Q1: 1) What is force field analysis, how do you think Coca-Cola can use it for effective change management? MANAGING CHANGE IN COCA-COLA CORPORATION According to a Greek philosopher Heraclitus "there is nothing permanent than change". He believed that change is the core of universe. This quote describes the importance of managing change in human as well as organizational life. Importance of change management In a study 327 project managers had responded to the question that "if you had a chance to do it again, what would you do differently?" Most of them responded that we will implement an effective change management program planned way before starting the project. This study highlights the importance of change management in an organizational perspective. Change management moderates the risks that can cause failure (Jeff and Creasey, 2003). The change management process Change management is being studied by the philosophers, researchers and business experts for many years. A number of change management theories, approaches and philosophies are developed by psychologists and management professionals to implement successful change in the organization (Paton and MacCalman, 2008). There are three phases of change management i.e. preparing for change, managing change and reinforcing change. Preparation for change phase includes assessment of change capabilities and capacity and developing a strategy that fit to those capabilities. Second phase i.e. "managing change" phase includes processes like planning and implementation of strategies made in the first phase. Last phase which is the reinforcement of change includes the processes like collection and analyzing of feedback data, finding out gaps and coping with determined degree of resistance from inside and outside the organization and taking corrective actions to successfully conclude the change management process (change management learning center, 1996-2011). According to "Lewin's 3 step model", change is "episodic" i.e. it can be easily planned into three stages: 1. Unfreezing 2. Moving 3. Refreezing Managers at Coca Cola Company can motivate workforce in the "unfreezing" stage by informing them about the vitality of change being planned in context of organization benefits. Training to the staff members can make them more adept at accepting the transformational stage. In the "moving phase" the company can initiate practical steps with regard to the strategic plan for change. It can be achieved by developing strong relationships and offering rewards. "Refreezing" phase allows Coca Cola Corporation to make recently innovated change a part of their strategy so that workforce does not get back to the previously used operational methods of the organization (Robbins and Coulter, 2008). Change management-----A case of Coca Cola Corporation Coca Cola is a retailer, marketer and manufacturer of non-alcoholic drinks and is known worldwide for it coca cola beverage. In addition to its coca ...

1. Q1:
1) What is force field analysis, how do you think Coca-Cola can
use it for effective change management?
MANAGING CHANGE IN COCA-COLA CORPORATION
According to a Greek philosopher Heraclitus "there is nothing
permanent than change". He believed that change is the core of
universe. This quote describes the importance of managing
change in human as well as organizational life.
Importance of change management
In a study 327 project managers had responded to the question
that "if you had a chance to do it again, what would you do
differently?" Most of them responded that we will implement an
effective change management program planned way before
starting the project. This study highlights the importance of
change management in an organizational perspective. Change
management moderates the risks that can cause failure (Jeff and
Creasey, 2003).
The change management process
Change management is being studied by the philosophers,
researchers and business experts for many years. A number of
change management theories, approaches and philosophies are
developed by psychologists and management professionals to
implement successful change in the organization (Paton and

2. MacCalman, 2008). There are three phases of change
management i.e. preparing for change, managing change and
reinforcing change. Preparation for change phase includes
assessment of change capabilities and capacity and developing a
strategy that fit to those capabilities. Second phase i.e.
"managing change" phase includes processes like planning and
implementation of strategies made in the first phase. Last phase
which is the reinforcement of change includes the processes like
collection and analyzing of feedback data, finding out gaps and
coping with determined degree of resistance from inside and
outside the organization and taking corrective actions to
successfully conclude the change management process (change
management learning center, 1996-2011). According to
"Lewin's 3 step model", change is "episodic" i.e. it can be easily
planned into three stages:
1. Unfreezing
2. Moving
3. Refreezing
Managers at Coca Cola Company can motivate workforce in the
"unfreezing" stage by informing them about the vitality of
change being planned in context of organization benefits.
Training to the staff members can make them more adept at
accepting the transformational stage.
In the "moving phase" the company can initiate practical steps
with regard to the strategic plan for change. It can be achieved
by developing strong relationships and offering rewards.
"Refreezing" phase allows Coca Cola Corporation to make
recently innovated change a part of their strategy so that
workforce does not get back to the previously used operational
methods of the organization (Robbins and Coulter, 2008).
Change management-----A case of Coca Cola Corporation
Coca Cola is a retailer, marketer and manufacturer of non-
alcoholic drinks and is known worldwide for it coca cola
beverage. In addition to its coca cola brand, Coca Cola

