Toyota Culture And Management Behavior

The company’s internal culture is predominantly laid back. There is no dress code, and language is informal. After the President, there is no defined hierarchy. These factors encourage a familial atmosphere and team concept.

In today’s modern, fast-paced, technology driven world it is all too easy to misinterpret and misunderstand situations, both personal and professional, that could easily be solved by taking a look into the cultural concepts and norms of a group or society. In cultures with a long history of social customs, it would be beneficial for those involved to examine the special features and norms that make up this culture in an effort to better the communication and understanding of personal and professional relationships. This area can be especially favorable in working with those of the Japanese decent as this culture is deeply intricate with many traditions and standards that have been passed on from generation to generation. Some of theses cultural

According to Toyota Way 2001 (n.d.), “The Toyota Way is supported by two main pillars: ‘Continuous Improvement’ and ‘Respect for People.’” The unit is continually making improvements to our process by “putting forward new ideas and working to the best of our abilities” (Toyota Way 2001, n.d.). Also by respecting the organization and our leadership’s decisions each individual’s effort affects the unit’s success.

For more than 50 years, Toyota Motor Corporation has been one of the world’s leading manufacturers of motor vehicles in the United States. It was born a Japanese company in 1935 and came to America in 1957. Now headquartered in Toyota City, Japan, it employs more than 300 thousand employees globally (Toyota Motor Corporation Company Profile, 2012). In addition Toyota is a global marketing organization. It strategically operates primarily through Japan, Asia, Europe, and North America; but its vehicles are sold in more than 170 countries and regions across the globe (Toyota Motor Corporation Company Profile, 2012). The Toyota brand is traditionally defined by brand attributes such as global leadership, innovation,

The sustained superior financial performance of a firm’s excellent management can be communicated through the managerial view of organisational culture, where strong culture can evidently been seen as the endeavour to an organisation’s success. (Barney 1986) emphasises the need for strong culture not only to enhance the firm’s performance, but it is also vital in improving employee morale or quality of work life. Due to the relationship between conflicts in the workplace originated from poor management, culture’s diverse values, assumptions, beliefs and symbols interweave the affiliation between employees and management. Culture therefore, aids in the behaviour which allows the increasing progress of economic value and sustained superior financial performance to the firm thus, benefiting their interest in profit maximisation (Ulrich & Brockman 2005). The progress of this management has been assisted by the careful selection and recruitment of employees through valid and reliable methods (Carmeli & Tishler 2004), with training and development in order to maintain this performance in the work organisation. Likewise, Westco, of the top five food retailing organisations in the UK is

A norm of spectacular customer service will sell your products and engage your employees. Tolerating poor performance or exhibiting a lack of discipline to maintain established processes and systems will impede your success.” (Heathfield). Which is true of subsystems and organizations as a whole, if one department is not accountable for what they are responsible for, the organization as a whole, can fail. Subsystem norms must to align with organizational norms and culture, otherwise, “when your work culture is strong, most people in the group agree on the culture. When your work culture is weak, people do not agree on the culture. Sometimes a weak organizational culture can be the result of many subcultures, or the shared values, assumptions, and behaviors of a subset of the organization.” (Heathfield). “When the organization culture supports teamwork, team members understand how the strategy of using teams fits in the total context of their organization's strategic plan and success goals.” (Heathfield). Furthermore, “in a successful team culture, teams understand where their work fits in the total context of the organization’s mission, goals, principles, vision, and values.” (Heathfield).

It is arguable that Toyota’s ability to deliver on its ‘customer first, quality first’ policy is due to its organisational structure. Toyota’s organisational structure was based on a traditional Japanese business hierarchy in which the most senior executives. This centralised decision making system places the responsibility of all the decision processes solely on the most senior executives. This type of organisation structure is characterised by limited delegation of authority with all the information flowing downward. This structured was utilised within the global platform, which meant the production within American Toyota plants were heavily monitored by a Japanese counterpart. This was done in order to make sure that protocol was

This is the essential component of the business. Therefore, Toyota uses its powers to support and preserve its employees. Toyota has a well-coordinated and systematic production that efficiently uses the workforce. The central philosophy of human resource management is to give employees with material considerations to develop their work skills. The strength of the company to continually reward employees can also efficiently keep employees in the company without leaving. These arrangements allow employees to work in a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere, thereby enhancing productivity and quality to developing a competitive

After WW2 Japan was in an economic crisis which continued until 1949 when the company obtained a loan from several banks. In June 1950 the company only produced 300 trucks and management announced layoffs and wage reductions and in response, the union went on strike which last for two months. While the strike did eventually end and layoffs and wage reductions did occur the union stipulated that the president Kiichiro Toyoda must resign. Kiichiro Toyoda resigned from his company and the company then came under the leadership of Taizo Ishida CEO of Toyoda Automatic Loom. In 1950 a separate sales company Toyota Motor Sales Co was established (lasted until 1982). In 1956 the Toyota dealership chain was established. In 1957 the Crown motor vehicle became the first Japanese car to be exported to America thus establishing Toyota’s American division. In 1960s Toyota began to expand with a new research and development facility in Thailand. The first Toyota motor vehicle built outside Japan was in April 1963 in Melbourne. From 1963-1965 Australia was Toyota’s biggest export market. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wuki/History_of_Toyota)

They have a power culture which has a centralized decision making party. This culture has no flexibility, centrally rigid and is mono national thus, has contributed in failure to respond to the defects. Though the corporate culture is known for its efficiency but this culture in case of the Toyota has lead to wrong decision which enhanced the issues of the company.

As well Toyota use a set of philosophy value principles that applies to all Toyota employees at every level which are called Toyota Way. It helps team members to come to correct solutions, improve continuously, accept the challenges and mutual respect between everyone who is involved in success of Toyota team. The principles can be divided in two groups.

A web-enabled platform was introduced, which was integrated with group-work, whereby the specially-trained ‘coach’ of the group could relay feedback and advice to participants. Bajer, the specialist who came in to aid the process, noted that after 100 days new behaviours and new ways of doing things had formed, with new language coming with this. Employee engagement, measured each year, was at an all-time high. The message that was taken from this was ‘it is possible to change the culture of an organisation... no matter how challenging it might seem at the start’ (Losada and Bajer, 2010). Similar success can be seen with NUMMI, a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota, outlined by John Shook (2010). What was seen here mainly affected the chronically under-performing Fremont plant of GM, but did have significant effects across the company. Previously there had been a culture upon which management had no control over. Quality had been known to be sabotaged and absenteeism often reached 20%; more than anything the culture was ‘anti-General Motors’. However, after the majority of workers were sent to Japan for training and then the adoption of not only Toyota’s stop-the-line production system1, as well as some of their key principles, a mutual trust was formed and the culture was reformed. Toyota’s ‘Respect for People’ tenet (Shook, 2010) summarised the vast change that had

In terms of training sales and after-sales staffs, Toyota attaches equal importance (Hill 2007). In addition, Toyota carried out projects together with other automobile companies in order to cultivate talents for the country. Toyota 's efforts in training personnel not only enhance their own competitiveness, but also promote employment and maintain social stability, which has played a significant role.

The culture and work environment at BMW greatly influences the performance and production of its workers. Associates are indeed happy with their employment there. Some are so happy with their employment they are willing to work extra hours on heavy productions days and not

vehicles are regarded as a status symbol. It is the guiding principles of Toyota which