Unit 4: Toyota's Leadership, Management, and Operational Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management practices within Toyota Motor Corporation. It begins by comparing the roles and characteristics of modern leaders and managers, emphasizing their crucial contributions to operational success. The report then delves into the specific roles of leaders and managers in various situations at Toyota, highlighting their responsibilities in strategy formulation, decision-making, communication, and team organization. Different leadership theories and models, particularly situational leadership, are applied to the context of Toyota. Furthermore, the report explores key approaches to operations management at Toyota, emphasizing the importance of operations management in achieving the company's business objectives. Finally, it examines the factors within the business environment that impact operational management and decision-making at Toyota, providing a holistic view of leadership and management in the automotive industry. This report is contributed by a student and published on Desklib, a platform providing AI-based study tools for students.

Unit 4
MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
LO1.............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Roles and Characteristics of modern leaders and managers.................................................3
P2. Role of leader and function of a manager in different situations at Toyota.........................5
P3. Apply different theories and models of approaches at Toyota. ..........................................7
P4. Key approaches of operations management at Toyota and role of managers or leaders in it.
.....................................................................................................................................................8
P5. Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives of
Toyota.......................................................................................................................................10
P6. Factors of business environment that impacts the operational management and decision
making ......................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
The management of the operations is very important for the organisation or the business
firms. The efficient management of the various operations that takes place at the company,
proves beneficial to the business firm as it gives the company an effective idea about its services
as well as the important changes that the business must adapt to improve its productivity. The
company we have taken for the context is Toyota Motor Corporation, known as Toyota or TMC,
is a Japanese auto mobile company (Ayele and et.al., 2015). It is world's largest auto mobile
manufacturer by sales and production. It is the part of Toyota Group. Along with the auto
mobile, it provides financial services and builds robots. The report will compare the roles and
characteristics of modern leaders and manager. Also, the roles of the leaders in various
situational context at Toyota will be discussed. Apaert from this, various leadership models and
theories will be discussed. The importance and value of leadership management for Toyota will
be focused upon and various factors that affect the business environment and operational
management of the company will be analysed in the report.
TASK 1
LO1
P1. Roles and Characteristics of modern leaders and managers
The modern managers and leaders will play a very crucial role and part in managing and
carrying out of the operations of the Business organisations like Toyota. The leaders and
managers will look after the effective management in the company for which they have a lot of
roles and responsibilities that they are needed to fulfil, not only to sustain in the company but
also to contribute for the success of the organisation. A leadership is a quality that allows a
person to set the target goals, organise a group of people and motivate them to work with
competence and commitment in order to gain a better market stability (Burgess and et.al., 2016).
A leader will motivate its workers to work in the team to achieve a common goal. On the other
hand, the manager will be the person who will work on the management of the operations as well
as the work processes, in order to attain a better sustainability for the company. They will plan
the operations and will guide and communicate with the employees as well as the leaders to
coordinate and control the activities of the organisations like Toyota.
The management and leadership can be defined as:
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Management controls or directs people resources in a group according to the principle or
values that have been set by an organisation. In other words it can be said that management is
controlling the activities and the resources to achieve a targeted goals.
Leadership, on the other hand is the setting of the new direction or vision for a group or a
team. A leader will be the responsible person who will take out the team to the suitable guidance
and will perform for the continuous development of the team. A leadership is the process of
guiding a team to achieve the determined targets.
A leader will have the following roles and characteristics while working at the Toyota:
 Trustworthy: An efficient leader will be trustworthy for its team members. The team
member's will rely on the leader to motivate and guide them to perform a task at the
organisation. The employee’s will show the suitable trust level on the leader and his
decisions.
 Self-esteem: a leader will not only work for the self-esteem of himself but also of his
team members too. He will look after that the tasks that he is been handling to get a better
share of the work done at the organisation (Haesebrouck and Meirvenne, 2015). Also, he
will try to avoid any sort of situation that can affect the self-esteem of the leader as well
as the team members.
 Problem solver: A leader will find the efficient solutions to any sort of problems that are
been taken into consideration by the company to avoid any sort of glitch. He will have
found the effective solution to all sort of problems that can occur at the company and will
adopt it to get the best of the situations.
 Engaging: An efficient leader will be the best person to build and organise a team. They
will connect with the people and find out their efficiencies and mindsets. And based on
the common mindset and goals, they will formulate a team and will guide and lead it to
achieve the sustainable goals.
 Self-Aware: A leader will be self-aware about the strength and weaknesses with the
capabilities of himself as well as the team members and will work as per the requirements
and demands of the situations in the company. He will be regularly assessing the scope of
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improvements in his as well as the team members to make the operations more precise
and goal oriented.
