Management

Instructions

3.2.2 Assignment 2

 _Assignment 2— Evaluation and analysis case study (2,000 words) Due Sunday 6th September 2015 by 6pm to Turnitin, worth 35% of final mark

Read the following case study and answer all the questions.

Present detailed answers to the questions at the end of this case study in approximately 2000- words in total (i.e. for the 4 answers). Use academic references to support them.

The answers should be written in paragraph form using appropriate headings and sub-headings based on your reading of the case study and additional research. Please ensure that it is thoroughly and correctly referenced using the Harvard referencing system. It is expected that students would use a minimum of 6 different reference sources in the body of this assignment. Of the 6 reference sources, at least one should be an article from a scholarly journal. Where less than 6 references are used within the body of the assignment it would be difficult to achieve a grade higher than P2. Assignments that are not correctly referenced will incur heavy penalties.

3.2.3 Format

Your answers to the Case Study should be presented as four (4) distinct answers that are presented with a covering introduction. You should divide your assignment into an introduction, discussion (of each of the four questions) and conclusion sections.

The objective of the exercise is to enable you to develop and present an argument which is convincing and well supported and is within word constraints. Please ensure that it is thoroughly and correctly referenced using the Harvard referencing system.

Please conform to the following:

 _use Font 12

 _Times New Roman font only

 _1.5 line spacing

 _reference list on a separate page after conclusion

 _use Harvard Style of referencing ONLY

 _do not use foot-notes

 _print word count at the end of your assignment (before the ‘References’ section).

Occasionally assignments go missing during submission and return. It is expected that students will make copies of all assignments and be able to provide these if required.

Assessment of your assignments will take into account:

 _relevance of your answer to the question or task set

 _clarity of expression

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 _supporting documentation for arguments

 _proper acknowledgment of documentation and use of a bibliographic convention

 _logical planning and sequence

 _use of inclusive language

 _overall presentation, including correct grammar, spelling and punctuation

 _comprehensive coverage reflecting engagement with set readings, text(s) and other relevant materials

 _Please see marksheet for assignment 2 on course page and attach to assignment

 _Please note*** We will be having in class workshops on the case study

Present detailed answers, using 6 academic references to support them, to the questions posed at the end of this case study: Toyota’s tough boss in approximately 2,000 words in total:

Read the following case study and answer all the questions.

CASE: TOYOTA’S TOUGH BOSS

Hiroshi Okuda is not afraid to speak his mind or impose radical change in an organization. And because of these traits he is memorable at Toyota Motor Corporation where he is the chairman of the board. Prior to becoming chairman, Okuda served as Toyota’s president – the first non-family member in over 30 years to head the company. He also is unusual among other Japanese executives because, in Japan, executives are supposed to be unseen. Okuda justifies his outspoken and aggressive style as being necessary to change a company that had become lethargic (i.e. tired) and overly bureaucratic.

Okuda moved ahead at Toyota by taking jobs that other employees did not want. For example, in the early 1980s the company was trying to build a manufacturing facility in Taiwan, but the Taiwanese government’s demands for high local content, technology transfer and guaranteed exports convinced many at Toyota that the project should be scrapped. Okuda thought differently. He successfully lobbied for the facility in the company, and it is now very profitable for Toyota. As Okuda noted, ‘Everyone wanted to give up. But I restarted the project and led it to success.’ His drive and ability to overcome obstacles were central to his rise in the company’s hierarchy.

When Okuda ascended to the presidency of Toyota in early 1995 the company was losing market share in Japan to both Mitsubishi and Honda. Okuda attributed this problem to several factors. Toyota had been losing touch with Japanese customers for years. For example, when engineers redesigned the Corolla in 1991 they made it too big and too expensive for Japanese tastes. Then four years later, in an attempt to lower costs significantly, they stripped out so many features in the car that the Corolla looked too cheap. Competitors, on the other hand, had also done a much better job of identifying the boom in recreational vehicles – especially the sport-utility market. Toyota’s burdensome bureaucracy also bothered Okuda. A decision that took only five minutes to filter through at Suzuki Motor Corporation would take upwards of three weeks at Toyota.

