Toyota: A Glimpse of Leadership, Organizational Behavior, and Organizational Structure
Courtney Berry
Organizational behavior is the study of application of individuals’ behaviors within structured groups within an organization (Robbins & Judge, 2007). The field of study identifies behaviors within specific groups and individuals in organizations and how the structures of organizations play a role in behaviors (Robbins & Judge, 2007). In the past several months, the leading company in the car industry has been experiencing a quality control and consumer product safety issue. Toyota is not only encountering a quality control issue but also a senior management crisis issue. The corporate leadership team of Toyota did not recognize
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These behaviors are found at the managerial role but play an important and predictive role at determining the behaviors of an organization and its structure. When Toyota led the way in the car industry the organization was firing on all cylinders in their organizational behavior. At the individual level, job satisfaction empowers the employees to make decisions on the line and create effcient processes that lead to high production. At the group level, communication and decisions are made across multiple teams and employees to engineer the highest level of product leadership (Womack & Shook, 2007). The organizational level mirrors the individual and group level that creates a culture of pride within Toyota. This organizational pride creates a culture of employees with a belief that Toyota engineers the best products. Organizational structure is the backbone to the strategy of an organization. It helps carry out new strategies by differing structure designs and parameters in which individuals and groups communicate within organizations (Mintzber, Lampel, Quinn, & Ghoshal, 2003). The car industry typically mirrors the machine organizational structure. The work is highly standardized and is designed to run by a large technostructure to formalize behaviors and actions (Mintzber, et al, 2003). The structure of this design typically limits power at the operator
An organization can be defined by its successes and-slash-or its failures, while the behavior of an organization determines its success or failures. Organizational behavior concepts are extremely important when determining the future of any company. Organizations constantly have to compete with one another and by doing so it applies certain concepts to its business to ensure that its organization is profitable and that it is able to provide continuous employment. Therefore, it is vital to the life of the organization that the necessary steps are taken to engrave organizational behavior
Organizational structure is a system used to define a hierarchy within an organization which improves operational efficiency by providing clarity to employees at all levels of a company. A systematically outlined structure can also provide direction for internal promotions, allowing companies to create employee advancement routes for entry-level workers. In other words, it identifies each job, its function and where it reports to within the organization. Harley-Davidson’s organizational structure, for example, assists centralized control of the business through the company’s arrangement of its components in terms of their interactions and functions. As one of the world’s oldest motorcycle manufacturers in the world, Harley-Davidson Inc. maintains this organizational structure and centers its current focus on a limited number of markets. While the business continues to grow by international expansion, Harley-Davidson’s corporate structure focuses mainly on the fact that most of the company’s revenues are generated in the United States. Thus, Harley-Davidson has a functional organizational structure that is based on the company’s current focus on the motorcycle markets in developed countries, especially the United States, in addition to ensuring centralized control of business activities. The basic characteristics of Harley-Davidson’s organizational structure include Function based groups, Centralization, and Global hierarchy.
Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A. (2013). Organizational behavior (10 ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/ Irwin. .). Retrieved from http://gcumedia.com/digital-resources/mcgraw-hill/2013/organizational behavior_ebook_10e.php
As stated by Robbins and Judge (2011), “organizational behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within
Organizational behaviour is field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, group, and structure have on behaviour within the organization. It is the study and application of knowledge about how people act within organizations. It covers three determinants of behaviours in organizations: individuals, groups, and structure.
Organizations differ in the quality of organizational behaviour that they develop. These differences are substantially caused by different models of organizational behaviour that dominant management’s thought in each
The managerial research paper is about the organizational behavior of different levels of managers in a company or organization which includes all the departments and divisions of the entire organization. In this I personally interviewed a successful leader and manager of the organization .from this I have researched deeply about his entire organizational behavior in different levels of his total managerial career till the date. In this paper I would like to share and elaborate the concepts of organizational behavior technically compared with his career in real life.
