca Cola CSR

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important pillar of management due to the

growing organizational and socio-economic transformation. CSR programs benefit businesses,

individual and communities at large and this explains the increased adoption of CSR activities in

organizations. To generate value, CSR addresses the different and interests of the stakeholders.

As part of its CSR, the Coca Cola Company has worked towards promoting the plight of gender

and minority groups in the US.

The Coca Cola Company is a beverage company selling its products to in more than 200

nations and regions globally. The goal of the company is to ensure the world is refreshed (The

Coca Cola Company 2021). The company also strives to make a difference. Some of the Coca

Cola products include soft drinks such as Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta. Other products are

Minute Maid, Dasani, Costa and Innocent. The company is focused on bringing innovative

products while positively impacting the lives of the people. With more than 700,000 employees,

Coca Cola has created economic opportunities for people and communities around the world

(The Coca Cola Company 2021). Coca Cola’s success has in part been attributed to its CSR

activities. CSR is based on the notion that organizations cannot be isolated entities, rather must

work in ways that are more sustainable and which help guarantee a better shared future (Sun and

Prize, 2017). The main goal is to make a difference by doing business as is required.

CSR is now a global phenomenon drawing the interest of scholars and organizations.

CSR ensures that organizations incorporate social and environmental concerns into their

operations. The involvement of all stakeholders is also warranted (Agudo-Valiente et al, 2017).

CSR implementation is largely overseen by organizations, working to ensure compliance of all

stakeholders with suitable controls in place. CSR activities benefit all the stakeholders by

generating shared value. In order to achieve shared value, organizations strive to address the

different interests of stakeholders (Sun & Prize 2017). Under CSR, a number of issues such as

social, environmental, climate and gender are considered while focusing on long-term attainment

of organizational goals. As part of its CSR initiatives, Coca Cola has strived to promote gender

and minority issues to coincide with its core values of diversity, equality and inclusivity.

The workplace is becoming increasingly diverse given the effects of global integration

commonly termed globalization, which has made the world a global village. There are different

dimensions to workplace diversity include, ethnic, national and organizational cultures

(Inegbedion et al, 2020). A direct impact of this phenomenon is that people from different parts

of the world can now interact and work together. An organization’s ability to fit into different

parts of the world is a global corporate culture that is promoted via effective diversity

management (Holgersson et al, 2020). This is the reason why diversity management has caught

the attention of scholars and organizations throughout the world.

Diversity, equity and inclusion remain the core values of Coca Cola besides serving as

the growth strategy. Moreover, these factors are important in defining the success of the

organization (The Coca Cola Company 2021). The company harnesses the diversity of people

from all over the world in order to attain its goal of refreshing the world and standing out from

the rest. For this company, having a diverse workforce and an environment that is inclusive is a

strategic plan that promotes creativity and innovation (The Coca Cola Company 2021). The

company’s goal is not just to reflect diversity of the places it serves, rather to lead and support a

better shared future.

Coca Cola’s support for gender and minority groups in the US has been evidenced in a

number of areas. One is the support it has accorded LGBT communities (The Coca Cola

Company 2021). Being one of the most inclusive brands in the world, the company cherishes

diversity, inclusion and equality demonstrated through its culture, policies and partnerships.

Coca Cola has always protected employees from discrimination on the basis of gender and

sexual orientation, scoring 100% annually on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality

Index. The company has had an LGBTQA Business Resource Group (BRG) for about 15 years

and remains a leader in ensuring its LGBTQ partners are treated equally (The Coca Cola

Company 2021). In 2011, Coca Cola started providing health insurance that covered transgender

groups.

Moreover, in 2015, the company started helping with the taxes imposed on American

workers whose same-sex partner had been registered under health benefits though residing from

states that ban same-sex marriage. On the other hand, the company is known for supporting

policies that enhance inclusion and equality for these marginalize groups (The Coca Cola

Company 2021). As a matter of fact, Coca Cola was among the first American companies to

offer public support to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The company also partnered

with 379 businesses to support marriage equality before the Supreme Court. Together with

LGBTQ organizations in the US, the company introduced the Next Generation LGBTQ Leaders’

Initiative. This is a program whose goal is to educate, link up and motivate young LGBTQ

leaders (The Coca Cola Company 2021). In addition, the company has worked in different states

in a bid to counter the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) legislation that is against the

LGBTQs. Coca Cola worked with Georgia business in 2020 to shoot down the RFRA legislation

with similar initiatives in Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.