In his first 18 months on the job Okuda implemented some drastic changes. In a country where lifetime employment is consistent with the culture, he replaced nearly one-third of Toyota’s highest-ranking executives. He revamped Toyota’s long-

standing promotion system based on seniority, adding performance as a factor. Some outstanding performers moved up several managerial levels in one go – something unheard of in the history of the company.

Okuda also worked with the company’s vehicle designers to increase the speed at which the vehicle went from concept to market. What once took 27 months was shortened to 18 months. And now the company is making a custom car within five days of receiving an order.

Finally, Okuda is using the visibility of his job to address larger social issues facing all Japanese businesses. For instance, he accused Japan’s Finance Ministry of trying to destroy the car industry by driving up the yen’s value. And he has been an audible voice in the country, condemning the lax lending practices that forced Japanese banks to write off billions of dollars in bad loans and led, in part, to that country’s economic crisis in the late 1990s and early 2000.

Unfortunately, some of Okuda’s actions may have backfired. It has been suggested that the reason he was removed as president of the company in June 1999 was that he had overstepped the boundary at times with his blunt demands for change; and his refusal to bail out other members of the Toyota keiretsu may have offended the founding Toyota family. However, even though he was no longer president, his strategic leadership helped him to be appointed to the chairman’s job.SOURCE: Robbins, Bergmann, Stagg and Coulter 2006, p600, Pearson

Questions:

Answer all four (4) of the following questions.

Explain the different leadership styles (not theories) defined in the academic literature and discuss what style of leadership is the most appropriate in different environmental situations and with different categorisations of employees.

Based on your answer to Question 1 (above) how would you describe Hiroshi Okuda’s leadership style/s? Cite specific examples in the case study that support your choice.

Explain the terms ‘transactional’ and ‘transformational’ leadership. What form did Hiroshi Okuda exhibit? Cite specific examples in the case study that support your choice.
When a company is in crisis, do you believe that a radical change in leadership is required to turn the company around? Why? Why not?

Your answers to the Case Study should be presented as four (4) distinct answers that are presented with a covering introduction to the whole case study (no more than 150 words). You should divide your assignment into a brief introduction, discussion (of each of the four questions-up to 450 words-no more-on each question) and brief conclusion section to the case study (no more than 100 words). Reference list is not included in word count.

The objective of the exercise is to enable you to develop and present an argument which is convincing and well supported and is within word constraints. 16 | P a g e

Please conform to the following:

 _use Font 12pt size in Times New Roman font or Arial (size 10) only.

 _1.5 line spacing

 _reference list on a separate page after conclusion

 _use Harvard Style of referencing ONLY

 _do not use foot-notes

 _print word count at the end of your assignment (before the ‘References’ section).

Occasionally assignments go missing during submission and return. It is expected that students will submit to Turnitin as well as a hard copy to your tutor or to assignment box.

Assessment of your assignments will take into account:

 _relevance of your answer to the question or task set

 _clarity of expression

 _supporting documentation for arguments

 _proper acknowledgment of documentation and use of a bibliographic convention

 _logical planning and sequence

 _use of inclusive language

 _overall presentation, including correct grammar, spelling and punctuation

 _comprehensive coverage reflecting engagement with set readings, text(s) and other relevant materials

 _Please see Assignment 2 marksheet on course page and attach to assignment

Re-marking and re-submission are not permitted.

Format: Refer back to the notes provided for Assignment 1 in relation to general format of assignments.

This is a case study so is different in approach from an essay. A case study discusses the situation in the case and issues and links to theory that reflect behaviours observed in the case study. The requirement of the format of this case study is no different. The inclusion of an introduction (1 paragraph) that links together the questions being asked is required. There isno need for a summary at the end. No less than 6 references to be used, you can use these references across all your answers. 17 | P a g e

Note: there will be readings from quality textbooks placed onto the portal under Assignment 2 heading which you are encouraged to use as references.

