Nissan Motors: A People Management Case Study

This report analyzes the leadership and management styles, training and development programs, and talent management strategies of Nissan Motors. It also provides recommendations for improving the gaps in leadership and management. The report discusses the importance of training and development, the implications of poor leadership and management, and the various theories and frameworks that can be applied to the company. The subject is People Management and the course code is CW1. The report is relevant for students studying HR management, leadership, and organizational behavior.

Title example: “Nissan Motors: A People
Management Case Study”
Report 2000 words
PROJECT: CW1 - Individual Research Portfolio
January/2021

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Contents
Contents........................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................3
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT sources..............................................................5
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT................................................................................8
TALENT MANAGEMENT...........................................................................................12
RECOMMENDATIONS..............................................................................................14
CONCLUSIONS..........................................................................................................15
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................16

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INTRODUCTION
The company provided specialized Career Advisors for women and for their
career development. The company has also put a talent management strategy for
the whole workplace approach. Various activities are involved such as performance
management, career development, succession management and competency
management. The various theories which shows the importance to study people
management are organisational lifestyle theory, strategic contingency theory,
general system theory and transaction cost theory. Nissan Motor company is one of
the leading Japanese brands in the automotive sector (Knies, Leisink and Van De
Schoot, 2020). It is an automotive manufacturer from Japan. It was founded in 1934
by Yoshisuke Aikawa. It has three brands that is Datsun, Infiniti and Nissan. The
company is capturing the main markets of U.S., Russia, Japan and China. Nissan is
one of the top manufacturers in Japan. The brand has excellent advertising and
branding which manufactures hybrid cars and trucks. The main competitors of the
company are Maruti Suzuki, Fiat, Honda Motors, Skoda Auto, Chevrolet, Volvo and
Hyundai Motors. It is further divided into two segments that is Automotive and sales
finances. It is headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. Services which are
provided by Nissan are its roadside assistance, express service, pre-paid
maintenance programme, pick up and drop off services. There are around 1,36,000
number of employees who took the Japanese manufacturer of automobile to reach
its heights. It offers cars, SUVs, electric vehicles, sedans and crossovers. The
Nissan corporate hierarchy consists of different levels committees and executives.
Nissan operates in Japan, Mexico, China, United States, South Africa and the south-
east Asian countries.
The image of their organisational structure -

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The report will further elaborate the various leadership, training with
development theories and which leadership style is followed by the chosen
company. The report will help in demonstration of role of leadership in the
organisation which holds a main position in managing the people, situation and items
effectively.

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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT sources
Present the stiles of management and the stiles of leadership theories.
The different types of leadership theories are as follows-
 Participative theory-The employees can be directly involved during decision
making process of the company. The management allows the conversation
and receive all the suggestion in order to make the best possible plan.
 Management theory – This theory is a system of rewards and punishments.
when the employees do something successful managers reward them and
when they fail they may get punished. This style is very effective to encourage
employees
From your research, can you show some examples of the management approach?
There are some examples of management approach such as direction, setting
expectations, classical approach, scientific approach, command and control.
Analyse with the information you have to see any of these leadership and
management styles in your examples.
The different type of leadership and management styles such as autocratic,
authoritative, pacesetting, democratic, coaching, affiliative and Laissez-Faire
(Xu and et. al., 2020).
Analyse the current situation of leadership and management in the company
Nissan follows Transactional Leadership style which is also known as
managerial leadership. The leaders under this leadership style promotes
compliance of his followers with the help of rewards and punishments.
Provide information on how efficient leadership and management is in this company
Leadership plays a major role in the management function which helps in
directing the resources of organisation to improve efficiency in order to
achieve the goals. Effective leaders have clarity of purpose and guidance
towards the company to achieve the objectives of the company.