Similarly, a manager will also work accordingly at the organisation like Toyota. They
will be responsible for planning, decision making, organising and coordinating with the leaders
as well as the employees or the members in the management to get a better idea of the operations
and improve the work efficiency and quality of productivity of the company (Lu and et.al.,
2016). Besides this, he will look after the training processes, act as a channel between the
employees and the higher authority of the company and evaluation of appraisals and incentives
of employee's. The managers will have the following characteristics that will help them to get a
sustainable development of operations at the company such as:
 Good communication and organisational skills: A manager at a business firm will
have very good communication as well as the organisational skills that will help them to
work in a very effective manner. Also, the communication skills will allow the manager
to convey the necessary messages in a very effective and efficient manner so that the
tasks are been handled and executed effectively.
 Flexibility: The manager at an organisation will get flexible as per the situations or
conditions at the company. He will be adaptive towards newer decisions, will go for the
latest training and the improvement measures that will be very important for the effective
management of the operations in the business firm.
P2. Role of leader and function of a manager in different situations at Toyota
They will look after the work procedures and the measures that are needed to be taken
into consideration to get a sustainable development of the company like Toyota. They will play a
very significant role in various situations of the company (De Roover, 2017). The leader and the
managers at Toyota Group will coordinate and work together to get an effective outcome of the
efforts that are been implemented. The leader and manager at Toyota group will have the
following roles and functions to perform in order to get a better idea about the operational ability
of the company such as:
Formulating a strategy:
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 Initiator: A leader at the Toyota group will be an initiator and will take the effective
measures to gain the attention of the management of the company towards the required
changes or strategy. Also, he will present the requirement of the changes to the
management of the Toyota. He will show down the behaviour or the attitude to perform
the task and will represent their team to the management of the company while
communication (Drent, 2015). A leader will effectively use his approach and skills to
make the change happens at Toyota Group. The managers will look after the initiation
process and will act as a channel between the higher authority and the teams or leaders.
 Make decisions: Along with the managers in the company, the leaders will also get
involved in the decision-making process and will control the resources like work force,
budgets and systems that are required to implement a strategy at Toyota Group. Apart
from this, they have a sheer authority to take the decision on behalf of a team to accept or
deny the project that will be presented or allotted to them. Besides this, they will also
accept the responsibility as a leader that can affect the worker's performance. They will
utilize their decision-making authority to get the work done in the company to support
their initiative or changes (Binz and et.al., 2014). Apart from this, they will set priorities
for their team to work accordingly in a very systematic way. The manager will also
participate as an intermediate for these changes and strategies and will involve in the
decision-making process to get a better idea of the outcomes of the implementations of
the newer strategies at Toyota Group.
 Communicate: The leaders at Toyota Group will communicate in a very effective way to
get the task done in a precise and effective manner. They will communicate to share the
information, provide the guidance and get the feedback on a certain strategy that is been
taken into consideration (Burgess and et.al., 2016). They will communicate with the boss
as well as the team members in order to induce a better understanding of goals and
develop a transparency among the management. The managers will also participate and
function in the communication within the management and will look after the efficient
distribution of information among the various teams at Toyota Group.
 Engaging and organising: The leaders will engage and organise the team. They will
motivate the employees to work for the efficient implementation of the strategy. They
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will show the passion and commitment towards the goals and bring out together the team
of people, working for the common goals (Creazza, Colicchia and Dallari, 2015). The
leaders will ensure that the employees are motivated enough to adapt the changes. The
managers will look after that the team that is working on the strategy development is well
efficient and resourceful in order to sustain the operational efficiency.
Improvement in organisation performance
The leaders as well as the managers will play a very crucial role in the improvement of
the organisational performance of the company (Binz and et.al., 2014). The leaders will provide
the employees with the essential guidance and information to make them understand their
responsibilities in the company along with the necessary motivation to perform well and attain a
higher level of productivity and profitability, while the managers will see through it that the
teams that are working on the improvement process are well resourced and equipped. Besides
this their function is to give the details of the growth of the team to the higher authorities.
P3. Apply different theories and models of approaches at Toyota.
Various theories and models are to be taken into consideration to improve the
management of the operations of the company. Some leadership style that are been taken into
consideration by the Toyota Group is:
Situational theory: The Situational leadership states that there is as such no ideal theory that can
be taken into consideration while working in an organisation. According to the situational
leadership, the operation of the company is highly dependent on the situations or the
circumstances that are been taken into consideration by the Toyota Group while working on the
operations. It is up to the authority of the management of the company to choose the appropriate
measures that will help the company to improve its work quality and most appropriate tasks to
follow. The leaders and managers will also act accordingly the situations at Toyota Group
(Burgess and et.al., 2016). The situational leadership has a bigger advantage that the measure
that are been taken into consideration are easily understandable and provide the chances of
higher level of adopting various effective measures. It is flexible to use and implement as per the
requirement of the situation. It also provides an insight to the employees about the various
situations that occurs in organisation and how to tackle it in a very effective way. On the other
hand, the major disadvantage is that there is an uncertainty of the measures taken and this causes
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an anxiety and doubt among employees. For example, the situational theory given by Paul
Hersey and Ken Blanchard, will help the Toyota Group to manage various sort of problematic
situations or issues while the production of the auto mobiles in the company. It will help the
Toyota group to meet the requirements and demands of its customers as well as the stakeholders.