3. Company offers 500 beverages and non-beverages brands in
about two hundred countries. The company was founded by Asa
Candler in year 1892. It's headquarter is located in Atlanta,
Georgia of United States of America. The company had total net
income of approximately 11.8 billion US dollars in year 2010
with total number of employees 139,600 worldwide. Company's
brand i.e. Coca Cola stands number one in the list of most well-
known brands of the world (Coca Cola company, 2006-2011).
Coca Cola is a type of company that requires making changes in
its products and business strategies according to the consumer
expectations and external environment. Here in this study we
would quote different examples from coca cola Corporation’s
history and will examine that what were the triggering events
for opting the change and what strategies the company
developed and implemented in order to successfully going
through the transitioning process.
The need for change in an organization is often created by
external and internal factors, where external ones encompass
governmental laws, labor markets, market conditions, economic
scenario etc. and internal factors are the workforce, resources,
attitudes of workers and strategy adopted by the organization
(Robbins and Coulter, 2008). Coca Cola Corporation is among
one of the oldest corporations of the world. It has gone through
many internal and external changes since it has been in
existence. The company has used techniques of change
management in order to survive from the consequences of those
events.
The company has faced a lot of external changes, for example in
world war II, the company was able to manage its existing
position at that time and also entered in many new markets and
discovered new niches (Coca Cola company, 2006-2011). The
company also provided free drinks to soldiers which were the
part of its strategy to become a patriotic symbol for the people
of the country. Also it boosted the sales, so the company
achieved two objectives by carefully planning to respond to that
external environmental change. The plants developed by the

4. company in war era helped its expansion after the war.
Barton et al (2002) reported that Coca Cola Corporation adopted
acquisition strategy in time of Asian financial crisis. The
company acquired bottling, coffee and tea shop businesses in
Korea and Malaysia. Beverage is a type of industry where tastes
and preferences of the consumers change on continuous basis.
Coca Cola Company also responded to such consumer changing
behaviors in an effective way by developing new products like
Diet Coke and Coca Cola Zero. The company also committed a
marketing blender when a rival company launched a black
beverage with comparatively sweet and smooth taste. The
product was named as new Coke. But the sales gradually went
down and company faced severe consumer critics and protests.
The company managed this situation very commendably by
restoring the old formula and naming the bottle as diet coke
(Kotler and Armstrong, 2010). As people are becoming more
health conscious and willing to invest on health based products,
coca cola is developing juices and various energy drinks as
well. This shows the company's strategy to responding varying
consumer tastes and expectations and changing itself according
to it.
The coco cola company used theory of organization change
presented by Kotler (1996) which elaborated the procedure to
manage change on the people dimension of the organization. In
addition to making operational and strategic changes, the
company also changed its advertising strategy by targeting
various groups of consumers like American consumers, African
consumers, Middle and far eastern consumers and European
consumers. The company altered the packaging of its coca cola
brand and developed more product lines and broadened them
globally (The Coca-Cola company case)
The present condition of Coca cola Company worldwide is very
good. The company is selling its beverages throughout the
world successfully. But in some countries, coca cola stores are
not as according to the company's main marketing, inventory
and efficiency theme. The company is planning to align its

5. performance standards according to its own corporate culture
and strategies with the help of a comprehensive change
management plan. These changes will be implemented within
the business operations and management of the company.
Change Management at Coca Cola
Organizational change might be referred to as any change
brought about in structure technology or people of an
organization. Change in structure is maintaining the span of
control, specifying different work roles, redesigning job
scenarios etc. Change in technology could be an introduction to
new innovative methods for improving the product's quality
launched by the organization. While change in people is to
bring about alterations in the way people think and act. It means
to modify their behavior towards the betterment of organization
(Robbins and Coulter, 2008, p.364).
Employee engagement
The recent change management at coca cola is directed towards
the intrinsic values and motivations of the employees and can
be referred to as 'employee engagement'. The change
management process, together with internal branding programs
is expected to bring about ideal behaviors in employees, which
would align the operations of coca cola worldwide, and bring
about efficiency throughout coca cola across all its business
segments.
Coca cola hopes to bring about a thoroughly integrated system
of communications, and focus on creating brand relationships
with their employees. This would enhance the operations of
Coca cola, as an integrated approach would mean all employees
believe in engaging fully in the values, and this would become
an inherent part of the employees at a personal level. Coca-Cola
is actively seeking to incorporate the change into its company
for "building capability in engagement, maintaining engagement
momentum and ensuring that engagement is integrated into
CCR's people practices" (Samdahl,2011). For this purpose,
employee engagement surveys are conducted twice every year
for all the coca cola associates, which serve to highlight the

