Assignment Sample on M182LON Intended Module Learning Outcomes

Introduction

Toyota corporation is one of the biggest car manufacturing companies of the world and there are certain business management techniques that has been pioneered by them which has given them great benefits as well. Over the years, from the 1970s, the great leadership strategies in the company have shaped the success of the company in many different ways that is vital to note and understand as well (Choi & Lee, 2018). In fact, in the current scenario, the market share of the chosen organization is better than the Ford, Chevrolet, Honda. Even, the different factors such great culture at the workplace and empowerment of the workers from all the departments from Toyota – has resulted in the development of cardinal success for this famous automobile organization. The quality generation for the products along with creativity and innovation are the main strengths of the Toyota organization that is vital to understand as well. Taking on the world famous American and German car manufacturers was never going to be easy and that is why, Toyota has come a long way to become the leader in the automobile world (Huamán et al., 2019). But recently, there are various types of car issues that has been faced by the customers of the brand and these pertain to engineering to the systematic issues that is critical to note. In the recent types, the main problems reported were failed fuel pump, transmission slips, brake clunking, defective fuel cell, gear fluctuations, assist failures, engine shut off, defective airbags, damaged brakes, and problematic cylinders. And there are questions being raised regarding the leadership and effectiveness of the organization as well regrading the work culture in the most recent types that is causing the problems to be starting. Being a department manager in the company of Toyota, there will be certain evaluations done by me, based on which the recommendations will be given.

Evaluation of Leadership and organizational effectiveness

Manufacturing issues

The manufacturing and the assembling issues are becoming one of the most difficult challenges for the Toyota organisation, as mentioned in the preceding section. That is why, the clients of the company are complaining about the faulty parts and the lack of longevity of newly launched Toyota cars which is important to understand as well. The chip shortage is a major problem that affected the productions of Toyota across the world, and this is affecting the motto of the company as well – leading to the development of the quality issues that is critical to note. There have been viral attacks on the security and the chips used by the Toyota organisation, and this has caused the manufacturing issues to become more critical in the organisation which is important (Aoki & Wilhelm, 2017). That is why, as per the reports, the global productions of the company are being cut by an extent of almost forty percent which is why, the ethos and the culture of the company is being affected to a great deal as well. And this is more so, as because the competitions from the other organisations are very fierce and any percent of the cut downs can lead to the development of the losses on the large scale, in the financial segment. The faulty engines and the brake issues are amongst the highest problems of the company that is critical to note and lack of quality management and leadership with respect quality management and risk management has been the main issue for Toyota – in the recent times which is important to note as well (Monden & Talbot, 2019). Even with respect to the COVID 19 pandemic, there has been cut downs in the workforce and operational plants of the company and this has impacted the morale and the business productivity of the company that is critically important to note and also to understand. And that is why, the servant leadership which is the current leadership style followed at the organisation, needs to be transformed to the transformational leadership as motivations and the strategic planning is clearly lacking in the company, nowadays. The problems in the internal environment of the company are also affecting the external brand image of the company and its cars as there are defects that are not being closed by the project management, quality management as well as the operations department. The errors in the car engineering and assemblage as well quality problems are being passed onto the showrooms where the cars are bought by the consumers as well.

