21st CENTURY CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The Coca Cola Company’s Corporate Social Responsibility

Introduction

“Corporate social responsibility (CSR)” is described as a business practice that a company considers undertaking for the benefit of the society it serves. This practice is noted can be in terms of- changing business activities to ensure that they are environmentally friendly and allocating some of the business resources to support community charities. In addition, employing ethical practices in managing employees and volunteering to promote community development programs and others are also part of corporate social responsibilities (Caramela, 2016). CSR are not mandatory for companies but are found to be important to them (Gonzalez-Padron, 2015). This study summarizes the CSR of Coca Cola Company and the following key words will be defined and incorporated in the summary- sustainability, strategic philanthropy, cause marketing, shared value, stakeholders, and global perspective. The study will end with a conclusion that sums up the findings.

A Summary of Corporate Social Responsibility of the Coca Cola Company

The mission of the Coca Cola Company is that its relevance is to be of value to its stakeholders in the long term (O’Rourke & Tuleja, 2008). The firm’s stakeholders are numerous and they include- the government, the shareholders, the social groups, the customers, the communities, the employees, the environmental groups, and the suppliers. Thus, all the decisions that Coca Cola Company’s managers make are those that meet the interests of all the mentioned stakeholders (Bara, 2010). In this regard, the CSR activities of the Coca Cola Company cover a number of programs, which are in the following categories- education, environment, community, health, humanitarian, and in-kind. The percentage allocation of the company’s funds in each of the categories are- 17%, 25%, 28%, 19%, 3%, and 8% respectively. This is to say that much of the company’s CSR activities are in community, environment, and education (Dudovskiy, 2015).

Dudovskiy (2015) further expounds on each of the mentioned categories as follows- that in education, the Coca Cola Company educates its workers and empowers them. Under humanitarian, stakeholders are allowed to report on any violation of the businesses’ code of conduct, employee rights, or other applicable laws. In regards to health, the firm complies with labor laws, which includes “Occupational Health and Safety”. Under the environmental category, the Coca Cola Company- ensures that its operations are energy efficient for instance; this has been seen in choosing to use fuel-efficient vehicles. In regards to water resources, the firm has ensured a reduction of its water consumption in the beverage production and has managed to return close to 109billion liters of water back to nature and the community. Other initiatives are noted to include-empowering women in the community and the development of programs that promote physical activities in the community. 

To add on the above findings, O’Rourke & Tuleja (2008) informs that the Coca Company has made other commitments to increase its CSR. These commitments are said will be done through good citizenship and philanthropy. Such commitments are- donating to charities, allowing employees to volunteer in various community based events, providing technical assistance, and others. These commitments are those, which are both local and international. Some of the commitments that the firm has already fulfilled are- provision of educational scholarships to over 400 number of learning institutions, building schools in needy regions across the globe like in China and Philippine.

Definitions and applications of the Key Words

Reflecting on the Coca Cola Company’s CSR, one can say that it achieves the sustainability concept discussed by Gonzalez-Padron (2015). That is using resources sparingly now without exhausting them for the sake of the needs of the future generation. This sustainability concept has been employed by the company whereby, the water it uses in the production of its beverages is continually being reduced and more than 100billion liters of water is returned back to nature and the community. In regards to strategic philanthropy, it can be said that the CSR of the company have been attached to the company’s mission, which is to be of value to all the stakeholders. Here, the firm has allowed its employees to share their talents voluntarily to support community-based projects. Cause marketing is defined as that effort where charitable donations are made by purchasing a product. For Coca Cola Company, it has not been noted whether the firm makes use of cause marketing to support charitable programs in the community. However, it is conveyed that from its revenues, a part of it is allocated to charitable work. Shared value, which involves creating value to stakeholders as well as for the company can be said to include- offering scholarships even at the college level where talents are natured and developed for the benefit of the company. A global perspective is defined as a way in which globalized firms recognize the cultural differences that exist from one country to another and fulfilling what is expected of them. China, which shares the same culture as Japan, expects multinational firms to be naturally socially responsible and thus, the effort of building schools in the rural areas of China can be said to be a way in which the Coca Cola Company has fulfilled its cultural expectations in China (Gonzalez-Padron, 2015; O’Rourke & Tuleja, 2008; Dudovskiy, 2015).

Conclusion

The Coca Cola Company seems to take its CSR very seriously because of the great effort it has put to promote the interests of its various stakeholders. From the way it has distributed its efforts, it can be said that what is important to its business is what is allocated more support. What is conveyed is that issues like legal requirements, easy entry to new markets, business promotion, talent attraction, and retention are some of those considerations that have been addressed mostly by the firm’s CSR.

References

Bara, C. (2010). Corporate social responsibility and international development. GRIN Verlag: diplom.de.

Caramela, S. (2016). What is corporate social responsibility? Retrieved< http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4679-corporate-social-responsibility.html>.

Dudovskiy, J. (2015). Coca Cola corporate social responsibility. Retrieved< http://research-methodology.net/coca-cola-corporate-social-responsibility/>.

Gonzalez-Padron, T. (2015). Business ethics and social responsibility for managers. San Diego: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.O’Rourke, J. & Tuleja, E. (2008). Module 4: Intercultural communication for business 2^nd ed.: Culture and identity. Mason: Cengage Learning