6. areas where action is required, and further actions and
implementations can henceforth be executed.
Coca-Cola believes that their business results hinge on the
dedication of their employees to operational excellence. The
company truly recognizes the importance of the people to the
business, and knows that to continue to bring about tremendous
results it is bringing in, employees throughout the world should
believe in the values intrinsically, and therefore the employee
engagement is being focused on all the countries the company
serves to align, thoroughly integrate and align the company so
that operational efficiency can be achieved.
Importance of change to coca cola
Employee engagement is very significant to all segments of
operations at Coca-Cola and has translated into performance in
areas where employee engagement is higher.
For Coca-Cola, an engaged workforce means:
· A more committed workforce
· Employee performance aligned with organizational objectives
· Employees have a clear idea of what is expected of them and
what are the deliverables
· Customer experience focuses an inherent part of employees'
values, who strives to provide a better experience to the
customers. Customer focus was identified as a central tenant of
the multi-year engagement strategy to be implemented in
2011(Gee, 2011)
· When employees are aligned with company goals, they
themselves adopt a proactive approach towards issues such as
waste elimination
· Employees’ awareness gives them a voice which helps to
influence legislations at local levels
· An integrated system of communication is very helpful in the
volatile and dynamic markets of today, where conditions change
very often and the company has to be responsive at all times
Therefore, for all the business segment of Coca-Cola wherever
they are located across the world, the change towards employee
engagement is justified if they have to reap the fruits gained by

7. an effective system of integration.
Ensuring the Involvement of Required Stakeholders
Coca Cola Company can use two change management tools to
make sure that all people who are required to be the part of
change management process. These tools are Force Field
analysis and ADKAR model. Force field analysis is a technique
developed by Kurt Lewin to scrutinize the forces that are
causing an opposition to change process (Bass, 2009). By doing
Force Field Analysis, Coca Cola Company will be able to induct
people who are in need of appropriate training. Another useful
tool is ADKAR model which stands for Awareness, Desire,
Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. Through ADKAR
model, firm creates awareness about the need of change,
generate desire in the people to help in transitioning process,
give knowledge to the people that how they can help the change
process, develop an ability in the people to go through the
change and provide them with continuous reinforcement to
withstand the change (CMLR, 2011).
Ensuring that change is successful
Some considerations that will facilitate the change management
process include:
· productive and consequential dialogues and talks with
employee representatives
· Online and paper surveys from all the stakeholders involved in
the 'change' throughout the world, and with associates to gain
an insight on their perceptions
· Effective communication at this stage for informing the
stakeholders the reasons for change and the benefits it would
bring
· Overcoming the 'inertia' by taking all stakeholders in
confidence. The surveys can serve as a pre requisite to gain an
insight on the stakeholder perspective
· Details of the action planning process communicated to all
those who would initiate the change
Recommendations for Coca Cola Company
In the volatile dynamics with which companies operate today,

8. change is inevitable. Therefore, the focus should not be on
avoiding change, rather bringing about a smooth transition
towards the new change by communicating about the change,
and ensuring all parties of the change that it is for the best of
all those involved. To successfully implement organizational
change of any nature, a specific regards to organizational
structure, design, culture, management and leadership is
required to see whether the change would make a best fit with
the organizational goals and objectives.
First of all the company should ascertain the core problems
exist in the company for the change management. The company
may develop a change management program for responding to
financially uncertain environment of the world. It can also
develop change management programs for better operations and
logistics. The company can introduce new procedures and
technological systems to carry out operations. Programs can be
introduced in forms changing company's mission and corporate
culture enhancements. For all that, the most essential thing is to
train upper management to provide them with specific skills
necessary to effectively going through the transitioning process.
Following is the brief expression of plans that the company can
adopt.
Systems thinking
Systems thinking can be used to guide the successful change in
the organization. The model is based on an integrative and
interactive open system which consists of the variables,
attributes, internal relations and environment. The system is
based on characteristics like wholeness, interdependence, chain
of influence, need for balance and adaptability etc. in an open
system where communication is seen as an integrated process
that facilitates change within the organization..
Establishing new structure
It is a well-known fact that Coca Cola Corporation was an
entrepreneurial venture started by one person who bought the
formula from another firm and laid foundations of that
beverages manufacturing firm. Current structure of the coca