It is recommended that approximately 500 words maximum per question are provided.

One reference list at end of assignment is required Having provided this ‘linkage introduction’, each question in the case study should be addressed separately and supported by references.

 _Please see Assignment 2 marksheet on course page

 _Re-marking and re-submission are not permitted

Other Resources

Bartol, K, Martin, D, Tein, M & Matthews, G 2005, Management: A Pacific Rim Focus, 4th edn, McGraw Hill, Australia.
Buchanan, D & Huczynski, A 2004, Organizational Behaviour : An Introductory Text, Prentice Hall, Harlow.
Davidson, P & Griffin, RW 2006, Management, 3rd Australasian Edition, Wiley, Australia.

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Drucker, PF 1995, Managing in a time of great change,: Truman Talley, New York.
Jones, GR & George, JM 2006, Contemporary Management. McGraw Hill, Australia.
Kreitner, R & Kinicki, A 2001, Organisational Behaviour, 5th edn, Irwin, Chicago, Illinois.
Krietner, R 2001, Management, 8th edn, Houghton Mifflin, New York.
Linstead, S, Fulop, L & Lilley, S 2004, Management and Organisation, Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmill.
McFarlin, DB & Sweeney, PD 2003, International Management: Strategic Opportunities and Cultural Challenges, 2nd edn, Houghton Mifflin, New York.
Mullins, LJ 2005, Management and Organisational Behaviour, Pearson Education, UK.
Robbins SP & Barnwell, N 2002, Organisation Theory: concepts and cases, 3rd edn, Prentice Hall, Sydney, Australia.
Robbins, SP, Millet, B, Cacioppe, R & Waters-Marsh, T 2001, Organisational Behaviour: leading and managing in Australia and New Zealand, Prentice Hall, Sydney, Australia.
Robbins, SP, Millett, B & Waters-Marsh, T 2004, Organisational Behaviour, Wiley, Australia.
Schermerhorn, J 2002, Management. 7th edn, John Wiley, Sydney, Australia.
Thompson, P& McHugh, D 2002, Work Organisations, Palgrave, Basingstoke.
Watson, TJ 2002, Organising and Managing Work, Pearson, Harlow.

Essay

Analysis of Hiroshi Okuda Leadership Style

There are different leadership styles in the management. Each leadership style is relevant and depends on the circumstances under which it is applied. Some leaders are more concerned about the employee needs, and others are vigorously determined to attain the objectives of the organization without cautiously considering the welfare of the employees. Okuda under looked the performance of other employees since he associated the success of the Toyota Taiwan Plant to his determinations. Other employees had failed since they feared the investment into the country. He had adopted the exploitative autocratic style of leadership. His determination, to use his power to force the employees work and attain the organization’s goals without their involvement manifests him as a transactional leader. He had no ability to share the vision he had for the company with other junior employees.

Question one

Leadership styles

There are different leadership styles exhibited by the managers. The environments facing the managers and the kind of the employees determine the kind of the leadership style to adopt. Three types of leadership styles are crucial in the management of the companies.

Autocratic leadership

In the autocratic leadership, the leader makes the decision without involving other employees. Significantly, the leader assumes that the input of other employees is not needed in the decision-making process. The decision made would not change even with the input made by other employees. In the autocratic leadership, the leader can adopt two approaches, benevolent authoritative and the exploitative autocratic.

Benevolent Autocratic

The leader sometimes makes efforts to involve employees in the decision-making process (Robbins et al., 2011, 270). The leader does not fully trust the subordinates, and he never delegates the work to the subordinate employees. Mainly, when the employees attain good performance they are rewarded.

Exploitative Autocratic

Exploitative style exhibits more autocratic traits than the benevolent, authoritative style. The leader does not have the trust in the employees and, therefore, it is difficult to delegate work to them. The leader motivates the employees by threatening on the reduction of salaries or demotion if they do not attain the required level of the performance. Mainly, the leader implements the major decisions without delegation. Besides, there is little communication to the junior employees.

