Situational Leadership Theory and Its Applications

This assignment delves into the concept of situational leadership theory, a framework for leadership development that takes into account the maturity and ability of team members. It discusses various external business environment factors that impact decision-making, referencing relevant studies and theories. The assignment also touches on the importance of knowledge-oriented leadership in innovation and management practices.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. An introduction and management structure of Toyota.......................................................1
2. Definition of leader and manager and differences between management and leadership. 2
3. Various role of management and leadership in order to apply in various organisational
situations.................................................................................................................................3
4. Strength and weakness of various approaches to leadership and management..................6
5. Impact of managers and leaders in the Toyota and recommendation for approaching
improvement...........................................................................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
1. Introduction to Toyota's key operations.............................................................................7
2. Defining the key operational function and identifying the roles and responsibilities of
managers.................................................................................................................................8
3. Key operational approaches and their value.......................................................................9
4. Impact of the external environment factors of the organisation that affect decision making
by leader and manager..........................................................................................................10
5. How management and leadership approach can improve operational efficiencies..........11
6. Recommendations............................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Management and operation is a specialization within the organisation. Business
management and operation involves monitoring, evaluating, streamlining the processes of
company and planning and execution of strategies and effective system to make organisation
work properly. More generally, management and operation aims to increase the content of value
added activities in the organisational process. The present study aims to evaluate management
and operation of Toyota Company that is international automotive manufacturer in Japan.
The first task will start with a brief introduction of Toyota and its management structure.
Role and characteristics will define and compare of a leader and manager and how they adopt
styles in various situations. Study will evaluate different approaches to leadership and
management and their strength as well as weaknesses. The task will end up with analysis of the
impact leader and manager have on the industry and recommendations for future improvement.
The second task will start with the introduction of key operations of Toyota. Furthermore,
Key operational approaches, the impact of external business environment factor will be analyse
and lastly it will end up with the recommendation on how they can improve their operational
efficiencies.
TASK 1
1. An introduction and management structure of Toyota
Kiichiro Toyoda found Toyota in 1933 that is the biggest car manufacturing company in
the world. The industry is headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi and in Tokyo. It is the global
renowned company because of their operations, famous manufactured cars (Antonakis and Day,
2017). Toyota use Hybrid in their new technology that is result as pride for the company and
their sales rising up day by day and they are being the market leader in sales of hybrid electric
vehicles and the largest organisation to encourage adopting hybrid vehicles to the mass-market
across the globe. In 2008, the company overtook the GM and automotive industry announced
Toyota the world biggest car maker. The company currently consists 364445 employees
worldwide. It breaks record by being the sixth largest company in the world by revenue, in 2017,
it is the second largest automotive manufacturer and it is the first auto-mobile manufacturer in
the world to produce more than 10 million vehicles per year since 2012.
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The management structure of Toyota is based on numerous business operations. The
company has a divisional management structure that defines the pattern of the firm's process and
resources. In March 2017 Toyota intends to alter its administration structure in April to intensify
decision making, boost enterprise invention, fortify management supervision (Bates, 2016).
Following are the main characteristics of the organisational structure of Toyota; International
Hierarchy, Geographical divisions and product-based divisions.
2. Definition of leader and manager and differences between management and leadership
Definition of a Leader
The leader can be defined as the person who influence a group of people or individual
and motivates them towards the achievement of the organisational goal (Definition of Manager
and Leader, 2019). In other words, leaders get the work done from their follower focusing the
objective of Toyota.
The Definition of a Manager
Managers are the person who is responsible for administering and controlling an
organisation or team or staff. In other words, Manager is a person who design and manage the
work in Toyota and they are liable for supervising and motivating staff and for directing the
progress of a company.
Role/Characteristics of Leader
Leaders have various role and responsibility, depending on the area of activity as well as
their own goal (Bolden, 2016). The leader should have characteristics of being honest with the
employee, empathy, effective director, good communicator, etc. A good leader is clear about
their setted goal and vision and what need to be done to achieve the objective and inspire other to
follow him. The most fundamental role of a leader of Toyota is to define the organisational goal,
formulate strategic plan and organise people to achieve the objectives through executing the
plan. The leader is responsible for leading, guiding the staff and being with them to accomplish
the task.
