As per the guidelines, “Effective research means we can bring about change for our clients at a much wider level than our daily practice often allows. The findings, results, and conclusions can lead to practical recommendations for practitioners, policy-makers, and the community. It can result in genuine changes at an individual, community, organisational and policy level. It therefore provides practitioners with great opportunities to make a wide-ranging difference”.
The social issues in our society cannot be understood properly without understanding the stakeholders in the society. In my opinion Multi National Enterprises (MNEs) play a significant role in our societies and is one of the most important stakeholder. Hence, I have chosen Coca Cola company as a case study to highlight the social issues prevailing in the company and the ways and means to solve those issues. I have chosen to highlight the knowledge sharing and knowledge management issues with a human resource focus for this research. My aim is to help Cola Cola to manage its internal knowledge more effectively, which in turn directly and indirectly affects millions of individuals and the society at large. I have chosen Coca Cola to write a research proposal, as this is a company which every one knows about as well anyone can associate with it.
Coca Cola is a successful multinational company which operates in almost every country of the world. The company management has developed processes and structures which have enabled this effective performance. One key element of success is decentralisation, which creates an environment where managers are given responsibility and are results driven. Also, the large independence of the business areas and of the divisions means that mid-level management has sectoral expertise. The policy of appointing local management wherever possible also helps the company best adapt to local conditions.
At the basis of this decentralised structure there is the principle that the people closer to the problem are closer to the solution. This idea underpins much of the Coca Cola culture.
The downside of this decentralised structure and culture however is the fact that there are few formal mechanisms for knowledge management and knowledge sharing within the company. The strength of a multinational company over a smaller company is the knowledge each part of the business has developed over time, which can be used by others in the organisation. However, multinational companies also typically find it difficult to manage knowledge internally. This is no less the case in Coca Cola.
Knowledge management at Coca Cola
From research I have discovered that there are few formal mechanisms for knowledge management. The main tools used at Coca Cola are the intranet, the appraisal meetings/business reviews, and informal networks. However, my initial assessment is that all these together do not provide for optimal knowledge management.

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