Program evaluation plan for Coca-Cola's water stewardship initiative

Program Evaluation Plan for Coca Cola Company

The mission statement forms the basis for the roadmap of a company. It is the reference point that helps the management to make decisions. Coca Cola seeks to • Provide refreshment for the world

• Facilitate happiness and optimism in people's lives

• Create and add value as it seeks to inspire significant change (The Coca-Cola Company, 2016).

Vision

In order to continue enjoying sustainable growth of their business, Coca Cola uses its vision as the requisite framework for the description of the planned mission. This is the basis for sustainable growth. The following elements form the basis for their vision for success

• People: Coca Cola environment should be inspiring and be a place people want to work in all the time in a bid to become their best.

• Portfolio: present the world with a range of high quality drinks

• Partners: create a successful customer network that joins the company's mission to create mutual value for the long-term

• Planet: to become a good citizen by promoting community endeavors for sustainable growth

• Profit: increase the return that shareholders get even as it takes its responsibilities seriously

• To become effective while maintaining a lean size but move fast in business (The Coca-Cola Company, 2016).

The Water Stewardship Program by Coca Cola

Coca Cola takes its water stewardship program seriously. It seeks a comprehensive approach in this process. The program has been noted to have greatly improved the company's water efficiency in terms of usage. It is reported that the efficiency has gone up by about 20%. Yet, even as the risks for water usage increase and the expectations of the stakeholders also grow, the company realized the need to involve third party evaluation in its water efficiency programs. Thus, Coca Cola joined hands with Ceres Aqua and Irbaris to apply the Ceres Aqua Gaugetm technology in 2012 to assess and evaluate the weaknesses and strengths of its water stewardship (Walsh & Dowding, 2012). Later, in 2013, the company reviewed its goals for a sustainable water stewardship program. It applied the Aqua Gauge tools to assess its newly developed commitments. The company has set a new water efficiency threshold at 25% by the year 2020.

Methodology

This research will make use of quantitative data to unearth solutions to the questions raised. The research process will apply surveys and use open and close ended questions. Interviews will also be used where appropriate. It is a research anchored on meanings derived from word communication (Saunders et al., 2009). Analysis will be conducted by conceptualization. Qualitative approach incorporates inductive and deductive approaches. The research process will involve Coca Cola employees in India. Questionnaires will be given to these employees as a data collection strategy.

The Survey

The survey method is the primary method applied in this research. Questionnaires will be used to gather the necessary data. A large portion of questions will come with a list of responses that will require the participants to tick an option (Fisher, 2010). Questionnaires will be sent to the participants.

Questionnaires will be e-mailed to a mediator in New Delhi, India so as to make it easy for them t be given to the employees of Coca Cola India. It is anticipated that the responses will trickle back in over a month since it's a festive season in India. Employees of Coca Cola, Hindustan will provide the confirmation as to whether they are free to provide responses to the questionnaires set to them. If and after a confirmation is obtained, questionnaires will be issued to the employees.

Case Study

It is important for the researcher to undertake a case study on a company that the researcher is already aware of. This will help the researcher to gain meaningful insight into the Coca Cola Water Stewardship Program undertaken by Coca Cola. The research is focused on the need to preserve water for Coca Cola India.

Validity of Data and its Reliability

The design of the questionnaires used on the survey will determine the reliability of the responses to a large extent (Saunders et al., 2009). The questions should be carefully structured and their quality checked before they are issued. These influence the way participants respond. A questionnaire is termed valid if it consistently elicits responses and collects similar data. The criteria and content in this survey was pre-checked so as to ensure that the results are valid. The questionnaires were reviewed and revised severally to avoid including boring matter. Mitchell defined three approaches that have become common in an attempt to test the validity of questionnaire items and the research outcome, generally. These strategies include a. the test-retest b. internal consistency and c. the alternative form (Saunders et al., 2009). Close-ended questions are used to elicit precise responses about subjects. The method ensures that the research question is satisfactorily answered. MS Word was used to prepare the questionnaire. The layout was done in such a way that it is appealing to the eye and easy to read. There are several options provided for very question in the questionnaire. Participants are only required to tick the option that matches their response to the question. They are also required to rate the recruitment and consequent selection process.

Limitations

Some problems are anticipated in the research process at hand.

a. Possible interview cancellation. Although the intended data collection source is Hindustan Coca Cola Private LTD, the interviews may be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. In an effort to avert such a scenario, every member of staff in the organization will be interviewed. Thus, the cancellations will be adequately replaced.

b. According to Saunders et al. (2009), multimode data collection runs the risk of intruding responses received. Therefore, there is a risk of receiving limited questionnaires. Some participants might fail to send the questionnaires back. In order to avert this eventuality, the researcher will contact the managers in charge and ask them to follow up and ensure that all staffs return the completed questionnaires.

c. Some employees may not give accurate responses under the mistaken belief that their responses might affect their career in the organization. In order to overcome these fears, drop points will be identified to allow for random anonymous depositing of the questionnaires for collection later.

d. Language and geographical limitation. Since the research is to be conducted in India, the researcher may find it difficult to communicate with the Indian respondents at the Hindustan Coca Cola Private Limited. Thus, the researcher will have to enlist an intermediary translator to facilitate mutual and effective communication. The researcher reckons that even if some or all respondents understand English, generally, the Indian version may pose numerous communication challenges (Karnani, 2013).