Leadership and Management in Toyota: A Comprehensive Operations Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of leadership and management practices within the Toyota Motor Corporation. It begins by defining leadership and management, comparing the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers. The report then explores the functions of leaders and managers in various situations, including conflict resolution and employee turnover, highlighting the importance of planning, organizing, coordinating, and controlling. Different leadership styles are examined in the context of Toyota's management department, along with the application of trait theory. The report also delves into key approaches to operations management, such as total quality management and just-in-time inventory, and discusses the role of operations managers in improving efficiency and decision-making. Finally, the impact of factors like corporate social responsibility, culture, values, ethics, and sustainability on business operations is considered, providing a comprehensive overview of leadership and management in a global automotive company.

Management & operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P 1 Definitions of leadership & management and comparison in roles and characteristics of
leaders and managers...................................................................................................................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
P 2 Functions of leaders and managers in different situations.....................................................5
P 3 Leadership styles and trait theory of leadership....................................................................7
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................11
P 4 Key approaches to operations management .......................................................................11
P 5 Value, importance and role of operations manager in improving efficiency & decisions
they make...................................................................................................................................14
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................16
P 6 Factors such as CSR, culture, value, ethics and sustainability impacts on the business
operations...................................................................................................................................16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
Operations management can be defined as a branch and an area of management that deals
with managing all the functions and operations within an organisation. The main aim of
performing and managing operations is to create the higher level of efficiency & maximize
profits of the company. This present report will discuss all operations and processes about
Toyota company, who is a Japanese multinational automotive publicly held manufacturer. Its
Headquarter is in Toyota city, Japan and founded by Kiichiro Toyota in 1937. This present study
will show about the different styles and roles of leaders and manager with having different skills.
They play a vital role in solving different types of situations that occur in Toyota company like
labour turnover, allocation of tasks, interpersonal conflicts etc. Operations manager also play
various functions in order to increase efficiencies of employees as well as their business
(Kiehtreiber and et.al., 2018).
This report will also show operational management approaches which includes total
quality management & just in time inventory approach that supports the business in minimizing
wastes and improving the quality of all services & goods which they provide. Some external
factors like economic, Ethical consideration, culture of different countries, technological,
sustainability impacts on the decision-making process of manager and leaders of the company in
positive and in negative manner.
LO 1
P 1 Definitions of leadership & management and comparison in roles and characteristics of
leaders and managers.
Leadership: Leadership and management are called the main pillar of an organization
because they are main responsible for the company's growth. Leaders is an individual that guide
their followers by providing different examples (Fernet and et.al., 2015). The focus of leaders of
the company on doing the right things and encourage followers by different activities in order to
accomplish the vision of the company.
Management: Management can be defined as a operation of dealing, controlling and
controlling resources including HRM and operations of an organization. Manager is a person
who has the main responsiblity for administering a group of people and an organization in an

effective manner. They play various roles and functions which help them in increasing profits
and sales of the company.
Characteristics of Managers &leaders
Characteristics of leaders Characteristics of mangers
 The first and foremost characteristic of
the leader of Toyota is that they lead
their followers and employees by
examples.
 They know their limits and learn from
the past.
 Another main characteristic of the
leader of Toyota is they communicate
effectively & never stop improving.
 The main important characteristic of the
manager of Toyota is they set a good
example and create new ways of
managing tings.
 They do not avoid conflicts that occurs
within an organisation as deal with it
fairly (Georgalis and et.al., 2015).
 Manager of Toyota also focus on
communicating regularly by providing
feedbacks to their employees & leaders.
Roles of leaders & Managers
Roles of leaders Roles of managers
 The main role of the leader of
Toyota is to improve and build
strong relationship among between
employees and the business.
 Leaders have the ability and they
take risks for achieving determined
goals.
 Leader of Toyota makes various
strategies by involving their team
members by which they can follow
guidelines and work accordingly
(Ventre and et.al., 2016).
 The main role of the manager is to build
and develop system and processes of
their organisation.
 Manager tries to control risk rather than
taking risks.
 Manager of Toyota company monitor
all the processes and strategies and
ensure that all the work in going on the
right track.