Issues with standard operating practices                                                                     The external market has the big issues of the restrictions such as the gas and oil which has impacted upon the crisis in the automobile sector as well and Toyota car manufacturing and marketing processes have also been affected by this. The hydrogen cells or the lithium cells operated cars in the market are affecting the market shares of the company that is important to understand as well. And as the world is slowly but progressively moving to electric cars due to the factors such as sustainability and environmental safeguarding, the restrictions on the petrol cars such as that of the Toyota are also increasing at the same time. Also, to be noted, that the other car companies and not only Toyota in the non-electrical segments are affected with the same problems, such as Toyota (Li, 2018). The perceptions about reachability and reusability are one of the major problems that has affected the attitudes towards work, of the Toyota staffs and this is more so because, the consumers are worried about the same. The internal protocols for the employee discipline and the professional behaviors and actions allowed in the company, is also becoming problematic with the car company and clearly, the existent standard operating practices are not working for the company. That is why, in the post Covid era, the creative leadership for continuous growth and development of the Toyota organization is becoming such a big and huge problem that is important to note and understand as well (Lohse-Busch et al., 2018). Even the consumer health risks, and the number of deaths caused due to accident of the Toyota cars have been the major crux of the bad perception about the Toyota cars in the recent times that is important to understand. And these consequences are rising or being caused due to the lack of proper manufacturing and quality practices as well as leadership crisis, affecting the many departments and the protocols of the organization. Although the leadership in the company is based on what is called as nurturing, learning, teaching and sharing which are great principles all right, but recently the essence of these – that should be seen in the quality – is not felt at all. Not just the protocols such as the standard operating ones are the problems but is also the lack of clear directive giving to the teams and the individual who are on their own projects are also creating the clear set of issues and the problems that is important to note too. In Toyota, the teams that works in the manufacturing and the operations and even the marketing and sales departments are cross functional and that is why, the interdisciplinary skills and interprofessional education are the strengths of most of the people in the organization (Arora & Soral, 2017). While this is particularly good, the specificity is missing in many areas of organization and this is affecting the quality and the safety of the outputs, that is the cars delivered by the Toyota organization that is critical to note as well. Realistic application of the domain specific skills is a problem with many staffs and that is why, the standard operating protocols needs to be changes for the betterment of the outcomes. Everybody doing things on their own, is too much of freedom going the wrong way for the company and that is why, it is important to understand that the transformational leaders, consultants, and counsellors are needed to bring the workforce in place (Bilgeri et al., 2019). The common goal and goal sharing approaches are missing from the framework of the company, Toyota that is very much vital to note and also to understand. The lack of proper leadership is thus leading to the development of issues with the standard operating protocols, causing the many numbers of the orientation, dissatisfaction, and the management issues in the organization, that is Toyota corporation.

Strategic leadership and shaping organisational culture

The culture at Toyota

There are many factors that are responsible for the development of the leadership crisis and business problems for the Toyota organization. While the defects ratios of the new cars are increasing all the time, leading to a greater number of the road traffic accidents, the employee relations and the sharing of a common vision and goal is missing amongst team of the company in discussion here. The leaders are not strategically analyzing the external environment and that is why, the number of the internal problems are rising and team cohesion, team leadership and directing the team members towards the safety goals – has become a serious problem in the company of Toyota that is vital to understand. The corporate culture in the company is very much empowering of the staffs and every staff is following their own decisions and there is no strong leadership to assemble them into a team, a specific discipline for a specific work to be done at the company (Wang, 2021). The higher management of the organization is also becoming defensive of the issues caused by the cars that are manufactured by the company and that is why, it is of particular importance that the different elements of re-innovation of the Toyota’s corporate culture is being done. The higher management is not looking after the internal risks that are faced by the company and nor they are responding to the social risks well as well and that is where, the quality and corporate image of the company is dropping to a great extent (Mohammad & Oduoza, 2019). The leadership needs to become transformation and morally oriented than just being stuck at servant leadership as because the quality and the operational issues of the company due to lack of shared culture and vision (which has been discussed in the next section). On the overall, it can be said that the culture at the company is becoming more incoherent to its own moral and social values and the new culture of self-directed teams is not working for the company here that is important to make a point of.

