The Seven Levels of an Ethical Organization guide organizational members and influence their performance. These levels include the financial stability, communication, systems and processes, accountability, alignment, social responsibility, and sustainability (Schaubroeck et al., 2012) The focus of this analysis is to examine the application of the seven levels of the ethical organization in Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is a global organization involved in the production and sale of beverages across the world. Some of the favorite brands of Coca-Cola include Coca-Cola zero, diet coke, Minute Maid, and Coca-Cola life. I have selected Coca-Cola company due to my previous job experience with the firm and my discursive essay too. Coca-Cola is a highly ethical organization given that apart from its profit pursuit, it also focuses on corporate citizenship activities.

The organization based on the seven levels of the ethical model focuses on financial stability, accountability, social responsibility, internal processes, sustainability, and communication. Coca-Cola has shown an outstanding performance regarding these areas of ethical leadership. As an ethical organization, Coca-Cola has built a profitable business model to ensure that it meets the needs of its stockholders (Oxford, 2015). The golden rule in the seven-level ethical model is that an organization must be profitable and generate wealth for its shareholders. During the financial year ending December 2017, the company made a total net profit of $ 1,248 million, which is an indication of a profitable company that fulfills the needs of its shareholders on wealth maximization. However, the net income was a drop from the previous years 2015 and 2016, in which the company made a net income of $ 7,351 million and $ 6,527 million respectively.

Apart from the financial focus, Coca-Cola demonstrates leadership in corporate social responsibility through its products and community engagement. At the product level, Coca-Cola understands that its products have the potential to cause health problems to the consumers if consumed irresponsibly. Some of these health effects include obesity cases due to calories intake from the beverages. In 2012 and 2013, the company came up with a campaign dubbed "Coming together", in which it teaches the customers on the appropriate calories intake and ensures healthy living by customers (Karnani, 2014). The campaign has emphasized Coca-Cola's commitment to eradicating all forms of obesity. The company also provides product labels and responsible marketing interventions to ensure the health of the consumers. It also encourages its employees and funds pro bono works and community initiatives to support the local communities where they operate.

Regarding sustainability, Coca-Cola re-builds communities where it operates through recycling and environmental conservation. In 2017, Coca-Cola launched a campaign in the United Kingdom encouraging consumers to recycle plastic bottles, which is a sustainability drive for ecological preservation. In 2011, the company also invested approximately $ 23 million in projects aimed to minimize carbon emissions from its manufacturing plants (Karnani, 2014). In the same year, Coca-Cola reduced the weight of its 500 ml bottles to 21,7 g from 24,7 g in Belgium and France reducing the material usage.

Coca-Cola also performs relatively well on accountability, communication, and internal processes. The company provides its sustainability reports regarding its community involvement and environmental activities to the investors to increase accountability. The company also invests in its self-advocacy. It shows the environmental policy, corporate taxation, and product-specific policies (Udayasankar, 2008). The company opposes unfair tax policies that single out a particular class of its beverages to protect its shareholders. Its employees participate in pro bono activities in the communities where the company engages in volunteer programs, and it enhances relational outcomes at the organizational level.

Currently, Coca-Cola is operating at the level of sustainability. The company has already gained success on matters of financial sustainability, accountability, efficient systems, social responsibility, and alignment of the organization to its core mission, vision, and values. However, sustainability is still an issue, as various stakeholders raise criticisms over the company's products and advertisements (Udayasankar, 2008). One of the sustainability issues that the company is facing is regarding the health effects of its products. Critics warn that Coca-Cola deceives customers through its product labels and advertisements (Oxford, 2015). For example, Coca-Cola zero sugar, one of the latest product launches of the company has been blamed for using deceptive labels to lure customers. Coca-Cola zero sugar promises the customers of a sugarless product to quell the concerns of obesity that have been raised against previous beverage brand such as Coke Zero, but the critics warn that the branding is deceptive. Sustainability is also a concern at the Coca Cola's manufacturing sites, and currently, the company is seeking alternative ways to achieve economic packaging of the beverage products as well as recycling of plastic wastes.

The level of operations of Coca-Cola presents numerous opportunities and challenges when leading project teams. Regarding opportunities, the company has the potential to increase the recycling of the plastic and non-plastic bottles from its packaging materials and increase earnings. Such a strategy will enable the company to improve the remuneration of its project teams and increase the sustainability. However, the challenges likely to be faced include conflicting goals by project teams in different markets who have several focus points and priority areas (Karnani, 2014). There is also the challenge of conflicting goals and value systems among project teams from diverse cultures. Some managers and project teams may be against sustainability programs in favor of financial goals, which may interfere with the implementation of the project goals.

To conclude, Coca-Cola performs relatively well at several levels of an ethical organization. The company is financially sound to fulfill the shareholder's goal of profit maximization and involves itself in corporate social responsibility and sustainability programs to strengthen the local communities and the environment where it operates. Currently, the company operates at the sustainability level where it aims to overcome the issues relating to the health of its products and involvement in sustainability programs such as recycling and environmental conservation. Some of the opportunities of the company include recycling increase and the creation of new opportunities for its project teams, while the challenges are conflicting goals and values of the diverse teams.