Effective People Management and Leadership Strategies at Nissan Motors

This report provides an analysis of people management practices at Nissan Motors, a multinational automobile company. It explores various leadership styles, including transformational leadership, and management theories such as the Trait Theory and Goal Setting Theory, currently employed by Nissan. The report also discusses the significance of training and development programs, highlighting both the benefits of effective training and the implications of poor training. Furthermore, it delves into talent and performance management strategies, emphasizing the importance of employee retention and continuous improvement. The report concludes with recommendations for Nissan, focusing on the need for high-quality decision-making, continuous training and development, and the setting of effective goals to enhance employee motivation and organizational performance in the competitive automobile industry. Desklib provides access to this report and other solved assignments.

Introduction to People
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
Leadership and management.......................................................................................................3
Trait Theory of leadership...........................................................................................................4
Training and Development .........................................................................................................5
Goal Setting Theory....................................................................................................................6
Talent/Performance management................................................................................................7
Motivation Theory......................................................................................................................8
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
People management may be defined as the set of various practices that includes overall
process of talent acquisition, optimisation and retention which facilitates in providing the support
and effective guidance to the employees of an organisation. It involves the work pattern and
behaviour , how the people work. People management enables in building trust and empathy
along with motivating the employees. It also appreciates the extraordinary employees who
contributed their efforts towards the betterment of the company. There are several theories which
help an organisation in focusing, communicating and evolving through its processes. By
selecting the suitable theory according to nature of business, it allows in focusing on the main
objective and streamline all the high rated priorities which are essential for the organisation
(Cook,2020). This report is based on Nissan Motors, is a multinational automobile company
headquartered in Yokohama, Japan. It was incorporated by Masurjiro Hashimoto in 1933. It was
the sixth largest automobile company in 2013 and in 2018 it was world's largest manufacturer of
electric vehicles. It operates across the world and branch office facilitates in US, Mexico and
Europe. The company is opting functional organisational structure that provides ease and smooth
functioning of the organisation. Every department has one supervisor along with its team
members that facilitates the clarity in their respective work. This report will cover the styles of
leadership and management, current situation of the company in terms of management and
characteristics of the training and development program. It also cover the importance of the
training and development and the implication of poor training. Brief discussion of talent and
performance along with the project recommendations and conclusions.
TASK
Leadership and management
It may be referred as the process of influencing the other individuals in order to motivate
and derive their peak potential within. Whereas management can be said as the controlling the
company's resources in an effective way in order to achieve the organisational goals. There are
various leadership styles which helps in becoming an effective leader such as Bureaucratic,
participative and delegative. Greatman and trait theory also emphasis on the leadership styles.
These theories states that leaders are born with specific traits that makes them in becoming an

effective leader (Piwowar-Sulej, 2020). Nissan cars is currently using transformational
leadership style which helps the employees in aligning the actions with the organisational
objectives. According to the nature and size of the company, Nissan has chosen the appropriate
leadership styles that allows them to work for a common goal. It also helps in seeking the new
opportunities, guides and motivates people in order to attain the organisational objectives.
Following are the theories of management that Nisaan is using.
Trait Theory of leadership
This theory states that there are some inborn qualities and attributes that makes an effective
leader. It depends on various factors such as height, weight, personality traits and intelligence of
an individual. These factors makes them different from other people. Following are some traits
of a good leadership.
 Drive – It consist of the higher effort level of an individual. Individual having this trait
have a strong desire for achievement and are ambitious towards their activities. The
management authority of Nissan are having skilled and ambitious employees which
makes them in becoming a good leader. They sets up their targets and tries to complete
within the given time (Prowse, 2010).
 Honesty and Integrity – An effective leader should be truthful in front of his employees
and must be consistent towards his work and words (Nett.,2018). It should not set wrong
example to the employees by not maintaining the wrong integrity.
 Desire to lead – Based on their traits, they always try to show the desire to lead and
influence, guide and motivates its followers. They also provides clarity in the vision for
its team members by proper utilising its application of knowledge.
 Self confident – The leader should be confident towards his decisions in order to
influence the other team mates. Absence of self confidence does not allow others to
convince for their decisions.
 Knowledge – Effective leaders have broad level of knowledge about the company which
can be found beneficial in taking the managerial and technical decisions. The leaders in
Nissan have a very vast knowledge and experience about the company which makes them
n effective leader (Calandro., 2007).

Training and Development
It comprises of various educational activities that is conducted for the enhancement of the
skills and knowledge of the employees. It also provides the instruction and information that how
a certain task can be performed effectively. It focus on increasing the productivity of the
employees. By providing effective training sessions, it have the ability to turn an unskilled
employee into a skilled one, over a period of time (Antonakis,2018). It emphasis on improving
the quality which helps in saving of time and also reduce the uncertainties by providing training
sessions. As the company is engaging in technology and automobile industry, that requires
frequent training sessions to be conducted in order to keep up to date in their field. There is rapid
change in the advancement of technology that makes complex to operate in the dynamic business
environment. It is the most effective tool of management process. Currently, Nissan is having
approx 138,893 employees that are working across different countries. Mostly employees are
working in Unites States and United Kingdom. The company is providing the training session
related to the rapid change in the technology and the need to innovate the vehicle components
that provides much better features compared to its competitors. In order to face the competition,
the company should use soft skills and management training programs that should be conducted.