LO 2
P 2 Functions of leaders and managers in different situations.
Functions of manager:
Manager of Toyota plays various functions which help them in managing human
resources and their employees effectively. Functions of manager includes planning, staffing,
organizing, directing an controlling.
Planning: For performing any type of task there is an importance and required of
planning of scheduling and tell tom leaders and employees that the way of performing tasks
according to the plan.
Organizing: It is next step in functions of manager. In this step manager make sure that
if all the work and everything is going according to the plan or not. If they feel that its is not
going according o the plan then they find reasons and take corrective actions.
Coordinating: Coordinating means to bring all the employees together in order to make
work and forming a strong relationship among them. By performing this function they make feel
comfortable and secured to employees (Berson, Da'as and Waldman, 2015).
Controlling: It is the last but not the least function which is being played by manager of
Toyota. In this function it wants everything under control whether it is related to budget,
resource allocation, strategies etc. For example, they make sure that all the employees and team
members cannot be granted leave on the same day because it can affect work and its delivery.
Function of leader:
There are some functions played by leader for leading their employees in an effective
manner with the main aim of achieving determined goals and vision such as policy making,
organizing, direction, motivation, problem solving, controlling internal relationship and
controlling penalties and rewards. All these functions are played by a leader of Toyota. They do
not only determine goals but also motivate and encourage employees by rewards and penalties.
Leaders also help the business by focusing on improving internal relationship and problem
solving for creating a better working environment.
Roles of management in real occasion

Conflict situation– In this situation where individuals of the company have their interpersonal
problems with each other. As the Toyota is the multinational company which deliver the vehicle
different location and also have the employees with different culture and region to deal with
different clients and investors.
To reduce and eliminate the conflicts from the Toyota organisation, leaders give the
proper guidance and also encourage them to equal participation and respect each other views. In
this set the vision for their team member with having common goals.
Managers play the important role by setting the common goal for the employees and
manage the conflict situation by understand their problems and giving them different offers, that
create the conflicts. Also applying the effective organisation culture where employees work and
behave effectively.
Duties and roles of management
Managers and leaders are the main element of the Toyota organisation, and play various
roles and duties in the organisation in order to solve different problem n the organisation. By
applying the different approach of the leaders and managers that solve and manage various
situation that occur anytime in the Toyota organisation (Ulmer, 2018). When leaders help to
motivate the employees and followers whereas mangers evaluate and set goals to do work on.
Roles f the anger in different situation of the Toyota organisation, which are:
Poor productivity in the organisation – Some time it may arise the problem of the poor
productivity, that means the production and manufacturing of the cars and other vehicles may
become poor as compare to the other auto mobile competitors in the market. In this situation of
the poor productivity of the vehicles and employees as they do not work effectively. This
situation occurs when employees do not have the better clarity of role that employees have to
perform. So that they can perform their work effectively. In this kind of the situation leaders and
manger both perform their role efficiently.
To overcome this situation in the Toyota organization, leaders perform in the way as the
motivator, director. In this they provide the direction b making the effective strategies by equal
participation of the team members and then motivate them in order to perform the task and to
implement those strategies. This way role of the leaders helps in increasing the productivity of

the employees and this productivity of employees help to increase the productivity of the Toyota
company (Su and Baird, 2018).
Whereas mangers play the role by setting the goals for the employees, and also for the
leaders that they have to be performed by the team members. And also plan the effective training
and ongoing development program so that employees can overcome their weakness and can
update yourself as compare to the market. And also find the
Employ turnover – It is the problem where employees of the Toyota organisation, left the
organisation rapidly for some reason. These reasons can be, lack of motivation, low salary as
compare to the other organisation, ineffective organisational culture and lack of the other
benefits which are provided by the other organisation in the auto mobile market. To overcome
this situation leaders and the mangers of the organisation plays different roles in order to keep
their employees with the organisation for longer time.
In this situation leaders help to encourage and motivate their team members so that, they
can work effectively without any hesitation. They also show the empathy with their team
members to understand their problem so that they can solve them and reduce the employee
turnover from the Toyota organisation. In this, leaders also convey the problem of their team
members to the upper level management to solve the problem.
Managers also play the important role to reduce the turnover from the Toyota
organisation. Mangers build the different strategies and plan for the employees to give the proper
training program, reward system on their performance, giving them promotion, bonus on the
occasions. As this reduce the employee turnover in the Toyota organisation and also help to
increase the performance of the employees (Gächter and Renner, 2018).
Management by objective
Management by objectives can be defined as a strategic model which is being used by the
manager of an organization. The basis purpose of that model is to make improvement in overall
productivity level of the company. According to Peter F Drucker, various conditions are
available that must be met such as objectives of the management to form the qualitative and
quantitative level, They are determined with employees etc.
P 3 Leadership styles and trait theory of leadership
Introduction of organisation