The major advantage of this approach is that it help the company to get prepared for a wide
variety of operational situations. But the major drawback of the situational approach is that the
strategy developed for meeting one situation rarely supports the operations of another situation.
The situational theory will help the firm to handle a wide range of operations that will
support a good handling of the operations. It improves the effectiveness of the organisation and
supports the positive rise in manufacturing capacity of car manufacturing enterprise. It will be
beneficial for the organisation as it will facilitate the better management and tackling of vivid
range of situations ocuring while running the business activities within Toyota.
Pro: it helps the firm to plan the activities as per the situations occurring within the firm. The
leaders and managers at the Toyota group will see through the effective implementation of this
theory or strategy in order to gain a good control over the operations within the business
enterprise.
Con: the strategy that is been developed and drafted for one situation will not be useful for
another condition. Thus, to mitigate this risk the management of Toyota Group has to thoroughly
use the analysis process in order to mitigate the risk.
The situational leadership will be beneficial as well as mitigating for the Toyota group. If
implemented well it can help the firm to improve its business operations in an effective way.
However, the failing of this leadership may lead to severe losses of financial resources.
System theory: It is a leadership approach that considers an organisation like Toyota Group as a
system and includes the effective measures of improvement of the leadership as well as the
operations of the company. It is deeply affected by the way leadership is implemented, managed
and developed at the Toyota Group by the leaders and managers of the company. This includes
the execution of the tasks in a very effective manner by following a set of frameworks that is
developed by the leaders and managers at the business firm (Creazza, Colicchia and Dallari,
2015). It helps the company to regain the control over the leadership and take effective measures
to improve it. The major advantage of this system is that the employees are involved and have an
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input in the decision-making process. It also helps to improve the work environment. But the
major disadvantage is that it creates a confusion while relating to the system as a whole. For
example, the system theory by Hegel, will help Toyota Group to gain a better understanding of
the operations of various components that are been taken into the consideration while carrying
out the operations of the company. This will lead to build the better interaction between the
various departments of the cited firm to improve the productivity and profitability. The
conversion of a company or large enterprise into the system with many smaller components will
help the firm to carry out the business activities in a very effective manner. The dividing of the
complex activities in a better way will help in better rise in capability and meeting of targeted
goals and objectives of the firm.
Pro: it helps in better handling of the complex business activities. It improves the production
capacity of the organisation and improves inter departmental communication process. The
Management of the Toyota Group will help in better rise in the customer satisfaction level and
improve the efficiency of the cited enterprise.
Con: interaction between different components is very necessary in order to execute the business
functions in a very effective way. A big drawback is that any sort of communication gap will lay
impact on the production capacity of Toyota Group, which is to me look after by the
management of firm.
The proper placing of system strategy will help the organisation to handle the business activities
and operations in a very significant manner. It will help in placing the units and employees
within the organisation in an effective way as per their roles and responsibilities.
Contingency Theory: it states that there is as such no fixed measure or approaches that can be
taken into consideration and thus, any model or approach can be taken into use by the leaders or
the managers at the Toyota Group with the consent of the higher authority and management to
improve the quality of the operations. It includes various contingency factors like technology,
supplies and distributors, customers and competitors, trade unions and governments that lay an
influence on the operation of the Toyota Group (De Roover, 2017). Its major advantage is that it
improves the work environment as well as the relations of the customers employees and leaders
or managers in the company. Also, it saves precious time and effort of the Toyota Group. But
sometimes, like situational leadership the uncertainty leads to confusion and conflicts in the
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company. For instance, the contingency theory by Greath Morgan and Fred Fiedler, will help the
Toyota Group to gain a better understanding of the issues or the factors, that are been held at the
cited firm and will help the company to opt for the suitable strategy or method to rectify them in
an efficient and effective way. Also, it will help the cited firm to take the suitable measures in
order to gain a better business plan to gain a better share of market and meet the requirements of
the customers.
It is the most popular and flexible theory that is been taken in consideration by the
organisation in a better way. It helps the firm to choose the theories and actions as per the
business environment and conditions.