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The management of the Nissan has implemented various strategies for the
company. The company appointed Carlos Ghosn as it Chief Operating Officer
to take the responsibilities and gear up the firm to generate more revenues.
There are also different challenges which are faced by the Ghosn.
Apply any relevant leadership and management theories or frameworks that you
have discussed in class (very important to put theories)
The leadership and management theories are as follows-
 Great Man Theory of Leadership- A person capable of leading has the
qualities of leader such as intellect, confidence, charm, social aptitude and
communication skills. It is one of the earliest theories. People cite Abraham
Lincoln, Alexander the Great, Queen Elizabeth and many others are the
examples of the great man theory(Petronio and Child, 2020.
 The behavioural theory- It is one of the best leadership theories. The
behavioural theory helps to focus on the behaviour of the person that how a
person will be more likely to act or behave in certain style as a result of
environmental responses to behaviour. It proposes that an individual can
learn skills to become a good leader.
 The trait theory- The trait theory helps in creating good leaders that contain
some natural qualities like strong listeners, good communicators,

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accountability, creativity and excellent leaders. This theory walks in the
footsteps of the Great Man theory in assuming that leaders are born with traits
that make them more suitable for the role of a leader.
Identify any gaps in leadership and management in your company and provide the
recommendations in the ‘Recommendations’ section. (E.g. What are the implications
of poor leadership and management there?)
Ghosn experienced a main issue because of resistance to change which is
common phenomenon experienced by the company in order to implement the
strategies. The Japanese culture focuses on bureaucratic leadership style and social
harmony. Ghosn also revealed that Nissan had not integrated an effective
communication system (Pyszczynski and et. al., 2021).

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TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Training and development refers to the activities in the company to improve the
skills and knowledge of the employees so that they can perform better for specific
tasks.
The characteristics of training and development are as follows-
 New updates for technology- Training and development helps the staff to
stay updated on the changes in the industry like ethics, safety or quality
standards. Using this helps to work in their day-to-day roles which can lead to
better outcomes for employees and their employers too.
 Soft skills- Training and development allows to adopt the changes at work
and in society. Soft skills like emotional intelligence, resilience and agility in
professional setting which can create an atmosphere that improves
productivity.
 Boost productivity – The importance of training and development plays a
major role in employee productivity and those employees who are the part of
such trainings are able to perform work more efficiently (Lau and et. al.,
2020).
Provide a brief overview of the number of employees in your chosen company
Nissan has around 1,36,000 employees in the fiscal year of 2019. There were
around 1,54,000 number of employees in 2011 which helped the company to reach
the heights.
Analyse the current level of training and development in your company
Nissan is committed to make the most innovative and trusted responsible car
company in the world. Nissan also focuses on providing learning and development
for all the employees from technical topics to process improvement techniques by
applying best leadership approaches.
What sort of training programs and initiatives are available for employees in the
company?

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Nissan offers a range of development programs for focussed groups for
example new employee, executives and talent groups to strengthen their networking
links. Moreover, many professional’s development activities are also there such as
mentoring programs, 360-degree feedback and self-assessment.
Why is it important for their staff to be trained and to develop professionally in the
company?
It is important for the staff to be trained and to develop them professionally in the
company because it leads to increase IT and computer skills which help the
employees to learn about various It topics and computer skills. Company can train
their employees to maintain the graphs, spreadsheets and database to understand
the network arrangement in order to understand the computers and work properly
(Voronov and Weber, 2020).
What are the implications for poor training and development in the company?
Poor training and development in an organisation will first and foremost affects the
company’s employee retention policies. Ineffective trainings will lead to demotivate
the employees of Netflix and also make them feel inefficient. This can lead the
company to increasing turnover and redundancies.
What might limit training and development in the organisation?
The factors which can limit the training and development in Netflix are:
 Lack of motivation to be trained and learn new thing amongst employees.
 Lack of information amongst employees about trainings taking place.
 Lack of financial and other resources.