The company provides on the job and off the job training sessions that helps in improving the
skills of new employees. Vestibule training is also conducted in the company premises as
resources are provided to the new employees and are asked to demonstrate the learning outcomes
that they have gained during the training sessions (Farndale, 2011). The implications of poor
training and development can lead to lower performance of an individual and increases the stress
level too. This employees may switch for other company in order to make the progress in their
professional career. The work can hamper and creates a low morale among the employees. By
poor training programs, the employees are not aware about their job roles and responsibilities
that decline their productivity. Availability of inadequate resource and inadequate work
environment are the two major factor that may limit the training and development in the
organisation (Gallagher, 2021)). Nissan has chosen the goal setting theory.
Goal Setting Theory
This theory involves setting up of specific objectives in order to improve the productivity.
It also helps in improving the employee engagement and employee engagement. This theories
indicates that what is to be done and what is needed to accomplish the goals. Setting up of goals

and attaining them results in increasing the productivity. Nissan applies this theory in the
organisation as it creates willingness to do work and accomplish the goal (Bernardino, 2020).
Talent/Performance management
It comprises of the HR processes which includes selection and retention of the high
performing employees across the life cycle of employees. It involves the onboarding the
employees and make them grow their capabilities along with keeping the organisational goals
keeping in mind. It allows in attracting the required talent and selection through various stages
and managing them in order to retain the employees. The organisational performance can be seen
by various financial indicators that shows the current position of the company such as return on
assets, Trading, Profit and Loss account and the consolidated balance sheet (Mirza,2020). This
helps the company in measuring the organisational performance. The applicants are selected in
Nissan are based on their abilities and skills that is required for the vacant job position. They
also try to retain the existing employees as it helps in effective working along with reducing the
hiring cost (De Waal, 2003). The company is conducting various training sessions so that the
employees can improve their performance. It also sets up milestones that helps in enhancing the
overall performance of the employees. In order to remain sustainable in the business market,
company have to keep an eye on the performance and emphasis on improving by using several
frameworks. They use various financial rewards and appreciates the hard work of the employees.
Organisation should acquire and retain the right employee in order to achieve growth in the
market.
Importance of Talent Managements
 Value creation and addition – It helps in creating the value of the employees
which helps in reducing the probability of errors and creates valuable learning
opportunity.
 Effect on engagement of employee – The major barrier in retaining the employees
is poor employee engagement. Nissan provides a platform in expressing annd
connecting may increase the employee engagement level.
 Increase productivity of organisation – With proper talent management, it helps in
increasing the productivity of employees as well of organisation. Further, it also
helps in time saving and company can focus on other development techniques.

Motivation Theory
This is the most crucial theory in enhancing the performance management. It states that
the individual have some needs that should be fulfilled in order to get motivate. He cannot
ascend to the next level of the motivation hierarchy level if his prior needs are not fulfilled
(Kinnunen, 2017). The basic psychological needs are the first priority of an individual that is
needed to be fulfilled at first.
RECOMMENDATION
 Formulate high quality decision - As the automobile industry is becoming wider
nowadays, so, it is necessary to be competitive in the business environment. There are
numerous companies in this industry so in order to maintain the sustainability, the
company should conduct proper market analysis and creates the insights of that data and
make the decisions according to them. In addition to that, it also upgrades its machinery
and other technological resources that makes the work automated and efficient.
 Training and Development –As the automobile industry is rapidly growing, the
company should bring innovation to the vehicles in order to face the competition. The
company should provide on the job and vestibule training so that the employees can

sharpen their knowledge in a very less time. An individual is able to grab the knowledge
if he is getting it practically rather than theoretical lectures.
 Sets effective goals – The company should set the effective and realistic goals in order
to motivate the employees,. Unrealistic goals gives a negative impact on the employees
and can easily demotivated.
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it was concluded that leadership and management are the
sides of same coin as both facilitates in increasing the performance of organisation. The
company is having great market value in the automobile industry and in order to maintain its
effectiveness, it should bring innovation to such as bringing the EV technology in this industry as
it may be a boom to this industry. Earlier the company was using old traditional method of
performance management but it should add some more principles so that to become competitive.
The company should use various styles of leadership as a single style cannot be found suitable in
all departments . For different project it requires other leadership styles.
Implications
Bringing new innovation may incur a huge amount as it is required to do proper research
and analysis of the market and it is not necessary that the innovation can get the higher
popularity. So it is a pure bet on the new innovational that it may gain popularity and generates
high revenue or can be flopped.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Piwowar-Sulej, K., 2020. Management 3.0 from the standpoint of modern concepts of people
management and leadership theories. Entities' decision in conditions of economic growth, pp.20-
30.
Nettle, R., 2018. Attractive careers and people management on dairy farms: two sides of the same
coin. In International Agricultural Workforce Conference July (pp. 76-81).
Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V., 2018. Leadership: Past, present, and future.
Gallagher, T., 2021. Governance and leadership in education policy making and school
development in a divided society. School Leadership & Management, 41(1-2), pp.132-151.
Bernardino, G. and Curado, C., 2020. Training evaluation: a configurational analysis of success
and failure of trainers and trainees. European Journal of Training and Development.
Mirza, and et. al., 2020. Effect of education and training, career development and position
placement on performance of employees Almuslim University Bireuen District. indOmera, 1(1),
pp.13-25.
Kinnunen and et.al., 2017: Automatic speaker verification spoofing and countermeasures
challenge evaluation plan. Training, 10(1508), p.1508.
De Waal, A.A., 2003. Behavioral factors important for the successful implementation and use of
performance management systems. Management Decision.
Farndale and et.al., 2011. High commitment performance management: The roles of justice and
trust. Personnel Review.
Calandro, J., 2007. Considering the utility of Altman's Z‐score as a strategic assessment and
performance management tool. Strategy & Leadership.\
Prowse, and et. al., 2010. Whatever happened to human resource management
performance?. International Journal of productivity and performance management.