Toyota Inc.: A Case Study on Business Communication Failures

This case study examines the business communication failures within Toyota Inc., specifically focusing on the unintentional acceleration issue. It highlights the disparity between North American and Japanese executives in decision-making and the company's prioritization of volume over safety. The analysis reveals how poor communication, denial of responsibility, and attempts to hinder investigations by the NHTSA contributed to public backlash. The case emphasizes the need for improved communication between executives, a focus on product quality and safety, and open communication with the public and government safety regulators. The study uses various references to support the arguments and findings. The case underscores the importance of transparent communication and ethical business practices in maintaining customer trust and ensuring product safety.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION IN TOYOTA, INC.

It is a case of a Car making company which is known as Toyota Inc. It is an unintentional
acceleration case and its communication problems surrounding this issue. The organization is
engaged in producing high-quality cars for establishing itself in the eyes of customers. But to
some extent, the organization is not able to maintain the quality of its products. As Lupe faced a
big problem with this car, in the same manner, there are lots of people who may face such
problems. If the management is not capable of providing good quality products with high safety,
then it should shut down its business (Hollnagel, 2014). The main reason for the problem facing
the organization could be the difference between North American and Japanese Executives. It is
the duty of the organization to maintain equality at its workplace. The management of the
organization does not give the decision-making rights to North American Executive, although
they are more knowledgeable about the acceleration issue and talented than the Japanese
executives.
To resolve the acceleration issue, the management of the organization should be honest for its
responsibility towards the public. It is not a right thing of the management of the organization to
run from its responsibilities and denied the fault in its products. The management continuously
denied allegations that they were any faults with its cars, which lead to public backlash. Toyota
gives more importance to quantity then security aspects. Toyota prioritized safety first, quality
second, and volume third (Engmann, 2013). But during 2000 the organization began to grow and
shift its priorities. After the growth, volume becomes their first priorities because it enables them
to capture a large size of the market. President Aikio believed that Toyota should come to its
original state of prioritizing and safety should be main focus instead of volume. This problem is
arising due to lack of communication between different executives of the organization because
they are not able to communicate the employees about the importance of safety then profit. In

addition, the organization also attempted to slow down the NHTSA investigations about the
faults and problems in the manufacturing products of organization. It utilized various tactics to
hamper the investigations of NHTSA. It tried to reduce the number of cases by altering the
meaning of a sudden unintended acceleration incident (Nathan, 2014). Apart of it, the
organization also argued that it was not faulty behind any case because it warned the drivers
about it. By arguing so, the organization tried to shift the blame to customers.
This problem can be resolved by the organization by giving more decision-making power to
different executives of United States. Apart of this, the organization should focus on maintaining
the quality of its products and should consider the safety of public as its first priority. This can
also facilitate by improving the level of communication with the public (Mitra, 2016). It is the
responsibility of the organization to understand the problem first and to take the responsibility of
improving it instead of denied from problems. The organization should establish direct
communication with government safety rules to ensure more safety and avoid future problems.

References
Hollnagel, E. (2014). Safety-I and safety–II: the past and future of safety management. Ashgate
Publishing, Ltd..
Engmann, C., Wall, S., Darmstadt, G., Valsangkar, B., & Claeson, M. (2013). Consensus on
kangaroo mother care acceleration. The Lancet, 382(9907), e26-e27.
C., & Cars, O. (2014). Antibiotic resistance—problems, progress, and prospects. New England
Journal of Medicine, 371(19), 1761-1763.
Mitra, A. (2016). Fundamentals of quality control and improvement. John Wiley & Sons.