This is based on Toyota Motor Corporation, which is a Japanese international automotive
producer with headquarter is in, Aichi, Japan. The company’s corporate structure includes
364,445 employees all over the world and it became the sixth largest organisation in the world
by revenue.
Explanation of department
Management department of the Toyota helps to manage all the management activities in
the company in order to effective operations in the Toyota company. In this management
department of the Toyota set the objective of their company, in order to perform on it and to set
the strategies for their employees.
Management team background
This team of the management mean to that are responsible for managing other individuals
or groups. This may consist of senior management, top-level management, executive level
management etc. that are responsible for managing the activities of the firm or a corporation etc.
In Toyota, the top management team is consisted of various positions such as Chairman, Vice
Chairman, operating officers etc. Currently, Takeshi Uchiyamada is the Chairman of Board of
directors, Current members of the Board are Shigeki Terashi, Ikuro Sugawara etc. Akiyo Toyoda
is the present Operating officer of the organisation who is responsible for looking operations of
Toyota. Naomi Ishii is the current General Manager of Toyota. All these people plays an
important role in sucees of the company.
This Trait theory of the leadership is wholly based on different skills and characteristics
leadership whether they are successful and unsuccessful. These characteristics of leadership are
being used in order to predict their effectiveness. As compared to successful leaders have some
traits, abilities and interests that make them differ from others. It focuses on differences between
followers and leaders. There are several styles of leadership that make them able to lead their
followers with effectively. Autocratic and democratic are 2 styles of leadership that based on the
situations of the company.
Autocratic: This style is called as a strict style of leading. Inn this style, leader of the
company does not provide equal and fair chance to participate in any activity or decision-making
activity (De Hoogh, Greer and Den Hartog, 2015). It de motivates them but it is effective when
leaders do not have much time of taking decisions. It is also taken when employees do not have
enough experience.

Democratic: It is called participative theory. According to this theory, leaders involve
their employees in decision-making process. It motivates employees towards working
productively and accomplishing organizational goals.
Leadership approach
Situational – Situational leadership is the adaptive and flexible kind of the leadership. In this
model of the leadership, helps to encourage the leaders of the organisation in order take various
change and apply the leadership styles as per the analysis of the situation in the organisation.
Leaders can choose that leadership style which fit in the situation and can be helpful to
achievement of the overall target of the organisation. Situational leadership helps it develop the
workgroup in the organisation, helps to create the report and bring the best people on the basis of
the report, it also helps to choose the best leadership style across the all units of the organisation
(Thompson and Glasø, 2018).
As with the help of this situational leadership, leaders and manager can get help to make
improvement in their leadership and management. As according to this theory, leaders of the
Toyota organisation analyse the situation in the company and existing working environment and
the need of the organisation and according to the need and environment leaders can make
changes and apply the different leadership style on the basis of the specific skills of their own.
They can choose autocratic, democratic, transformational and any other leadership style to deal
with the situation and make improvement in the leadership that employees can work effectively
for the Toyota organisation (Harrison, 2018).
System – This leadership system theory provide helps to make empower the leaders to create the
situation and environment in the organisation so that employees of the organisation can work
effectively and productively with their full potential. This, System leadership is an effective
model that make able to leader of Toyota's to create a situation in which employees at all stages
and levels can work effectively and productively with their efficiencies. With this theory, leader
uses some principles about human behaviour. This theory helps them in developing and
promoting innovation & creativity within the company and also encourage their employees in
order to think differently. It can be possible with the help of this theory to make improvement in
the behaviour and styles of the leadership (Thomson, 2018).
This system leadership theory helps the mangers and leaders of the Toyota, to create he
best working environment in the organisation for the employees of the Toyota, so that they can