Organizational Behavior (OB) is defined as a study in which individuals relate to each other in an organizational and group setting. Analysis are conducted through various perspectives, incorporating behavior inside the organization in regards to other establishments. “Organizational behavior is the methodical study of how individuals / groups think and act within organizations exhibiting how these activities affect the effectiveness of the organization as a whole” (Weinclaw, 2015). The two studies used in organizations as analysis are Micro Organizational Behavior and Macro Organization. Micro examines how individuals and groups are motivated by organizations. Focusing mainly upon the
This paper will outline my personal definition of “organizational behavior” and how it affects the workplace in a both positive and negative way. As I established a definition for organizational behavior on my own, I realized how broad the term really is. I will discuss the different leadership styles and how they benefit the workplace, how the employees work ethic is based on the different organization structures, how organizational behavior can be promoted by organizational constraints, and how culture can affect the workplace negatively. Each topic discussed will relate back to organizational management and how it affects employees and their employment. Embedded into the research included, by others, I have added my own personal theories and examples to lay out how organizational behavior is significant in different ways. This research paper will include the following researcher’s examinations, Hyten, Kaifi, Noori, Tomer, and Treven. With their past research I am able to show evidence of how my personal definition is precise.
One of Toyota’s issues was their lack of organizational culture, perceived or real. Thus, organizational culture is the shared values that are accepted by members of the organization (Bethel, 2016). Unfortunately, Toyota’s corporate culture was one of total secrecy, which left many feeling there was something amiss. Further, “corporate arrogance, complacency, and company insular nature” were evident (Parnell, 2014, p. 603). Additionally, newly appointed CEO Akio Toyoda was invisible, which created contention amongst others in leadership. There seemed to be a belief that family members were focused on safety, while non-family members were focused on profits (Parnell, 2014).
Organizational behavior (OB) could be defined as the study that investigates the impact of individual and group dynamics in an organizational setting
Organizational behavior is the behavior of individuals, either one or a group. It is not the behavior of an organization, but rather the behavior of the people in an organization. This can be anywhere from a family at home to a church to a work group within a company. Some of the challenges that make behaviors challenging in today’s workplace are high performance, ethical behavior, productivity improvement, technology utilization, quality, diversity, work-life balance, and the global economy, (Schermerhorn, 2003, P. 1).
Organizational Behavior is the study of individuals and their behavior within the context of the organization in a workplace setting for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.
I believe that the relationship between the study of Organizational Behavior and the effective management of people in organizations is absolutely direct. It is impossible to manage people in organization effectively without knowledge about OB, organizational structure, communicational skills, empoyees’ satisfaction, motivation, change process, etc. It is impossible to solve any problem or conflict in the organization without understanding of the rules of Organizational Behavior. Whenever people interact in organizations, many factors come into play. Modern organizational studies attempt to understand and model these factors. Like all modernist social sciences, organizational studies seek to
Structure defines the formal relationship and usage of people to accomplish all of an organization’s activities (5). Mercedes Benz is well-organized when it comes down to making sure all organizational activities and jobs are accomplished. It follows a matrix structure, which is a connection of one type of organization to another so that two chains of command are directing individual employees. Figure 1.1.shows the main operating companies and how their structure works. The reason why they follow this structure is because they require large numbers of technical people with different skills to work in projects as a team. Mercedes works as a pyramid with top managers on top, middle managers, human resources, finances, marketing, sales etc. Every department has specific jobs and task to follow, Corporate Communications/Public Relations job is to manage public relations and internal communications to retailers, to foster a positive news-media environment for MBUSA, Mercedes Benz, smart USA and Sprinter products, and smart USA and Sprinter retailers, by cultivating relationships with key stakeholders and maintaining a positive media image. In the customer service department Whenever Mercedes Benz owners are in need, customer service is there, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, to answer their questions, provide solutions to problems, and offer technical and roadside assistance. Their employees are trained professionals who also support the dealer network by helping them