The autocratic leadership is significant where the employees are unwilling to participate in particular decisions. Their participation would result to delayed decision making and lost opportunities. At the same time, where the communication is only required to move only in one direction (top-down). It is only the leader who understands how the goal would be attained. The leader directs the employees towards the desired objective. The style is important to the junior employees and student employees who do not have adequate knowledge in a given field.

Democratic leadership

In the democratic leadership style, the decision maker has complete trust with the employees. The employees are involved fully in the decision-making process and the sharing of the ideas (Robbins et al, 2011, p.271). Nevertheless, the leader has the final input on the decision made especially in the effort to create consensus among the group of employees. When the employees have attained goals that have been set through participation, they are motivated and rewarded.

Laissez-faire

In the Laissez-faire, the leaders give employees absolute freedom. The leaders minimize their participation in the decision-making process. The leader provides employees with the materials required in making a decision. He avoids participating in the process.

The democratic and Laissez-fair styles of leadership are significant where there is great resistance from the employees. The employees are involved in the decisions that affect their working conditions. Besides, the leadership styles are relevant when the employees are aware of the vision and the goals of the organization. Their participation in the decision-making would motivate them. It would reduce the resistance of the employees. It is effective for the professional employees who are aware of the company objectives and like challenging tasks.

Question Two

Description of the leadership style

The leadership style adopted by Hiroshi Okuda is exploitative autocratic. First Hiroshi Okuda does not have confidence and trust in the employees (Huczynski, & Buchanan, 2006, p.17). Okuda’s rose into power when he made the decision to take the jobs other employees were unwilling to do. At the time when Toyota Company wanted to introduce a facility in Taiwan, all other employees believed that the company should cancel the project initiation. Nevertheless, he led the company into realizing huge profits in Taiwan. He is quoted saying that he led the company to succeed when every employee had lost hope.

Secondly, Okuda never believed in involving employees in the decision-making process (Huczynski, & Buchanan, 2006, p.17). He viewed the employee’s participation in the decision making as a source of failure in the market and slow decision making. Notably, he is so concerned about the bureaucratic method used by the Toyota Motor Corporation. Okuda observed that the decision that was made in five minutes in the Suzuki Motor Corporation took more than three weeks in the Toyota. Similarly, the decisions made never contributed towards the profit maximization goal. The company had made very expensive Corolla cars for the Japanese market. Thereafter, when changes were made but the car looked very cheap. Its competitors outshined the company. He wanted little communication with other employees so that the decision-making could be done very fast.

He was also motivated the employees by applying threats (Bartol, et al., 2005, p.402). When he rose to the presidency of the Toyota, he replaced more than one-third of the total executive of the company. He introduced a system where employees would be promoted using performance and not the seniority.

The structure correlates well with the initiating structure behavior of management. The initiating structure leadership behavior has similar characteristics with the autocratic leadership style of management. The leader sets the goals and informs the subordinates on how they would be realized (Bartol, et al., 2005, p. 404). With the expectations made clear, the subordinates must attain them by following the instructions clearly. The method is highly focused on realizing the production and profit goals of the organization.

Question three

Transformational Leadership

The transformational leaders realize the dramatic changes in the organization through a comprehensive engagement of employees. The transformational leader makes the subordinates aware of their significance to the organization. Consequently, making them realize that they need to grow in their career. That way, they are motivated to work to attain the goals of the organization. Notably, the Transformational leaders are charismatic; they portray the ability to communicate their vision effectively (Waddell, Jones & George, 2012, p.187). The subordinates are motivated to realize the vision communicated by the transformational leader. The transformational leaders avoid criticizing people in the public (Davidson, et al., 2009, p.369).

The transactional leadership

The transactional leaders are not charismatic like the transformational leaders. Instead, they attain the goals of the organizations without necessarily motivating the employees. The managers attain the needed high performance by using their coercive power and punishing the employees who are not performing to the standards (Waddell, Jones & George, 2012, p.189). The transactional leadership ensures that the unwanted behaviors are punished while the desired ones are motivated. Unlike the transactional leadership, transformational leadership is concerned on how the junior employees could be motivated fairly and help them fully utilize their skills. The junior employees trust their leaders, and they feel they are treated fairly. They are motivated to attain the goals of the organization (Waddell, Jones & George, 2012, p.189).