9. cola company is simple with minimal labor and management
division. New system that can be adopted by the company may
be the "machine bureaucracy" which Henry Mintzberg (1992)
defined as an organization with clearly defined hierarchy, well
defined area of operations, standard operating procedures,
proper rules and regulations, well division of labor, formal
relationships among the member of organization, centralized
decision making, technical competence and standardization of
work.
Reducing employee defiance or resistance
Opposition of change is a common human behavior.
Particularly, in the workplace people resist the change in
organizational culture, structure and policies. But in order to
successfully and effectively implement the change management
program, it is important for Coca Cola Company that it should
develop strategies to reduce employee defiance to change.
Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) explained six strategies which
can be useful for coca cola Company in employee defiance
management.
1. First strategy is to involve the employee in change process
and make them participate as far as they can.
2. Second strategy is to communicate the change management
programs to the people effectively to educate them about the
benefits the programs would bring. This will make them
comfortable in adopting the change.
3. Third strategy is negotiation and agreement. The company
should create a consensus on important change issues and with
the agreement of all important stakeholders; it should launch the
change management program. The resistance level will be zero
on change programs that are being launched with the mutual
agreement of all relevant stakeholders.
4. Fourth strategy is that to support the employees who are due
to some disability or emotional or psychological issue or some
other threat unable to adapt to the change. If the company
develops proper channel for such people, they would adjust
gradually to the change management program.

10. 5. In case of failure of above mentioned four strategies,
company can manipulate the employees by calling union leader
other than relevant ones as fifth strategy.
6. Sixth strategy is to force the employees with certain methods
but this is not a very good approach.
Conclusion
To conclude, it may be said that communication can be a key
element to successful change management. Communicate the
changes to the employees; tell them why the change was
inevitable and how they will benefit from the change. The
management should itself adopt a positive attitude towards the
change so that employees can follow their lead and welcome the
change. Coca-Cola as a company has a heritage of embracing
change rather than resist it and it should translate into their
future endeavors towards change management to ensure that the
organization is best poised to market under all sorts of
environmental condition.
Barriers in achieving work-life balance Implementing of work-
life practices for organizational effectiveness may be
compromised by lack of use these practices. Research conducted
amongst organizations in the UK suggests that employees often
remain unaware of their work-life entitlements following the
implementation of work-life balance practices (Kodz et al,
1998). For example, in a survey of 945 employees in six
different organizations across three sectors of employment
(local government, supermarkets, and retail banking), found that
50% of employees were unaware of the familyfriendly practices
offered by their organizations. (Yeandle et al 2002). Five
distinct aspects of work-life culture have been identified from
previous studies (McDonald et al 2005), all of which should be
considered by organizations when attempting to improve
employees’ work-life balance. These are outlined below: 210
European Research Studies Volume XIII, Issue (1), 2010
Managerial support is consistently emphasized in discussions
and studies as a factor influencing work-life balance. Managers

11. play an important role in the success of work/life programs
because they are in a position to encourage or discourage
employees’ efforts to balance their work and family lives.
Where supervisors enthusiastically support the integration of
paid work and other responsibilities, employees will be more
likely to take up available work-life programs. On the other
hand, it has been suggested that even in ‘family-friendly’
organizations, managers may send negative signals indicating
that the use of flexible benefits is a problem for them, their
colleagues and the organization as a whole (Hudson Resourcing,
2005) Career consequences: The second factor associated with a
barrier to the successful implementation of work-life practices
is the perception of negative career consequences. In a study of
463 professional and technical employees in biopharmaceutical
firms, ( Eaton 2003, 145) found that the provision of work-life
practices improved employees' organizational commitment, but
only to the extent that employees felt free to use the practices
without negative consequences to their work lives—such as
damaged career prospects. Similarly, (Cunningham, 2001), cites
an American Bar Association report that although 95% of
American law firms have a part-time employment policy, only
3% of lawyers have used it due to fear of career derailment. The
perception that using work-life balance practices will have a
negative impact on their career prospects appears to be a
powerful demotivator for employees' use of these practices
(Kodz, Harper, Dench, 2002). Organizational time expectation:
Another factor that influence the uptake and overall
supportiveness of work-life policies is organizational time
expectationsthe number of hours employees are expected to
work; how they use their time (e.g., whether employees are
expected to take work home); In several studies, however, long
working hours have been identified as a signal of commitment,
productivity and motivation for advancement. One study, based
on interviews with engineers in a Fortune 100 company in the
US, concluded: “If one is to succeed, one has to be at work, one
has to be there for long hours, and one has to continuously

