Toyota Corporation Leadership and Management Styles

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Management and Operation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................2
P1 M1, Defining and comparing the role and characteristics of a leader and manager.........2
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................5
P2 the role of leader and function of manager in different situational context......................5
P3, M2 Applying different theories and models of leadership and management..................6
D1 Critically analysing and evaluate different theories and approaches to leadership..........9
TASK 3....................................................................................................................................10
P4 Explaining the key approaches to operation management and roles of manager and
leader play in OM.................................................................................................................10
P5, M3 Explaining the importance and value of operational management in achieving
business objectives...............................................................................................................12
TASK 4....................................................................................................................................14
P6, M4, Assessing factors of business environment that impact operational management
and decision of manager and leader.....................................................................................14
D2 Critically evaluating application of operation management and factors impact on the
wider business environment.................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................17

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1Situational Leadership Model.......................................................................................7
Figure 2: Six Sigma Approach.................................................................................................11

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Difference between functions of leaders and managers..............................................3

INTRODUCTION
Operational management is the field which deals with the business practices that leads to
create the high degree of efficiency in an organisational process. It can be said that
operational management is the process which leads to convert the raw material and human
force into finished product and service. Toyota Corporation has established its operation in
UK in 1989. Toyota manufacturing Ltd is based in UK, headquarter is based in Burnaston,
England with around more than 3000 employees. Its parent company is Toyota Motor
Corporation which is world’s 2nd leading automobile company. The main products of Toyota
are luxury and commercial vehicles. The present report will highlight the role and
characteristics of a leader and manager. The report will include the role of leader and function
of manager in different situational context. It will also highlight theories and models of
leadership and management which can be applied in Toyota Corporation. Further, the key
approaches to operation management and roles of manager and leader play in OM will
discuss. The report will depict the importance and value of operational management in
achieving business objectives
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TASK 1
P1 M1, Defining and comparing the role and characteristics of a leader and manager
An effective management and efficient leadership are crucial for the success and growth of
any organisation. Leadership can be termed as an ability to lead and influence the individual
and team to accomplish the task and operation in order to increase the productivity and attain
the goal of Toyota Corporation. On the other hand, management can be defined as an art of
getting work done by others. It is a process of managing all the task and activities of
organisation and to ensure that the work is coordinated effectively to enhance the
productivity and profitability of Toyota Corporation.
Definition of leader: Leader can be defined as a person who influences groups of people to
work for achievement of a common goal (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). Thus, it can be said that
a leader in Toyota is the person who influences and motivate the employees to perform in
order to enhance the productivity to achieve the vision and mission of the Toyota.
Definition of Manager: manager can be dined as a person who is responsible and authorised
to manage all the activities and group of staff. Manager is responsible to ensure the optimum
utilisation of available resources in order to increase the profitability of Toyota organisation.
Leader and manager are plays a vital role in achieving the goals of the organisation
efficiently and increasing the profit maximization at global level. Being a successful global
automotive organisation, leader and managers roles are important in Toyota to transform the
strategies made by top level management into action based at the operational level.
Roles and characteristics of leader in Toyota Corporation
One of the most important role of leader in Toyota is to facilitate the strategies and plan of
top executives so that employees can effectively informed regarding their roles in
accomplishing the goals of organisation. Leaders are crucial in influencing and motivating
the employees to perform productively in order to attain their personal goals as well. Another
major role of leader is to act as representatives of organisation in seminars and PR activities
and communicate the outside world regarding future plans and goals of Toyota.
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The characteristics that a good leader must possess are as follows:
Honesty: Leader of Toyota requires being honest regarding the aims and strategies to its
followers and subordinates.
Communicator: Leader should be an efficient communicator who can communicate
effectively to the employees, top management and to outside world regarding the operational
performance efficiently.
Confidence: Leader should be confident enough of his strategies regarding the plan pf
operations of business entity.
Roles and characteristics of manager in Toyota Corporation
Manager of Toyota performs various roles that are crucial in managing the operations in
coherent way. Manager has three major roles in organisation which are interpersonal which
relates to communicate to outside enterprise, influencing leading the employees within the
organisation (Stacey, 2012). Another one is informational role, which includes providing
information regarding performance of organisation to top executives and passing the
strategies and goals by them to different departments effectively. In decisional role, manager
has responsibilities to take decisions regarding short-term and long-term goals of Toyota.
Other than this, top-level management plays an essential role in setting the performance
standard of the organisation and employees related to different activities which will increase
the profitability and attaining organisational goals more effectively.
Characteristics of a manager are as follows:
Communication skills: manager should have excellent communication skills as they
facilitate communication between employees regarding performance and presents
performance reports to top management effectively.
Planning: manager needs to plan every step of their work as per the strategies of top
management.
Problem solving ability: they need to manage the entire task efficiently as per the goal of
organisation. Hence, they should know how to deal with the problems and solve them
efficiently.
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Function of leader and manager
Difference between function of leader and manager are presented below:
Table 1: Difference between functions of leaders and managers
Function of leader Function of manager
Setting goals and objective for the team and
employees are faction of leader.
Planning for accomplishing the task is one of
the functions of manager.
Leader facilitates the task and resources and
ensures to make available to employees right
time.
Managers work to organise all the activity
and resource of Toyota and leads to ensure
sufficient resource in organisation.
Leaders function is to direct and motivate the
employees to perform the task.