Hiroshi Okuda exhibited the transactional leadership traits. First, he does not inspire or communicate the intended goals to the junior employees. He took the jobs that other employees could not handle. He related the success of the Taiwan project to his efforts alone since the other employees had failed to take the risk. In fact, he is not charismatic and has no the capability to share the vision with other employees. He believed with a situation where the decisions were made fast. He liked the way the decisions were made at Suzuki Motor Corporation. Third, he made the employees work hard by using his coercive power to replace the top executives by the high performing employees. He does not intend to understand how the employees can be motivated to give the best to the Toyota Motor Corporation. He never took the effort to assist the engineers who had made a too expensive Corolla car for the Japanese market. Instead, he watched them make another mistake by making a very cheap car for the same market. Lastly, he likes accusing individuals in public. He accused the ministry of finance for appreciating the value of the Yemen in the effort to make the car industry collapse. Significantly, Okuda is not concerned with motivating the employees positively to realize their development and the growth of the company as well.

Question four

In case a company is in a crisis, a serious step is required. There is a need to change the company top management and the leadership style employed. The company may be in crisis as a result of the poor management as well as the use of the wrong leadership style. An intelligent leader should be appointed to understand the status of the company and how it should be revived. First, the change in the management would ensure independent investigation of the factors that brought the company to the crisis. Second, it would help the employees change the attitude towards the management. They would be motivated to work towards the revival of the company. Third, it would remove the leaders and managers who had failed to realize the dreams of the company. Besides, it would help the company acquire positive public image if the company failure was associated with the customer dissatisfaction.

It is worth that the company selects a leader with the transformational traits. Otherwise, leaders who are not visionary would bring more difficulties into the company. A leader who has strategic visions is needed in such as situation. At this time, the company needs a more radical and integrated approach. Keeping the old leaders and their old style of leadership would not help realize the required change (O’Kane, & Cunningham, 2012, p.56). The transformational leader would have the ability to identify the crucial cause for the initial failure of the company.

When the threat to the success of the company is identified, the new leader would determine the best method that the operations of the company would be enhanced. Significantly, the leader would have the ability to communicate the vision to the company subordinates. Thereafter, he would motivate the employees towards the realization of the goals of the company. The transformational leader would ensure that all the employees have worked to their full potential to attain the dreams of the company. The rapid change in leadership is needed but should be done carefully to make certain the removal of the company from the crisis. The rapid change in leadership would make certain enhancement of learning and huge strategic developments such as in marketing, and the product features (O’Kane, & Cunningham, 2012, p.56).

The future of the company depends on the approach adopted by the leader. The leader holds the future of the company. Okuda used the transactional and autocratic leadership to help the Toyota Motor Corporation realize higher profits by encouraging performance through coarse means. Nevertheless, employees can be integrated into the decision-making process to help them share in the success of the company. The company could have performed better if Okuda had adopted the transformational leadership. The engineers had failed to make a car that met the needs of the Japan people. He had the facts to help solve the problem but failed to share the idea with the engineers.

Bibliography

Bartol, K, Martin, D, Tein, M & Matthews, G 2005, Management: A Pacific Rim Focus, 4th edn, McGraw Hill, Australia.

Davidson, P. Simon, L. Woods, P. & Griffiths, R. 2009. Management core concepts and applications. Sydney, Wiley.

Huczynski, A. & Buchanan, D. 2006. Organization behavior. Sydney. Prentice Hall.

O’Kane, C, & Cunningham, J 2012, ‘Leadership Changes and Approaches During Company Turnaround’, International Studies Of Management & Organization, 42, 4, pp. 52-85, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 5 September 2015.

Robbins, De, C. Coutler, W. 2011. Management: The essentials. Pearson

Waddell, T. Jones, G. & George, J. 2012. Contemporary management. Sydney. Mc Graw Hill.

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