12. commit to work as a top priority. To be perceived as making a
significant contribution, productivity alone is not enough. One
has to maintain a continual presence at work.” This is
particularly the case in organizations with “presenteeism”
cultures where those who succeed are the ones who come in
early and stay late as a matter of course. Known as “face time”
being visibly at workplace, often for long hours—is seen as a
sign of commitment, of loyalty, of competence and high
potential ( Beauregard and Lesley 2008, 9-12), but also is seen
as a major barrier to achieving work/life balance. Employees
who do not give the maximum amount of time possible to the
organization are often defined as less productive and less
committed, and are therefore less valued than employees
working longer hours; We consider that the shift to evaluating
performance on the basis of outputs rather than time spent
physically at the workplace is, however, an essential part of
developing a culture that supports work-life balance. It is very
difficult to implement The Role of Work-Life Balance Practices
in Order to Improve Organizational Performance 211 flexible
work arrangements in organizations where the focus is on hours
rather than output, and presence rather than performance. This
means that organizations that want to increase work-life balance
need to introduce new performance measures that focus on
objectives, results and output. To do this, they need to reward
output not hours and what is done, not where it is done. They
also need to publicly reward people who have successfully
combined work and non-work domains and not promote those
who work long hours and expect others to do the same. Genders
perceptions: Perceptions that work-life policy is developed only
for women are the fourth factor related to their use. A review of
men’s use of family-friendly employment provisions argues that
barriers to men’s use arise from three major sources. First the
culture of many workplaces casts doubt on the legitimacy of
men’s claims to family responsibilities. Second, the business
environment, imposing competitive pressures to maintain
market share and increase earnings. Third, the domestic

13. organization in employees’ own homes often precludes men
from taking up available work/life options. Some work-life
provisions, such as paternity leave, are intended specifically for
men and aim to foster a greater sharing of responsibilities
between men and women. Thus, encouraging more men to use
opportunities for flexible work is important but clearly this
requires a supportive work environment as well as changes in
attitudes and expectations in the wider community. Co-worker
support: An increasing amount shows that workers who make
use of work-life practices suffer negative perceptions from
colleagues and superiors. An experiment (Beauregard, Lesley,
2008) found that employees who used worklife balance
practices were perceived by co-workers as having lower levels
of organizational commitment, which was thought to affect the
subsequent allocation of organizational rewards such as
advancement opportunities and salary increases. Some staff that
use flexible arrangements have reportedly experienced
'familyfriendly backlash' or resentment from co-workers In
other organizations, employees without dependent care
responsibilities (in this paper, defined as time spent performing
childcare, eldercare or care for a disabled dependent) interpret
“family friendly” as favoritism and complain that they are being
“unfairly” or inequitably treated. We consider that such
employees feel that their colleagues with childcare or eldercare
responsibilities are “getting away with less work” and that the
needs of childless employees are being ignored, but this kind of
attitude should be changed. This backlash against “family
friendly” makes it harder for organizations who wish to address
the issue. In conclusion regarding such perceptions, it is
therefore not surprising why work-life practices tend to be
underused by male employees, single employees and career-
oriented mothers; and that apprehension of negative career
consequences for using practices has been associated with
increased levels of work-life conflict. Conclusions 212
European Research Studies Volume XIII, Issue (1), 2010
Changing demographics are behind the move to embrace work-

14. life programs. The decline of the traditional family, an increase
in dual-career couples, and a rise in the number of single
parents mean that employees are juggling more responsibilities
outside work. In conclusion we want to enhance that everyone
benefits from good practice in work-life balance. For instance:
business, through easier recruitment, improved retention, and
easier service delivery; the economy, as the labor market grows
more skilled and experienced people are available to work;
parents and careers, who can spend quality time at home as well
as providing financial support through work; people with
disabilities, through improved access to work; and the
workforce generally where they are better able to balance their
work with other aspects of their lives. The more control
employees feel they have over their lives, the more able they
are to balance work and family An overall conclusion of much
of the research is that work-life balance practice are most
effective when they enhance employees’ autonomy and increase
their capacity to perform well in work and in family situation In
summary, a successful convergence between work and non-work
aspects can be a win-win situation for employees and employers
alike. The ability to achieve satisfying experiences in all life
domains enhances the quality of personal relationships and a
range of organizational outcomes. Availability and use of work-
life balance practices, when provided in the context of
supervisor and organizational support can reduce work-life
conflict and increase positive appraisals of one’s organization.
These effects are often associated with employee attitudes such
as increased job satisfaction and enhanced control over their
work schedule. The results are: reduce absenteeism, intend to
turnover, job stress levels and work-life conflict and increased
productivity. A lower turnover intentions means: lower
recruitment and training costs, increased retention of valuable
employee and increased organizational commitment and loyalty.
All of these aspects are associated, in turn, with costs savings,
higher customer satisfaction and implicitly higher levels of
organizational performance. This article argues that building an

15. organizational culture which supports work-life balance is a
long term process for large organizations. It involves changing
the way people think and talk about their work and about work-
life balance so that using flexible working options and other
work-life initiatives becomes accepted and normal for everyone
regardless of their gender, seniority within the organizational or
personal commitments.