Role/Characteristics of Manager
Manager of Toyota is responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of an
individual, he is responsible for monitoring their performance and take effective action for
accomplishing the objective of the company. Basically, the role of manager is dividing into three
categories; Interpersonal role, Informational roles and Decisional roles. A good manager should
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have successful managerial skills, other than that he must be a good leader, superior
communication skills, he should be able to lead the staff with transparency and honesty (Donate
and de Pablo, 2015).
The comparison between Management and Leadership
Leadership Management
Leadership is an ability of influencing follower
within the organisation so that the objectives
can attained Enthusiastically and Willingly.
Management is a discipline of managing things
in the best and effective manner.
A person becomes leader on the basis of
his/her personal quality and ability.
A person becomes manager by virtue of his
position.
In leadership, leaders adopt personal and active
attitude.
In management, managers adopt impersonal
attitude.
Leadership is people oriented and leading
others by setting an example.
Management is task oriented and it is an art of
systematically Organising, Planning and
Coordinating things in efficient way.
Leadership is a compound of principles and
guidelines (DuBrin, 2015).
Management is a formulation of policies and
processes of the operations.
Comparison of characteristics/role of Leaders and Managers of Toyota
Leader of Toyota is responsible to lead others by presenting the examples of others in
front of them and manager of the organisation organise and coordinate system efficiently that all
te people in the company work in a better way. Furthermore, leaders have involvement in the
difficult task but there is no involvement of manager in any task with his team.
3. Various role of management and leadership in order to apply in various organisational
situations
The role of a leader and function of a manager makes the Toyota work in the desired path
towards the achievement and fulfilment of the goal of Toyota. There are various style, function
and roles of leader and manager that help in the proper functioning of the operations in various
conditions or situations in Toyota. It can be understand by various theories and approaches;
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Leadership theory
System leadership theory
This leadership theory enables the leaders in an organisation to create the conditions were
employee at all level can work efficiently and productively to their potential. The structure of
Toyota need to consider while applying any leadership style to the workforce. System theory
treats an organisation as a system. The system of Toyota maybe open or closed system and the
employees that are work in the company are also seen as the part of the system. Under this
leadership approach, leaders of the company need to provide the flow of information among the
subsystem that let them understand the consequences and needs arises in any system and then
they work and lead people accordingly.
Situational Leadership Theory
This theory was formed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard that state that organisation or
manager should not follow a particular leadership model rather than they adopt various style of
leadership depending to the situation they face time to time (Earley, 2015). This model consists
two factors; directive behaviour and supportive behaviour. Manager of Toyota can determine the
appropriate leadership style;
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Illustration 1: Situational leadership model
(Source: Situational Leadership Theory, 2019)

Directing- This is the first style, managers and leaders direct and guide employees to
achieve the task and attain the goal of organisation (Situational Leadership Theory, 2019). It is
the most effective style when employees and staff have less experience or no experience and
they need to be instructed to accomplish the task. This style of leadership demands the
employees to act as per direction and supervision given to them closely.
Coaching- In this style, leader of Toyota still defines and assign roles and tasks but they
allow subordinates to give their suggestions and ideas. The individuals who have little
experience and need guidance and if they have lack of self-esteem, this leadership style work
effectively.
Supporting- In this style, leader more concern with the relationship and people and less
on direction. In Situational leadership managers work closely with the subordinates and share
decision-making responsibilities. Employees have enough control on how they accomplish
given tasks and they are more responsible towards their work.
Delegating- This is the last style of situational approach where employees and staff are
well experienced and know their roles and are able to take responsibilities (Kerzner and Kerzner,
2017). In this style, the leader will still monitor the task and work of the employees, but there is
less involvement of him as followers decided when and how the leader will be involved.
In the following situation role of a leader is to guide, motivate, direct its followers. The
leader can handle the situation differently in his own way. For example; in the situation of
conflict, the managerial function is focusing on managing people and leader is responsible for
motivating the employees to calm themselves and work as a team that reduce the effect of
conflict.
