Leadership, Management, and Operational Strategies at Toyota

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management practices within Toyota Motor Corporation. It begins by defining the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, differentiating between leadership and management styles, and examining Toyota's organizational structure. The report then explores different management and leadership roles in various organizational situations, such as conflict resolution and financial crises, and how leaders and managers should respond. It delves into various leadership and management theories, including system theory, situational theory, and contingency theory, and their application within Toyota. The report also examines the operational approaches used by Toyota, such as the Toyota Production System (TPS) and lean manufacturing, highlighting key operational activities and the role of managers in these activities. Finally, it addresses external factors influencing decision-making and concludes with recommendations for improving operational effectiveness.

Management
&
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Defining the roles and characteristics of leader and manager with the difference between
leadership and management........................................................................................................1
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
P2 Different roles of management and leadership in application to different organisational
situation.......................................................................................................................................4
P3 Different theories and approaches of leadership and management........................................5
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
P4 Operational approaches uses by Toyota ...............................................................................7
P5 Key operation in Toyota and role of manager In operational activities................................8
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................10
P6 External factor affecting decision making .........................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Operation management comprises all the activities involved in transforming raw material
into finish good. And, management deals with managing and controlling the people and
activities. Operational management try to enhance operational efficiency by practising
management principle and techniques. Toyota one the leading luxury vehicle, car and SUV
manufacture company in the word. Report help in understand the key operational activities
performs in Toyota along with factor affecting these function. This report will articulate the role
of leader and manager in operation. Different leadership theory and approaches also given.
Lastly, recommendation will be given to manager to improve operational effectiveness.
LO 1
P1 Defining the roles and characteristics of leader and manager with the difference between
leadership and management.
Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese based automotive company. Its headquarter is in
Toyota city, japan. It is one of the leading automotive manufacturing company in world which
comes 2nd. It ranks 6th in terms of earning revenue. The main product that is offered by Toyota
corporation is motor vehicles that includes commercial vehicles, Luxury vehicles, engine and
various other automotive products. Leader and manager plays a crucial role in the growth and
success of organisation at global level. They exist at all levels of Toyota corporation and assist in
smooth operations of different functional area and the employees of organisation (Vaccaro and
et.al., 2012). Leadership and management plays an effective role in the success of the business
operations of company on global level. Their roles and characteristics differs with the way they
work. It is a huge manufacturing company with the human force of approx 360000 employees
that are working across the globe (Renz, 2016). Being such a successful company with different
manufacturing and productive unit around all over the world, its management structure plays an
effective role. The organisational structure chart of Toyota are:
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It can be said that Toyota has divisional organisational structure, which is categorised as
global hierarchy, geographical division and product based division. Its organisational structure
assist in formulate business strategies and decisions for optimum utilization of resources.
Role of leader:
Leader can be defined as the person who has the ability to influence the behaviour of
others in order to encourage and motivate to perform a task. A leader has a clear vision of the
goals that need to achieved and influence s the employees in order to achieve the organisational
goals. Leader has an effective role in Toyota ion order to increase the efficiency and
productivity. Main role of leader are:
 To motivate the employees in order to work as per the policies and strategies framed by
the top level management.
 Leader has to communicate the policies and strategies of the company to the public and
investees.
Characteristics of a leader:
 In Toyota corporation, leader has n characteristics to influence the behaviour of his
subordinate in order to perform a task. (Goetsch and Davis, 2014).
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 Leader has a characteristic of being creative and innovative, leader will create new
policies and procedures in order to enhances the performance of employees more
efficiently.
Role of a manager:
Manager can be defined as a person who is in-charge of managing all the activities and
operations in the business organisation. They work in order to complete the task and activity
through delegate the responsibility to the employees. Manager can be the top executives in
Toyota who makes the policies and strategies and can be the supervisor of the functional areas
who are responsible to achieve the goals of their operation (Stacey, 2012).
Role of manager:
 A manager in the company who performs all the managerial function such as planning,
organising, directing and controlling.
 Their main role in Toyota organisational in to effectively and efficiently accomplished
the operation of the organisation which assist in achieving more profitability and goal of
the company.
Characteristics of a manager as follows:
 Managers performs his duties in order to complete and accomplished the short-term goals
of the organisation.
 Manager makes the plan and decisions for the day to day activities of the operations.
Difference between leadership and management are as follows:
Basis of Difference Leadership Management
Overview It can be termed as the skills
in order to influence an
employee and motivate them
(McCaffery, 2018).
It can be defined as the process
of managing all the activities
of Toyota effectively.