Furthermore, in order to promote gender and minority groups, Coca Cola has supported

black-owned suppliers. The longstanding commitment of the company to promote diversity has

gained momentum, especially now as the minority-owned business are feeling the effects of the

COVID-19 pandemic, economic slowdown and increased rates of racial discrimination (The

Coca Cola Company 2021). By May 2020, 40 percent of the businesses owned by Blacks were

closed due to the pandemic. Though relief programs from the government have helped to some

extent, many businesses still require support and could suffer permanent shutdown. Given this,

Coca Cola decided to increase spending with the minority businesses across its supply chain in

the next five years by about $500 million (The Coca Cola Company 2021). With this pledge,

Black entrepreneurs will be accorded opportunities for growth. In addition, they will have

economic empowerment opportunities. Spending will cover existing partners across the supply

chain that include, warehouse, transportation, information technology, construction engineering

and marketing among others. Similar announcements were made in 2021 to the effect that

American-based law firms working for Coca Cola must pledge that about 30 percent of every

billed associate time would be from diverse attorneys (The Coca Cola Company 2021). On the

other hand, half of these amounts would come from Black attorneys.

Coca Cola has done a lot more in promoting women empowerment. There is a strong

belief that empowering women means empowering society. On the same note, research has

established 90% of women’s income is reinvested in families and communities as opposed to

40% when it comes to men (The Coca Cola Company 2021). Furthermore, promoting women’s

equality could add about $12 trillion to the global economy by 2025. However, many American

women do not have access to the knowledge, skills and capital needed for success in business.

When these women are empowered with resources such as loans and training, it might as well be
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a perfect CSR move. It would be an economic opportunity to help bolster sustainability of

communities (McPherson, 2016). For Coca Cola, women hold the key to global success.

This is why the company set a goal in 2010 to ensure that 5 million women were

empowered by 2020. From this moment on, the company has collaborated with a number of

partners to offer crucial resources that would assist women entrepreneurs better their lives and

those of their families and communities (The Coca Cola Company 2021). The resources include

business skills training, financials services and a chain of networks that offer mentorship. Coca

Cola believes that attaining equality for women and ensuring they are empowered will have

beneficial societal effects. By promoting the economic empowerment of 6 million women in US

and other parts of the world, the company and its partners are happy to have surpassed the 5by20

goal (The Coca Cola Company 2021). Women involved in 5by20 program were found in tasks

such as retail and supply among others.

In summary, Coca Cola has embraced corporate social responsibility as a core pillar in

defining its success not just in the US but across the world. As part of its CSR initiatives, the

company has worked to promote gender and minority groups including addressing the plight of

women, LGBTQs and racial groups such as African American entrepreneurs. The company

operates in ways that help create a future that is not only sustainable, rather recognizes the

contribution of all stakeholders. In addition, Coca Cola strives to make a difference in the lives

of the people, communities and the world as a whole by ensuring that their businesses are

conducted in the right manner.

References

About the Coca Cola Company. (2021) The Coca Cola Company, Retrieved March 22, 2021

from https://investors.coca-colacompany.com/about#:~:text=The%20World's%20Largest

%20Nonalcoholic%20Beverage,than%20200%20countries%20and%20territories.&text=Our

%20portfolio%20of%20brands%20includes,and%20other%20sparkling%20soft%20drinks.

Agudo-Valiente, J., Salvador, M., and Ayerbe, C. (2017) Corporate Social Responsibility

Drivers and Barriers According to Managers’ Perception; Evidence from Spanish Firms.

Sustainability 9(10):1821 • October 2017

Coca Cola CFO John Murphy on How Male Employees Can Support the Company’s Gender

Equality Agenda. (2021) The Coca Cola Company, Retrieved March 22, 2021 from

https://www.coca-colacompany.com/news/coca-cola-cfo-on-gender-equality-agenda

Coca Cola Commits $500 Million in Additional Spending With Black-Owned Enterprises. (2021)

The Coca Cola Company, Retrieved March 22, 2021 from

https://www.coca-colacompany.com/news/coca-cola-accelerates-commitment-to-black-owned-

businesses

Holgersson, C., and Romani, L. (2020) Tokenism Revisited: When Organizational Culture

Challenges Masculine Norms, the Experience of Token Is Transformed, European Management

Review Autumn Volume17, Issue3 (Fall) 2020

How The Coca-Cola Company Enables Women Entrepreneurs. (2021) The Coca Cola Company,

Retrieved March 22, 2021 from https://www.coca-colacompany.com/shared-future/women-

empowerment
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How Coca-Cola Supports Inclusion and Equality for the LGBTQ+ Community. (2021) The Coca

Cola Company, Retrieved March 22, 2021 from https://www.coca-colacompany.com/news/coca-

cola-fosters-inclusive-lgbtq-community

Inegbedion, H., Sunday, E., and Asaleye, A. (2020) Managing Diversity for Organizational

Efficiency, Sage Open Volume: 10 issue: 1,

McPherson, S. (2016) Lessons From Coca-Cola, Nestle And More On Investing In Women

Workers. https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanmcpherson/2016/10/28/how-companies-are-

empowering-women-across-the-value-chain/?sh=1438cb65169f

Sun, W., and Price, J. (2017) Doing good and doing bad: The impact of corporate social

responsibility and irresponsibility on firm performance, Journal of Business Research, 80(2017),

p 82-97