give their best to increase the productivity and also can give the best to increase the productivity
of the Toyota in the market. This theory not only give the benefits to the leaders by also helps to
managers of the company to make effective policies and strategies for the Toyota corporation to
increase its profit share.
Strength and weakness of managers and leaders’ approach
Situational leadership
Strength Weakness
 The company use the situational
leadership the strength of using such
leadership is that the leader will have the
control over its workers
 The approach will help the employees to
take their own decision means they can
decide their own ways to complete the
task.
 This approach allows the manger and
leader to shift to other style as per the
situation
 This type of leadership will sometimes
create a problem for the manager as the
individual may struggle to shifting the
styles of the leadership as according to
change situation as this style requires
more of listening and less of telling
 This will also hamper the manger to pay
attention to the long-term goals of
organization. For instance, if the Toyota's
managers will shift his attention toward
solving the immediate problem he may
find it difficult to focus on future plans of
a company
 The leader of Toyota may find it difficult
to continuously analyse the situation and
change their leadership style accordingly.
System leadership approach
Strength Weakness
 System approach will help the manager
and leader of Toyota to know the needs
of an environment which will help them
to make the decision accordingly.
 It will result in delay of the decision
making process
 System approach does not support
particular style of leadership in an

 It helps the manager to focus on the
different aspects of the management in
the workplace (Senge, Hamilton and
Kania, 2015).
organisation
LO 3
P 4 Key approaches to operations management
Management operation is referring to the controlling the process of the production and
manufacturing of the operation of the business in the most efficient possible manner. This
involve he some of the approaches that help the operation management to production and
manufacturing in the organisation and continuously improve the product quality in the market as
compare to the other competitors in the market. There are number of approaches of the opertain
management (Swink and et.al., 2017).
Manager role in Total Quality approach
Total quality management
This operation management approach of total quality management is the approach is the
approach of the operation management, which focus on the customer and employees and them
continues improvement in the working efficiency. In this they also focus on to make
improvement in the product quality. In include some principles in which this approach works
such as customer focused, total employee involvement, process cantered and many more (Li and
et.al., 2018).
Managers role
 Managers of the Toyota pay the role of the evaluation and mentoring with the help of this
approach and make sure the quality of the employees by providing them best training
program.
 Managers of the Toyota also ensure the quality of the manufacturing process of the
vehicles and try to give the best cars in the market.
Role of the leader
 With the help of this approach leaders provide the various resources to their team
members in the Toyota to enhance the working skill of their employees.

 Leaders also play the role of the performance measurement and make sure the
performance of the team members in the Toyota company.
Just in time
This management operation approach strategies that make sure the alignment of the raw
materials from the suppliers directly to the schedule to the production. This approach helps the
inventory management. Most of the organisation use this approach to increase the efficiency and
reduce the wastage of the materials and the cost by bring the materials in only limited quantity
what they need to the production (Pinto and et.al., 2018).
Role of the manager
 Mangers of the Toyota with the help of this approach make sue the quantity of the raw
materials and the auto parts for the manufacturing of the vehicles to reduce the wastage
of the goods and to save the money.
 They also check and monitor that manufacturing of the all the vehicles can be done on
time to launch the new vehicles on market to increase the sales of the Toyota company.
Role of leader
 Leaders of the Toyota company make sure the availability of the resources and materials
for the employees on the time so that they can work properly and within the time. They also check and monitor the work and performance of their team members so that
they can complete the task and fulfil the target of the Toyota company by increasing the
market share by increasing the profit revenue.
Six sigma approach – this approach can be referred as the set of tools that help to improve the
process of the organisation. This approach is concerned with eliminating errors and defects in a
process and products. By applying six sigma approach in operation management, Toyota can
easily achieve maximum customers' satisfaction by improving return on sales and eliminating
defects (Dahm and Mohos, 2018).
Role of the manager
 With the help of this approach, mangers of the Toyota monitor the manufacturing process
of the vehicles in order to provide the best new featured vehicles in market as compared
to the competitors.
 Managers of the Toyota also monitor al the operation process of the whole organisation
in order t increase the efficiency.