Focus on It focuses on bringing change
in the working of organisation
It focuses on managing
different functions and
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by encouraging employees. operations of the business
organisation effectively.
Formulation of Leadership is formulates from
different guidelines and
principles
Policies and procedures are the
formulation of management.
LO 2
P2 Different roles of management and leadership in application to different organisational
situation.
Being one of the leading automotive manufacturing organisation with such a huge manpower,
different situations are likely to be arise which can affect the performance and productivity.
These different organisational situation needs to be handled effectively with different style and
characteristics of leader and manager in Toyota. Taking as an example, following can be
different situation which are likely to be arises in Toyota and the role leader and manager plays
to handle it:
Conflicts in organisation: In an organisation, there are various situations which can leads
to arise in conflicts. These conflicts can be between employees or between employees and
management (Thorpe, 2016). Such conflicts create the negative working environment which
affects the performance level of employees.
Manager: Manager will take meetings of the employees or with the employee's representatives
and will collect facts regarding the issues of conflicts. Manager will make decision in order to
resolve the conflicts issues.
Leader: manager will patiently handle the situation by asking the employees regarding their
problems and issues in order to avoid the conflicts.
Financial crisis: It is one of the most common issues that keeps arising in organisation.
Decreases in profit leads to affect the operational working which creates resistance in employees
regarding their future in organisation. Manager and leader has to handle the situation and works
to respond the financial problem in organisation.
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Manager: A manager will make plan and budgets in order to control the expenses of the
activities (Hallinger and Wang, 2015). Manager will make policies and strategies in order to
efficiently utilize the resources in order to save the cost of the company.
Leader: leader will influence the employees regarding the issue and motivate them in order to
increase their productivity level. Leader will make new creative plans for the marketing team, in
order to increase the sales and revenue for the company.
Production efficiency: Another situation can be, Toyota corporation is facing the issue of
production efficiency and quality, financial issues, team management etc. The manager will
effectively operate as per the function like planning to utilize the available resources in order to
increase the efficiency. On the other hand, leader will encourage the employees in order to
enhances their performance which can leads to increases overall production efficiency. Leader
will make innovative and creative idea for sales and marketing department to increases the sales
and revenue to overcome from financial crisis.
P3 Different theories and approaches of leadership and management.
There are various theories and approaches of the leadership and management which will
assist leader and manager to work more efficiently in order to increase the productivity of Toyota
corporation:
System theory of leadership:
It is an effective theory which assist management to create a workplace which helps the
employees to increase their productivity with all potential. It assists Toyota to achieve is goals
more efficiently. The leader or manager of Toyota in this approach will adopt the autocratic style
and will make all the policies and decision (McCaffery, 2018). It can be best applied to the
Toyota corporation when the demand for the project has to be completed within less time and
quick decision has to be made without the involvement of employees.
Strength:
 It is an efficient process which assist in identifying the inefficiency in working system
and assist the manager and leader to eliminate it.
 It helps the leader in order to achieve the goals of the organisation efficiently within the
desired time.
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Weakness: An autocratic leader will have to face the demotivate and low morale of employees as
they are not getting involved in decision making process.
Situational theory:
As per this theory, the leader has to be flexible in order to adapt different leadership style
which can be best suited in a particular situation in Toyota (Situational Approaches to
Leadership, 2019). This theory is also known as the adaptive style. As stated in this theory, there
is no one the best style for a leader. A leader has to change in his leadership style with the
requirement of the situation in Toyota corporation. A leader in Toyota has to be flexible in order
to face different situations and requirements of employees in organisation.
Strength:
 It provides flexibility to the leader.
 It assists in making better organisational culture and healthier relationship between
employees and management.
Weakness: This theory does not focus on the long-term goals of the organisation.
Contingency theory: As per this theory, there is no one styles for a leader. A leader will
adopt the style as per the change in situation in workplace. This theory is effective for a leader in
Toyota in choosing the best that will help in him effectively handles the changing situation in
company in attaining the efficiency in the best way possible.
There are various management theory but the most priority related theory is related to
Frederick Taylor's theory which is related to productivity and improved labour conditions. It is
the duty of the management to motivate and trained the employees in better way so that they
raise more productivity in the company and bring more profits.
It can be seen from the above task that, leader and manager plays an effective role in the
growth and success of the Toyota corporation (Whaley and Gillis, 2018). Their respective roles
assist in effectively managing and leading the operational activity and employee's performance
which contributes in the growth and expansion of Toyota at the global level.
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From the theories and approaches, it can be recommanded that, Toyota corporation
should implement the situational leadership approach which assist in improving the efficiency of
the organisation.
