Case study 4000 words

Running head: CASE STUDY 1
EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND LEADERSHIP: THE CASE OF TOYOTA
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CASE STUDY 2
Employee Motivation and Leadership: The Case of Toyota
There is an intricate relationship between effective leadership and employee
motivation. In every successful organization, effective leadership has been able to elevate
employee morale, enhancing the degree of their engagement and motivation. To depict the
practical implementation of the aforesaid theory, this case study would be focusing on the
leadership of Toyota Motors, one of the leaders in the global automobile industry, and its
elationship to motivation of Toyota‟s employees.
Toyota Motors plays a key role in promoting the advancing the automobile industry
on a global basis. A Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer, Toyota Motor
Corporation has its headquarter in Toyota, Aichi, Japan, but the company‟s global dominance
has been felt across many developed and developing nations. Founded on August 28, 1937,
as of March 31, 2016 the company had a capital of 635 billion yen (Toyota Global, 2017). In
the United States only the company has 10 plants headed by 1,500 leaderships, and ran by
136,000 dedicated U.S. employees (Toyota USA, 2017). Till date the company in the U.S.
has built 25 million vehicles and it is still counting (Toyota USA, 2017).
The immense success that Toyota Motors has experienced over the years has largely
elied on the efficacy of its leadership in establishing and sustaining an environment
conducive to employee growth and development. Moreover, it is Toyota‟s organizational and
corporate structure that has paved the way for the rise of effective leadership, having the
capacity and potential to motivate the employees and enhance their morale. Revamped in
2013, Toyota‟s organizational structure is constituted of three essential elements, viz. global
hierarchy, geographic divisions, and product-based divisions (Gregory, 2017). It is
noteworthy that “The effectiveness of Toyota in maintaining a strong global presence shows
its ability to use its organizational structure to maximize efficiency and capacity utilization.
CASE STUDY 3
In essence, this organizational structure is a contributor to Toyota‟s success in the global
market” (Gregory, 2017). It must be taken into account that a sound and strong organizational
structure is very much essential to make way to the rise of effective leadership. In this respect
it is noteworthy that though maintaining a global hierarchy, the decision-making power of the
egional heads and business unit heads has been on the rise, and this has strengthened the
company‟s leadership worldwide. Owing to the fact that the decision-making power of the
leadership of Toyota is now more decentralized, the leaderships of different production units
in different countries have now become more capable of implementing strategies that play a
crucial role in motivating employees and making them more engaged in the overall
organizational developmental process. Furthermore, the accountability of the leaderships to
the central leadership seated in the company‟s headquarters in Japan, has also motivated the
leaders to become more efficient in terms of performance and in respect of motivating
employees. Also, the positive implication of the reorganization of the corporate structure of
Toyota is evident in the fact that, it “provides a greater degree of flexibility compared to the
old centralized hierarchical organizational structure. With this new structure, the company is
now more capable of responding to regional market conditions. This flexibility empowers
Toyota to speedily respond to issues and to provide higher quality products” (Gregory, 2017).
But another positive implication of the aforesaid restructuring is that; it has empowered
egional and local leaderships to take timely decisions at the face of emergencies and crises.
At the face of the recall crisis and during the course of mitigating risks, the leadership
of Toyota Motors has shown its ability and efficacy in installing the Total Quality
Management and Lean Kaizen integrally into the operation and management of the different
production units of the company. Toyota‟s leadership has embodied the truth that, “After
standardization has been decided, it has to be practiced exactly. In order to practice the
standards perfectly, workers must know the true meaning and value of each standard – not
CASE STUDY 4
only in theory. They must have the skill and knowledge to put it into practice” (Process
Improvement Japan, 2010). In this entire process, the leadership of the company has always
een beside the employees not only as supervisors and manager but also as collaborative
partners, aiming at accomplishing overall success for the employees and the organization. If
the performance of the company is analyzed in a thorough manner then it can be observed
that over the years the leadership of Toyota Motors has been immaculate in implementing the
Kaizen process and principles. In the sphere of Kaizen; “The key is to create a working
environment where workers can suggest improvements” (Process Improvement Japan, 2010).
It is the effort rendered by the leadership to strike a balance between hierarchy and
collaboration that has contributed to the overall growth in the degree of employee motivation.
Employees at Toyota are considered as think tanks, and this consideration on the part of the
company‟s leadership has paved the way for the employees to get more involved and engaged
in the developmental processes that are essential to sustain the success run of Toyota. In an
interview, the former Executive Managing Director of Toyota Motor...