Managers lead to check and control the
activity and task of the organisation as per
the plan.
Leaders lead to trace long-term goals for the
organisation and makes decision to attain it.
Manager has to give direction to employees
to work as per the stratergies.
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TASK 2
P2 the role of leader and function of manager in different situational context
As the business world is changing with fast pace, it is obvious that business will leads to face
different situation regarding different operational functions. Such situation arises in Toyota
can impact the performance and profitability of the organisation. The leaders and manager
presents ay every level or organisation is vital to control the impact of such situation with
their effective role and function in organisation. For example different situational that can be
arises in Toyota and role of leader and manager in dealing with it with effective theories are
as follows:
Situation-1 financial crisis: Due to increase in the price of the fuel and raw material for
production, the company is facing declining in revenue and profitability (McCaffery, 2018).
The top-management of Toyota has taken decision to ensure the full utilisation of resource
and ask managers and leader to motivate the employees to increase the productivity and
control cost of manufacturing. Applying the contemporary theory management, manager will
plan the strategies to bargain the suppliers regarding providing raw material at lower price.
Using effective traits of leadership, leaders of manager can motivate the employees to
increase their productivity in order to lower down the cost of the manufacturing. The
management of objective theory will imply the combine efforts of managers and employees
in attaining goals of Toyota. Manager can take suggestions from employees to make
strategies decision for advertising in order to increase the sales in order to respond the
financial crisis.
Situation 2- Conflicts in organisation: Toyota is facing the conflicts between employees
and management regarding the implementing of new technology. The implementation of new
technology will increase the productivity and reduce the cost. However, the new technology
has increases the resistance of change in employees that leads to results of conflicts with
management. These conflicts are affecting their performance and overall productivity as well.
The management of Toyotas can effectively apply the transactional leadership theory that
assist on supervise the employees to increase their performance through rewards or
punishments (Davies, 2018). It will lead to influence the manger to take formals meetings to
ask for their grievances related to new implementation. Applying the transactional theory
manager can identify the problems and plan to make strategies to influence them to adopt the
new change. The leader will apply their situational theory and adopt the style to communicate
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the employees regarding the situation. Leader can effectively use their styles to communicate
the benefits of new implementation and provide them training so that they can use the new
technology effectively.
Situation-3 declining in productivity: Management has identifies that, the employees
performance is getting declined which results in less productivity. The management is
concern regarding this situation as it is going to affect the quality of products as well. The
management can apply the classical theory of management which assist in closely monitor
the performance level of the employee in team. Management and leadership can adopt the
action oriented approach, which provides a tactical plan to adopt the techniques which help in
achieving the results (Hopkin, 2018). Adopting this situation will result in enhancing the
performance of employee as per the set standard to accomplish the goals of the organisation.
P3, M2 Applying different theories and models of leadership and management
There are different theories and models of leadership and management which can be applied
in Toyota Corporation which assist in carrying out the operations and increase profitability in
effective manner. Some of this theories and models are presented below:
Situational leadership:
It is also termed as an adaptive leadership style that leads to encourage a leader to choose the
leadership style which is best suitable on the situation and circumstances and goals of the
organisation. Leader of Toyota can adopt the style of leadership which are flexible and can be
modified as per the requirement of the situation. Adaptability is the integral part of the
situational leadership (Situational Leadership Model , 2019). A leader in the situation
leadership m can be a boss, manager, and boss or will be mentor who will guide and
influence the employees, manages the changed variables and factors and work to accomplish
the goals of the Toyota organisation. The situational leadership has four ways to influence
employees which include delegating, supporting, coaching and directing.
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Figure 1Situational Leadership Model
System leadership:
In this leadership approach, the leader treat an organisation like a system and control the
system on his perspectives as per the need of the organisation. System leadership in Toyota, a
leader will have the full authority of the working of the employees and all other functions
(Lonsdale and Obradovic, 2014). It is an effective approach which enables the leaders to
create the environment which enhances the employees at each level in organisation to
perform with their full potential and increases the overall productivity of organisation.
System leadership uses principles about human behaviours in order to create operational
strategies and social process. It provides a tool to leader that enables them to predict the
behaviours of the employees in Toyota. Leader’s leads to make effective system that assist in
enhancing the productive behaviour of employees and better realisation of goals and aim of
organisation
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Contingency leadership:
This theory states that there is no best style that a leader can adopt in the changing situation
with organisation. Contingency theory states that, a leader in Toyota organisation needs to be
flexible enough to adapt the style of leadership in order to lead the employees or to take any
decisions for the internal or external situation (CONTINGENCY THEORY OF LEADERSHIP,
2019). A contingent leader in Toyota will have his own best style which will be used at the
right situation. In changing situation in Toyota for instance implementation of new
technology, a leader will adopt the behaviour oriented style to handle the resistance of the
employees due to new change in operations. As per the theory, the effectiveness of leader
style will base on the situation.
Management by objectives:
It is a model of management which aims to improve the performance and productivity of the
organisation. The model of management of objective will assist in clearly defining the
objectives and goals of the organisation with the suggestions of the employees. The
objectives lead to define in a way that can work in order to achieve it in or efficient manner.
Management of objectives in Toyota will leads to combine the efforts of the manager and
employees which leads to better outcomes like more productivity and profitability (Epstein,
2018).. This theory will assist in carrying out the task and objective in an efficient manner, as
the employees are aware about their roles and responsibility which enhances their
productivity.
Strength and weakness of different theories
These theories have their own strength as well as weaknesses which are as follows:
Situational leadership strength and weaknesses: Situational leadership leads to ensure the
needs of flexibility in adapting the styles as per the requirement of situation. It enhances the
awareness of the employees in order to engage them in decision making process. It will lead
to motivate the employees in a way which leads to create the needs that enables to take out
the better outcomes. Situational leadership has disadvantage also, as it leads to create
confusion which styles needs to be adopted in the changing situation. It only focuses on the
short-term goals and strategies.
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