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Figure 1: EMPLOYEE DATA, 2021
Apply any relevant training and development theories or frameworks discussed in
class to your company
A training and development program helps to maintain the motivation for
employees to support them in continued improvement and to retain them. There are
many theories which helpful as per the companies to find out new ways to educate
and motivate employees. When the theories are implemented it lead to help the
employees which is directly linked to the growth process. Different types of theories
which were discussed in the class are as followed-
 Behaviourist Leaning Theory- It includes a passive learner which focuses
on the idea that all behaviours are learned through interaction with the
environment. It also seeks to explain human behaviour by analysing the
different consequences which are present in the individual's environment.

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 Cognitive Learning Theory- This theory helps in case if the learner finds
their training meaningful it will elevate the retaining of employees. It is an
active style of learning which focuses on ways to learn various options to
maximise the potential of brain by deepening the memory and retention
capacity.
About M.O.V.E
The main aim of M.O.V.E is to achieve the sustainable growth so that it can
help the business to evolve in the automotive industry. Company has worked to
enhance the quality of the management globally in order to fulfil the midterm
business plan and achieve growth. It also gives the opportunities to improve the
activities of Nissan to extend the skills to deal with people better and business
operations (Kim, 2021).

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TALENT MANAGEMENT
Write about talent management characteristics, and analyse with theories.
Talent management is main topic in the HR process to attract new and retain
high performing employees. It is a combination of HR processes, workforce planning,
employee engagement. It is a process which has an aim to drive the performance
by various practices to integrate the people management. Acquiring talent for
recruitment is the main feature of talent management because to appoint right and
suitable people for the organisation. The main purpose of the talent management is
to increase the performance. It is a process aimed at driving performance through
integrated people management practises.
How do they show and manage the Organisational Performance?
Organisation performance is the actual output of the organisation which can be
measured against its intended outputs and objectives. The organisational
performance can be measured by BP&F (budgeting, planning and forecasting).
How well are they able to recruit and retain staff?
Nissan has teams which are working to inspire and lead diverse team to recruit
the process. Nissan does not accept the applications of candidates those who have
scored below seventy percent. Moreover, it is important to note the applications of
those candidates who have attended Nissan recruitment before six months are also
not accepted (Lin and et. al., 2020).
Do they have any process to attract and retain high-quality employees?
Appointing the right people is a difficult task and to retain them is a different new
challenge. Nowadays, employees do not feel connected to serve the companies that
do not serve them. Top most task of any company is the employee retention.
Employee retention means the efforts taken by the company to grip on the most
important asset of the company. Whether the rate of employee retention is high or
low that will directly affect the overall business of the company. Nissan believes that
the employees need to focus on designing their careers which helps to assists their
efforts in the learning process. The company values the skill and capabilities of all
the employees which help in improving the human resource system to reach out the

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targets of the company. Nissan offers learning opportunities and various career
system that is SCS (Shift career system), OES (open entry system).
What process do they have in place to develop their skills and motivate staff to
improve their performance?
Nissan offers the opportunities to work with others through cross-functional
teams(CFT) which is focused on addressing the main topics like quality of
management and supply chain excellence.
It also provides various Learning & Development opportunities for all the
employees equally from new hire to seasoned professional which covers the full
range of needs from the various topics to improve the leadership approaches.
Why is it important? What are the implications for the company?
It is important for improving the efficiency of employees in direct manners the
company becomes more profitable. People do more work when they are highly
motivated and engaged. The company should invest in the employee's long term
career in the company. In order to help the employees to learn new skills and habits
to develop their potential.
Apply any relevant theories or frameworks discussed in class.
The various theories of talent management are as follows-
 Recruitment- In this the HR department handle the interview process which
is the most successful tool which helps the company to choose the potential
candidates for the work. Online image can also be improved to make It more
visible to the job seekers.
 Corporate learning- It focuses on the employees for boosting their
knowledge by aiming to educate them and to promote them for career growth
and bring more opportunities to make the work environment more productive.
 Performance management- It is a new approach for the employee review on
the basis of past performance. Under this, the employees are reviewed
continuously where an employee had a one-on-one meeting with the manger.
Feedback is also important in the new performance management system.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
 Training and Development-Today's business climate encourages the whole
process of learning, the company can make learning more flexible and
accessible by adopting new LMS (learning management system) this will save
the employees from confusion and frustration while using this platform. The
management can motivate the managers to get them involved.
 Leadership training- Identify the employees who has the leadership skills
which is important to pick out the lower level employee with the leadership
potential. The company should look for such employees who has various
skills such as positivity, critical thinking, integrity, strategic decision making
and level headedness.
 Special accelerated development- The performance of employees can be
accelerated by using the techniques and technologies which can be used by
the human resource department. Many soft wares help the human resource
professionals to deal and manage the employees, events, interview and
recruitment.