Management theory
Behavioural theory
Behavioural management theory was developed in the response to the need that should be
consider by management. It offers a new perspective; one that focuses on the behaviours of the
workforce and all the departments. This theory is basically based on the leadership that should be
adopted by the management of Toyota. This theory is divided in to aspects; one focuses on tasks
and other focuses on people. This is an effective theory that enable management to work with
maintaining balance between dimension of work and people of the company that adds value to
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employees and they feel important. The theory believes that management should have better
understanding of human behaviour at work, such as; expectations, conflicts, motivation, etc.
Contingency theory
Contingency theory state that there is no such superior leadership and management
manner that suits best for Toyota. Contingency theory centring the change in plan of action
according to situations. According to this approach, the leader of Toyota plays an essential role
in influencing the employees to bring change in the overall operation to meet the needs and
challenges in the marketplace and the manager of Toyota consider the reason of the high rising
cost of manufacture and implement the changes in operational activities by applying this theory
to being down the cost of material and equipment.
4. Strength and weakness of various approaches to leadership and management
The approaches and theory have strength as well as weaknesses towards the organisation,
followers and for managers and leaders.
Strengths
 Contingency approach is supported by a lot of empirical research and this is pragmatic
and open minded. By applying contingency theory can help in accelerating the
productivity of the workers and help manager/leader to measure the effectiveness of the
group's performance.
 Situational leadership is simple to understand and in application within the Toyota. Most
managers instinctively understand that they need to adjust their response to situations at
hand. This theory improves communication between managers/leaders and followers
(Masuda and Kostopoulos, 2016).
Weaknesses
 Situational leadership theory tends to emphasize the short-term plan of action as it
focuses on the current premises (Monden, 2018). There are possibilities of creating
disorder and confusion within the group as situations are interrelated and interconnected
with different cause.
 Contingency theory can be challenging for management as it constant changes the
environment of Toyota. It is difficult to choose accurate and most suitable contingency
plan as there is no clear procedure or guidelines to follow.
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From the above analysis of the pros and cons of various theories and approaches to
leadership and management, it can be concluded that the theories are helpful for managers and
leaders to enhance the productivity and growth of employees as well as of Toyota. Although
there are some advantages and disadvantages of these theories but it can be beneficial for the
operation of the organisation. The theories improve communication between leaders/managers
and followers and it helps in tackle the situation by managers and leaders accordingly that avoid
conflicts.
5. Impact of managers and leaders in the Toyota and recommendation for approaching
improvement
Manager and leaders are an important part in shaping Toyota's culture and their role in
the company is possibly most significant in terms of impact on organisational performance.
Managers have direct influence on employees and they carry the responsibilities for positioning
the performance of the staff and overall departments of Toyota (Raelin, 2016). Managers
effectively plan, organise, control the operations of company and ensure that goals are achieved
efficiently. Leaders are responsible for influence productivity and it impacts employee morale.
Overall, leaders and managers have positive impact on Toyota's structure, including overall staff,
departments, working pattern, the employees' performance, etc. There is some recommendation
for manager and leader of Toyota for future improvement:
Leader and manager of the organisation should adopt the best style suited in the current
situation rather than sticking to one style. They should implement strategic planning to manage,
monitor employees and motivate them that encourage their self-esteem, morale to achieve task
and enhance their commitment and loyalty towards the company and their work. Furthermore,
Managers and leaders should praise their followers with appreciative words, rewards, etc. that
encourage them to do more (Rothaermel, 2015).
TASK 2
1. Introduction to Toyota's key operations
Toyota is a production company and their key operations mainly is converting the raw
material and human efforts into valuable goods and services that are offered by the industry to
satisfy demand and need of consumer. In general, the operational function includes; planning,
designing, organising and supervising functions. Operation functions are important that is used to
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describe how raw materials are transformed into a usable product. The operation department of
the industry is responsible for all the core operations that is starts from purchasing the raw
material to the final good. The key operations include;
 Product selection and design
 Managing the resources that directly produce service and products of Toyota
 The key operations are also connected to the other departments such as; marketing,
finance, human resource, etc.
 Selection of optimal conversion system (Thorpe, 2016).