LO 3
P4 Operational approaches uses by Toyota
Operational approach are focused to design and implement the production methods in
order to achieve work efficiency and quality.
Total production system (TPS)- Toyota made a socio- technical system for it, which
comprise its management theory and philosophy. The TPS arranges manufacturing and logistic
process for this automotive company (Collins, Muthusamy and Carr, 2015). It also considers
communication with supplier and customer for betterment. TPS build of two main pillars
namely: just- in time and jidoka. TPS is the part of “The Toyota way principles.”
The Toyota way- It comprises principle and uses in Toyota production system and
managerial approach. Principle underlay two area i.e. continuous improvement and respect for
humans (Chiarini, Baccarani and Mascherpa, 2018). There are 14 principle which are arranged in
four sections like long term philosophy, continuous solution for problem will lead to organisation
learning, the process render the right outcome and develop personnel skill for add on value to
Toyota.
Lean manufacturing- It is a systemic approach to minimise waste in production process
without compromising the productivity (Clark, 2016). Lean manufacturing principle are: value,
The Value Stream, flow, pull and perfection. This help Toyota in maintain the cost of product
and service, so that company can offer reasonable price to customer.
Six-Sigma: This approach is based on statistics, data-driven and continuous improvement
methodology. It assists in eliminating any defects in operational process and in manufactured
products. It helps in providing tools in order to improve the capability of the organisational
process.
Operational efficiency can be recognised by controlled cost, minimum wastage,
continuous improvement in process, innovation, optimum input- output ratio etc. It can be only
achieved by proper guidance, motivation, observation only. Following leadership and
management approach can be use Toyota for effective operation-
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Work- break down structure
WBS is a project management model which divide team into manageable section. It
creates hierarchy of work which is focused on delivery of the product. It gives shape for a project
implementation by hierarchical decomposition. WBS take product, service and data into
consideration for increase the effectiveness of activity (Slackand and Brandon-Jones, 2018). It
also provides framework to manager for scheduling, cost control and resource planning. WBS
software render tree structure of project thus. A manager can plan efforts in order to achieve
desirable result.
Situational leadership
According to this leadership approach, a leader can change its style according to
situation. Model can benefit to maintain operational efficiency by controlling the employee
behaviour. Like directing style can be use for staff member who are new or have less motivation
to work. Coaching style suits for personnel, who are willing to work but have lack of knowledge.
Participative style renders for workers who have enough knowledge and experience to perform a
work, but they possess low confidence. Finally, delegating leadership allow follower to take
decision by their own (Akter and et.al., 2016). Here, leader do not give instruction to follower.
Delegation can be use for people, having high experience and motivation to do work.
P5 Key operation in Toyota and role of manager In operational activities
Toyota performs all the operational activities which are performed by an automotive
manufacturing company. These functions are given below:
Designing the products and services: Toyota tries to bring technological advancement and
improved feature in its car. Company's R&D department make innovation for better quality and
updated vehicles. Apart from product, firm also integrates with dealers to design effective after
sale service (Yoshida and Kojima, 2015). Manager is responsible to analyse the trend,
identification of customer need, create product and service differentiation etc.
Quality Management- Toyota ensure product and service quality with its quality management
programme Toyota Production System (TPS). It also opts continuous improvement in its
management principle set “The Toyota Way”. Managers sets the product standard based upon
competitor analysis. They also check the deviation of actual and desired outcome by variance
analysis and take corrective actions as soon as possible.
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Process and Capacity Design – Toyota believes in enhance the process efficiency by cut off
wastage. It tries to achieve business efficiency and cost leadership for capacity design. Here, also
it used lean manufacturing, which is part of TPS. Manager finds technologies and improvement
approaches to correct the process (Pielecha, Cieślik and Szałek, 2017). They try to use system
approach Of change ,to implement the innovative idea.
Location Strategy- Local, regional and global location Strategy being used by Toyota.
Company establishes manufacturing plant locally. For instance it has factory outlet and
dealership in China, Thailand, US and India. Managers do environmental scanning (PESTLE) to
identify favourable and unfavourable condition for particular location.
Scheduling- company apply lean manufacturing principles in Scheduling to lower operating
cost. Resources Scheduling and HR practices get changed with market condition. Managers plan
human resource requirement, resource allocation, decide manufacturing process and purchase
raw material and machinery for product.
Supply Chain Management – supply chain management comprise all the activities perform to
move the finished product to end customer. Lean manufacturing approach is used by Firm for
supply chain management. Also, it implies high level of automation in supply chin activities for
real time adaptation, in order to avoid bull-whip effect. Suitable distribution channel is searched
by manager in order to ensure timely supply (Monden, 2018). They also give suggestion and
recommendation to higher authority for improvement. Their key function for supply chain, is to
make harmonious relation with vendors.