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CONCLUSIONS
It can be concluded from the above report that leadership is a social relationship
between two or more persons who work together to achieve the goals in the
particular situation. The above report concluded that various theories of leadership
and talent management which has increased over the last 100 years as the number
of theories have been introduced to explain about various traits and how the people
become great leaders. It further explains the role of talent management and how to
retain the existing employees, attract the high-performing employees which has an
aim to improve the overall performance through various techniques and practices.
Also, the report also inferred that there must be a proper organisational structure of
the chosen company so that it helps in outlining how some activities are directed in
order to achieve the desired goals of the company. It also explains various theories
of the leadership and talent management such as the trait theory, behavioural
theory, situational theory, transactional theory, transformational theory, situational
theory, relationship theory and the great man theory. The report also shows and
manages the role of organisational Performance which helps to achieve the goals
and objectives with high performance. High performance is possible with strong
HRM. It also helps the organisation to be more competitive in the market.

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REFERENCES
Knies, E., Leisink, P. and Van De Schoot, R., 2020. People management:
developing and testing a measurement scale. The International Journal of
Human Resource Management, 31(6), pp.705-737.
Xu, L., Peng, X., Pavur, R. and Prybutok, V., 2020. Quality management theory
development via meta-analysis. International Journal of Production
Economics, 229, p.107759.
Petronio, S. and Child, J. T., 2020. Conceptualization and operationalization: Utility
of communication privacy management theory. Current opinion in
psychology, 31, pp.76-82.
Pyszczynski, T. and et. al., 2021. Terror management theory and the COVID-19
pandemic. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 61(2), pp.173-189.
Lau, S. C. and et. al., 2020. Effectiveness of theory-based digital self-management
interventions for improving depression, anxiety, fatigue and self-efficacy in
people with neurological disorders: A systematic review and meta-
analysis. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, p.1357633X20955122.
Voronov, M. and Weber, K., 2020. People, actors, and the humanizing of institutional
theory. Journal of Management Studies, 57(4), pp.873-884.
Kim, P. S., 2021. South Korea’s fast response to coronavirus disease: Implications
on public policy and public management theory. Public Management
Review, 23(12), pp.1736-1747.
Lin, C. Y. and et. al., 2020. Can a modified theory of planned behavior explain the
effects of empowerment education for people with type 2
diabetes?. Therapeutic advances in endocrinology and metabolism, 11,
p.2042018819897522.
Online:
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT, 2021. [Online] Available Through: <
https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/SUSTAINABILITY/REPORT/SOCIAL/HR
_DEVELOPMENT//>
Nissan Motor Company: Carlos Ghosn’ Leadership, 2021. [Online] Available
Through: <https://business-essay.com/nissan-motor-company-carlos-ghosn-
leadership//>

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Nissan & Carlos Ghosn: Pitfalls of Cross-Cultural Leadership, 2021. [Online]
Available Through:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gautammukunda/2021/12/15/alex-honnold-
and-stan-mcchrystal-americas-greatest-soldier-and-climber-on-riskand-
courage/?sh=13838dd1631c/
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https://www.hierarchystructure.com/nissan-corporate-hierarchy/ />