 Quality assurance and control
 Maintenance, replacement and cost reduction and cost control
2. Defining the key operational function and identifying the roles and responsibilities of
managers
Below explored are the key operations of Toyota and the roles and responsibilities of
managers in them:
Production: The department of production in Toyota makes sure a quality production of
the vehicles as per set standards and required built quality. The production department of Toyota
ensures that the organisation is making its products and services as per required needs and
demands. The roles and responsibilities of an organisational manager here is to properly ensure
smooth operations by gaining an understanding of the market demands. Along with it, they
ensure product supply as per consumer market needs and demands.
Selling and distribution: This operation ensures that the products of Toyota are sold and
distributed into the market as per customers needs and demands. Required selling and
distribution is one of the core aspects that management has to keep an eye on. The management
of Toyota makes sure that it is effectively selling and distributing its cars (Antonakis and Day,
2017). Along with it, they also make sure that there are no inefficiencies in the organisation and
its overall functioning.
Control: A good control in business ensures an efficient and effective operation, both the
outside and inside the organisation. Toyota managers make sure a good control by understanding
the requirements and needs of customers and business operations.
Maintenance: Right Maintenance ensures better maintaining business efficiency. A
manager's job here is to properly manage effective maintenance in order to make sure that daily
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activities are being properly take care of and the organisation is moving towards its desired
growth and development.
3. Key operational approaches and their value
Operation management defines as the function and application of transformation process.
Importance of operation management
Operation management is an essential part of the organisation that is beneficial to
improve the overall productivity of Toyota. Productivity refers to the ratio of input to output.
OM handles various issues of Toyota such as; designing, operations and maintenance of the
production system. It is responsible for fulfilling customers requirement. Thus, it manages
customer satisfaction. It is important in effectively and efficiently managing productivity. It is
beneficial for reducing cost of products and services by managing the transforming process
effectively.
By managing all the transformation process of raw material to finished goods it ensures
the quality control products that is going to serve to the customers. It adds value to the product as
well as to the brand. As it is also beneficial in reducing the cost effectively that add value to the
sales and the cost margin of during the sale that leads company towards the success and growth.
Total quality management- TQM is an activity that bring efficiency in production of
Toyota's goods and services. The TQM approach focuses on the constant advancement in the
quality of goods and services that are offered by Toyota considering the needs and demands of
consumers (Tannenbaum and Schmidt, 2017).
The role of manager of the industry in TQM is to employ strategies such as; KAIZEN
where management concentrate on the continuous changes in the production process to convey
improvement. The role of leaders of Toyota is to prompt employees to work as an effective team
and get rid of the resistance to change among the staff so that new measures can be adopted to
amend the quality of products. For example; the role of the manager in Toyota is to apply the
process in the production and quality checking process and he is responsible for the management
of total quality that help in to provide quality products to the customers and enhance the value of
the brand.
The Six Sigma- The Six sigma approach is controlled in nature and data driven
approach and act as a methodology used in Toyota that centred on team efforts in achieving the
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task and destruct defects in the activity from producing to interact and from goods to service in
Toyota.
The role of leader is to invest in the six sigma and to communicate the value of the
approach with subordinates in Toyota and with the other departments and the manager is
responsible for monitoring the implementation of the six sigma approach in Toyota. It is
beneficial for the organisation as it encourages team work and group effort and along with it,
concentration on each process is helpful in the maintaining quality.
4. Impact of the external environment factors of the organisation that affect decision making by
leader and manager
There are many external business environment factors that affect the decision making of
leaders and managers:
Supplier- Supplier is an individual person who is responsible for providing raw material
to Toyota after that they proceed to the next level of production. They can be consider as the
external factor of business environment that affects the decision-making process of leader and
manager. As, manager has to change their decisions regarding to find new supplier or may be
manager of Toyota can make changes in the chain of production to reduce cost and leader have
to change their decisions regarding the selection of Leadership style to maintain the motivation
and enthusiasm of employees to work hard in such critical situation (Bates, 2016).