Pro: it improves flexibility of the firm to perform business activities. The major advantage of
contingency theory is that it improve the flexibility of the organisation and allow the cited firm to
adopt the appropriate measures to meet the operational requirements of the organisation. This
will help the managers and leaders at Toyota Group to improve the work performance of the
firm.
Con: the uncertainty effect the wide range of business activities and policies. The major
disadvantage of implementing the contingency theory is that it creates a major confusion among
the employee's and may have an adverse impact on the overall production functioning of Toyota
Group which has to be looked after by Toyota Group.
This strategy will support the firm to make the alterations in its business plan as per risk factors
that will emerge while executing the business entity.
Besides this various model of leaderships that are been taken into consideration by
Toyota group are:
Transformational Leadership: In this type of leadership, the managers or the leaders at Toyota
Group will analyse the situation and will identify as well as implement the changes with
motivation the employee's or team members. It enables a better connection of employees and the
leaders or managers.
Transactional leadership: it includes the various forms of interactions that are been taken by
the employees and the leaders or managers at Toyota Group (Haesebrouck and Meirvenne,
2015). The transfer of messages and information or resources is being considered as a
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'transaction'. It helps the company to supervise the employee's or the subordinates and provide
them rewards or punishments.
TASK 2
P4. Key approaches of operations management at Toyota and role of managers or leaders in it.
An operation's management is a process of controlling of the production process and
business functions in the most effective and efficient manner. It not only helps the company to
gain a better idea of its capabilities but also provide the company with an outlook to improve its
performance (Drent, 2015). The Toyota had adopted a lot of processes and strategies that helps
the company to gain a better productivity and meet its daily operations. Some major operations
and processes that are been taken in consideration by Toyota are:
 Just in Time(JIT): It is an inventory system that is been taken in the consideration by
the company to increase its efficiency and reduce the wastage of available resources
(Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016). It includes the approach to order or use the things that are
been used by Toyota Group to increase the functionality of its operations. It helps the
company to reduce the inventory cost and helps the company to predict the demands of
the customers easily (Heizer, 2016). As an auto mobile manufacturer, Toyota can look
after the efficient management of its operations. It will rely on the supply chain
management to get the important parts to manufacture the auto mobile. The Toyota
Group has to look after the operation that are been taken into consideration to see through
it that the cars are been delivered to the customers as per the requirement and market
demand and not prior to it. It has many advantages over the traditional models. The
production run time remains short and make it very easy for the company to move from
one product to another. It reduces the company’s dependencies on the warehousing of its
cars, thus saves the storage system. Also, it will save the expenses of raw material
purchased by the company as it will buy the goods as per the requirements and not in
excess. The major disadvantage is that it increases the reliability of the company on its
suppliers (Khanna, 2015). If due to some instance, the suppliers fail to deliver the raw
material, the complete manufacturing process comes at a stake and this may cause a
negative impact on the productivity of Toyota Group. It includes the approach of using
the inventory management system that allows the company to work as per the
requirements of the production or the customers. It will help Toyota Group to handle the
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various business operation in a better way that will help in better meeting of the business
operations in a better way. It will help the customers of cited business entity to have a
better satisfaction level by getting the products and services on time. It will help the
management of Toyota Group to perform the business activities in a stipulated time and
meet the customers demands and objectives in a much effective and better way. Finishing
the operations in a time limit will help the firm to gain a good market share and execute
the operations in a better way. It will help in fulfilling the business operations in a fix
time frame and improve customer satisfaction level.
 DRIFT (Do it right for the first time): It is related to the company similarly to the JIT
approach. It is based on the managerial accounting that looks after that is done correctly
to get the work done efficiently and reduce the delay in the production process. It is an
improvement over the JIT approach, which relays on the supplier to get the raw materials
or the goods and affect the productivity of the company (Laudon and Laudon, 2016). In
the JIT, the slightest error in the production process may affect the complete production.
But the DRIFT approach allows the Toyota group to run its production processes
smoothly and reduce the cost of production without using excessive inventory. It will
save the time and effort of the cited business firm and will help the business organisation
to come up with better products and services. The DRIFT approach will help
management of Toyota group to save its resources by developing a good and high quality
product on the basis of high research and planning. It will improve the effectiveness of
organisation and facilitate a high quality product and services in a better way.
 Business process redesign (BPR): This approach will help the Toyota group to meet the
requirements of its operations that will help the company to gain a better share of market.
Besides this, this will help the company to re evaluate its operations in a better way in
order to improve the productivity. This approach will help Toyota group to meet the
changing needs of the organisation and help in better operational management of various
business operations. The redesigning of the business operations will support a good
handling of the operations and execution of the car manufacturing activities by Toyota
Group, that will support a good management of the operations and meeting of targeted
goals and objectives. Managers and leaders at the cited firm will see through the effective
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