The loss of shared culture and vision

There has been criticisms and reports that only in the manufacturing and productions process, the Japanese culture of integrity and waste management as well as innovation is followed, and this is missing from the other areas of the businesses that is vital to understand as well. That is why, the silos of the organizations are becoming issues for many other departments of the organization and the overall culture of maintaining the cross-functioning teams is becoming a serious issue for the company. And this is more so, because there is hindrance to the information flow via various departments of the organization. The communication as well as the accountability problems are serious for the company and lack of information flow through the various departments of the Toyota – is impeding its progress and causing the safety and quality issues (Malladi & Subramanian, 2019). The cohesion between the different areas of the company’s business is lacking which means while one of the departments such as the marketing is promising the best of products to the clients, the manufacturing department is not following the safety practices – leading to the presentation of the overall issues. There is lack of the vertical integration in the company and that is why, the communication between the key areas of the company’s practices is not happening properly – leading to failures on large scales (James, 2021). Client safety issues is one of the most difficult areas that is called by the company and that is why, there need to the internal communications happening at different levels, at a constant and continuous level. The accountability of the directors and the high-level managers are not being shown properly and that is why, this is reflecting in the company culture as the other staffs in other areas of the business are not showing the accountability too – for the large-scale company problems that is important to note. And that is why, the quality issues as well as the manufacturing defects with the Toyota cars are going on – for some time now, without any kind of resolution that is vital to understand as well. The strategic management needs to be done with the internal marketing and staff training which is required for the development of the right culture and the best practices in risk and safety management in the organization. The managers at different levels of the Toyota organization needs to be aligning their processes properly and supervision plus directing the staffs in the right direction. And transformational leadership needs to be taken by the organizational managers, in order to bring the right change in terms of risk management and safety in manufacturing in the organization that is very imperative for Toyota.

Leading, coaching and motivating

Coaching and motivating

The one-to-one approaches are required for the company’s major areas of problems such as the productions and the manufacturing. Mostly the staffs are lacking the skills and the right skills plus behaviors to perform the safety analysis and just in time productions properly which is causing the waste levels to become really high and also very problematic at the same time. That is why, the operation managers need to apply the lean management and waste management practices and also monitor of the individual gaps with the certain staffs that affecting the whole team and productions performance (Qureshi, Sohu & Keerio, 2020). Each staff and their dedication, their contribution is required for the productions area of the company and their actions needs to be collaborated and synchronized properly with each other for the department to do well. And as car manufacturing is the main business of the company Toyota, which is why, each and every staff in this department and across the all the plants needs to work with each other, following the standard operating protocols and also the best practices in the lean management (Martins & Enes, 2020). That is why, along with servant leadership, the transformational leadership is also very much required for the company and that needs to be applied by the managers and team leaders rightly. One to one counselling can be done and even feedback taking plus the practice of compliant taking is also very much critical for the practicing of the right quality values and practices in the manufacturing and the productions segment of Toyota that is particularly imperative. Currently, the managers at the company are lacking the communication, motivational and coaching skills and as the skills are not being demonstrated at the team meetings or the agile project management practices – the demotivation as well as the stress levels of the staffs in the department are decreasing. And this is finally affecting the number of road traffic accidents done by the Toyota cars in the real-world scenarios, reducing the corporate image as well.

Needs assessment is critical for the managers across different departments and as this is not done effectively by them, the staff problems and employee relation issues are increasingly growing in the company that is important to understand. And also, that there is not much collaboration between the operations, productions and the quality departments of the company chosen here, this is leading to increased level of issues with risks with safety of the car parts and thus of the clients who will be using them. The individual level skill gaps, professional issues and the performance gaps needs to checked well and based on the analysis of the gaps, the motivational counselling as well as the coaching and mentoring of the staffs needs to be done in the Toyota organization that is very much critical as well (Lohse-Busch et al., 2018). Coaching and hands on training plus the different types of the skills training with respect to the communication and domain specific knowledge is also very much needed for the Toyota corporate in order to design and deliver the absolutely flawless cars that is important to note and understand as well. Life skills can be issue of the employees because the stress levels tend to grow intense while working in the extra hours, to address the burden in the large multinational company like the Toyota. That is why, there is requirement for the development of the safe communication and cultural practices that will help the company grow properly and also deliver the safe cars to the market. Coaching, mentoring as well as the life skills training for better self-management will help the staffs across the organization function properly and therefore, the compassion will be maintained at the workplace of the Toyota corporation. Recognitions for the hard working staffs is also very important tool for the motivation of the Toyota staffs and this will encourage more work and positive productivity at the company.