Inventory Management- Toyota knows the corresponding cost associate with idle inventory.
Organisation employ just-in-time inventory management techniques. This approach comes under
Toyota Production System. Manager has to predict the sale for raw-material requirement
evaluate the suppliers and determine inventory costs for inventory management operation.
Kiazen- kiazen means improvement. It considers all the activities that contributes in better
performance in all the activities and function. Kizen demand participation of each level of
employee. It helps the lean manufacturing (waste reduction) by modifying the process and
programmes in production line. Kiazen bring correction in the functional unit and it indirecly
encourages the innovation culture.
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Just-in-time – Just in time is an inventory management technique in which raw material is
ordered as per the production need. It's efficiency is depends upon accurate forecast of product
demand. Toyota used JIT to avoid and minimise the overhead cost of raw material. Low and
high inventory quantity both have negative impact on company. For instance if firm store raw
material it will increase the maintenance and storage cost of it. Conversely, low inventory
hamper the production speed.
Total Quality Management: it is customer focused which ensures the full involvement of
employees in continue improvement of operational process. It leads to ensure that all the
activities of operational management is to accomplished the goals of Toyota corporation.
LO 4
P6 External factor affecting decision making
Toyota takes over 10 operation activity at global scale. Kinds of operations active in
Toyota Ltd are Design of Goods and Services, Process and Capacity Design, supply china
management, Location Strategy, Inventory Management, Process and Capacity Design., quality
management, scheduling maintenance. Company also ensure logistic globally. Tonya supportive
functions are human resources' management, finance, marketing, R&D etc. External factor
affecting an organisation indirectly. They occur outside the company but their impact can be
seen internally. Manager has to change in organisation culture, process, business strategy etc.
following are the factors affecting Toyota decision making:
Political factor: Government's trade relation with other countries help Toyota in growth
and expansion. Freed trade agreement render favourable condition for market penetration. Now
Nowadays all the governments focus for environment safety, which works as opportunity to
Toyota to improve its product and service.
Manager: They try to increase export in good political condition.
Leaders: They seek opportunities for expansion.
Economical factor: Currency rate, inflation, employment, tax rate and interest rate affect
Toyota with huge intensity (Sharma and Aggarwal, 2019). Like strong Yen helps company in
acquisition, market expansion in other countries.
Manager: In adverse economical condition, manager has to more focus on cost of product
because in such situation people tend to avoid purchase car.
Leader: Leader try to change in organisation' system for face this tough situation.
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Technological factor: Any technical change in industry, demands firm to adopt the
change, otherwise it can loss its customer attention. Technological innovation render large
market share. Manager also make efforts regarding this by conduct research for driverless car,
low carbon emission engine, fuel efficiency with high mileage etc.
Manager: Managers are responsible to bring technology in company. They also arrange training
and development session for that.
Leaders: They encourage and motivate people to use their individual learning for innovation.
Social factor: Social factor affect the customer preference and choice. For instance:
country having more young people, prefer SUV. Also, society with low technological acceptance
will not accept driverless car (Aithal, 2017).
Leader: Leader recognise the social condition and direct manager to implement the change
accordingly.
Manager: Manager aligns the existing business policy with different social and cultural
environment. They also conduct market research to know the market environment.
To accelerates operational activity with fast pace, manager should focus more human
capital of the organisation because all activities are performed by them. Demotivate, inefficient
employee can become cause for more wastage, accidents, errors, and unethical behaviour at
workplace. So operation manager and HR manager should work together to enhance capacity of
workers. Production manager should practice continuous improve in whole operation system, use
suitable evaluation and controlling measures, identifies and remove the Bottlenecks, implement
more technology and automation at each level.
The ethical behaviours or the employees affect the leaders and technique which they used
to trained the employees and staff members. As every person are from different background so
there culture and behaviour are different from the others and they gain that opportunity by
different methods. With this difficult it lacks the potential and capability of the leaders and
managers to trained them properly which affects the business externally. As it reflect the bad
impact of the company by the behaviours of the employees through their culture and ethical
behaviour.
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CONCLUSION
From the above study it can be concluded that operation efficiency plays a critical role in
organisation success, so every business entity should focus on sustain this. Operational
effectiveness highly depends upon manager and leadership style, because these people are
responsible to make plan and control the different production activities. Any change can not
implement in one shot, so manager should try to make learning and continuous improvement
organisation culture. Also, they should not relay on one management and leadership approach
because they have to deal with dynamic situation and humans.
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