Corporate social responsibilities
Corporate social responsibilities defines as the business should oversee the operation of
an economic system that fulfils the expectation of its people. CSR Initiatives and programs are
introduced as a part of Global vision of Toyota. It formulated in March 2011. It has great impact
on the decision making process of leader and manager of Toyota. Manager always concern with
centring the CSR in all the aspect of the company. Leader gave importance to the sustainability
of environment and economic with operational activity. The decisions of both leader and
manager is depends on the laws that are related to the CSR policies.
PEST factor
Leaders and managers of Toyota need to understand the macro environment factor before
taking any decisions regarding organisation. They need to understand the demographic
differences and demand, culture of clients and employees as well and should consider the trend
in the marketplace to design services and products for specific population. The political and legal
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dimensions should also affect the decisions of leaders and managers. Business laws of certain
country set the dos and don ts for Toyota that limits the area of decisions. Technological factor
can affect the inside of manager and leader due to technological advancement leader and
manager apply new technologies to perform their role effectively. The manager adopts the
policies and prepare the strategies considering the factor.
Corporate culture, values and ethics
Organisational culture is the collective behaviour of members of Toyota and the visions,
values, beliefs that they attach to their action. The culture of an organisation plays an essential
role in shaping the growth and success as well as it can be a reason of declining the growth.
That's affected how leadership and management of the company handle its follower and system
by maintain the values and environment of Toyota.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders can be a person, group or organisations that has interest, concern in Toyota
and they can affect or can be affected by the organisation. As the firm is global industry, the CSR
of the company deals with many stakeholders with desperate demand and interest. Stakeholders
of Toyota are; Employees, Customers, Investors, environment, suppliers and communities.
Expectations of Stakeholders from Toyota
Employees aims for job security, career development, fair employment practises.
Employees expect a safe and secure workplace where they can work enthusiastically and
appropriate salary. Consumers expect quality products from Toyota as well as better sales and
services, proper communication with them regarding any issues, consider their demand and
preferences, etc. Local community expect youth development, environment protection, etc.
5. How management and leadership approach can improve operational efficiencies
It can be improve by transform effective raw materials for the production in-to finished
goods for accelerating satisfaction and for the analysing operations. The transforming bring
change for creating an inventory control. Along with that, process design of production is a vital
function of operational engagement that meets the demand and need of consumers. The
organisation should ensure that the process active in production comply with the standard and
that result in producing quality products. Furthermore, It can be improved by managing logistic
and inventory with the use of the strategic plan that control the flow and storage of goods
(Thompson and Glasø, 2015).
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6. Recommendations
 It is recommended to the leader and manager to make strategic plan to overcome the
external business factor.
 The effective operational management process can be achieved by them by proper
understanding and relation with other departments as well as they are also a part of
operation function.
CONCLUSION
As per the above study it has been evaluated that leader and manager are a vital part of
Toyota. Leader and manager are responsible for managing, motivating, leading, guiding the staff
of the organisation and that result in rising productivity and growth of company by efficient
performance. It also has been analysed that there are various approaches to management and
leadership such as; contingency theory, management by objective theory, situational leadership,
approach, etc. that can be adopted and enforced by leader and manager depending on the
situation.
The second part of the report was concluded the key operations of Toyota and their value
in the company. It had been evaluated that there are various external business environment
factors that affect decision-making of leaders and managers.
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DuBrin, A. J., 2015. Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Nelson Education.
Earley, P. C., 2015. Management by objectives (MBO). Wiley Encyclopedia of Management.
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Kono, T., 2016. Strategy and structure of Japanese enterprises. Routledge.
Masuda, A. D. and Kostopoulos, K. C., 2016. Performance in Teams: The Role of Conflict-
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Routledge.
Raelin, J. A. ed., 2016. Leadership-as-practice: Theory and application. Routledge.
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Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt, W. H., 2017. How to choose a leadership pattern. In Leadership
Perspectives. (pp. 75-84). Routledge.
Thompson, G. and Glasø, L., 2015. Situational leadership theory: a test from three
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Thorpe, R., 2016. Gower handbook of leadership and management development. CRC Press.
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Situational Leadership Theory. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://toughnickel.com/business/What-is-the-Situational-Leadership-Theory>.
Definition of Manager and Leader. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://labs.openviewpartners.com/managers-and-leaders-are-different-breeds-by-definition/
#.XHYgHnV948o>.
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