Change leadership

The change leadership in the company is required especially in pertinence to the quality management and risk management. And that is why, as there are so many internal problems in the company and issues with strategies of the organization as in corporate communications, there is a very high need for the change management in these areas. Quality managers and more specifically, the six sigma specialists need to be hired by the company in order to drive the quality in the key area of problems. For so for risk management, the stratification, the root cause analysis, the value stream analysis tools need to be done properly in order to solve the critical internal problems affecting the company and leading to the accidents while driving of the Toyota cars. The change leadership needs to be focused on transformational approach, focused to drive a singe vision by the staffs from all the parts of the company, which is of integrity and moral practices focused on quality and also operational improvement that is vital to understand as well.

Conclusion

That is why, it can be concluded saying that the different changes pertaining to the quality and the risk management is required for the internal changes in the company and as currently it is not happening, the leadership crisis and the safety issues on the road – are resulting from it. That is why, transformational leadership as well leader directed team with specific domain knowledge is critical for the change management for the company. The quality experts need to look after the operations and the manufacturing very closely that is needed and important too, as well.

References

Aoki, K., & Wilhelm, M. (2017). The role of ambidexterity in managing buyer–supplier relationships: The Toyota case. Organization Science, 28(6), 1080-1097.

Arora, V., & Soral, G. (2017). Conceptual issues in lean accounting: A review. IUP Journal of Accounting Research & Audit Practices, 16(3).

Bilgeri, D., Gebauer, H., Fleisch, E., & Wortmann, F. (2019). Driving process innovation with IoT field data. MIS Quarterly Executive, 18, 191-207.

Choi, J., & Lee, S. (2018). Lessons from a crisis: An analysis of Toyota’s handling of the recall crisis. Journal of Public Affairs, 18(2), e1688.

Huamán, J., Llontop, J., Raymundo, C. & Dominguez, F., (2019), September. Production Management Model Based on Lean Manufacturing Focused on the Human Factor to Improve Productivity of Small Businesses in the Metalworking Sector. In International Conference on Human Systems Engineering and Design: Future Trends and Applications (pp. 847-853). Springer, Cham.

James, R. (2021). The Toyota Way or the unions’ way?: Examining the nexus between lean and unions in Toyota Australia. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(6), 1273-1311.

Li, Z. (2018). Business Network Positioning Analysis of Toyota. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 8(07), 1693.

Lohse-Busch, H., Stutenberg, K., Duoba, M., & Iliev, S. (2018). Technology assessment of a fuel cell vehicle: 2017 Toyota Mirai (No. ANL/ESD-18/12). Argonne National Lab.(ANL), Argonne, IL (United States).

Malladi, S. S., & Subramanian, H. C. (2019). Bug bounty programs for cybersecurity: Practices, issues, and recommendations. IEEE Software, 37(1), 31-39.

Martins, N., & Enes, J. (2020). Spot toyota: design and development of a mobile application for toyota’s promotion actions to the young audience.

Mohammad, I. S., & Oduoza, C. F. (2019). Lean-excellence business management for manufacturing SMEs focusing on KRI. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management.

Monden, Y., & Talbot, B. (2019). The Toyota management system: linking the seven key functional areas. Routledge.

Qureshi, M. A., Sohu, S., & Keerio, M. A. (2020). The impacts of operational risks in the supply chain of construction projects in Malaysia. Tehnički vjesnik, 27(6), 1887-1893.

Wang, Z. (2021). Exploring the potential of lean philosophy to spread the value of sustainability in the Japanese automobile industry: the case of Toyota Motor Corporation. Управління розвитком складних систем, (45), 176-181.

Personal Development Plan (this should be in your appendix)