Assessing the Environmental Effects of Toyota's Outsourcing Practices

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Impact outsourcing on climate change- A case
study of Toyota

Table of Contents
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a business
research project that consider costs, Access and ethical issues.................................................3
P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools, Analyse research findings and Data.............................8
Reference List..........................................................................................................................19

P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a business
research project that consider costs, Access and ethical issues
Primary Quantitative Data collection
1. Mention your age
Elements Percentage (%) Responses Total
20-30 25 25 100
31-39 40 40 100
40-50 15 15 100
50 above 20 20 100
Table 1: Age of respondents
2. Specify your gender
Elements Percentage (%) Responses Total
Male 55 55 100
Female 45 45 100
Table 2: Gender of respondents
3. What are benefits of the outsourcing on the firm Toyota?
Elements Percentage (%) Responses Total
Cost Advantages 22 22 100
Increased Efficiency 35 35 100
Focus on core areas 17 17 100
Access to skilled
resources
26 26 100
Table 3: Benefits of Outsourcing
4. Do you agree with the fact that outsourcing strategies shall impact climate change?
Elements Percentage (%) Responses Total
Agree 35 35 100
Strongly agree 27 27 100
Neutral 10 10 100

Strongly disagree 22 22 100
Disagree 6 6 100
Table 4: outsourcing strategies shall impact climate change
5. What are the different possible areas outsourced by the firm Toyota?
Elements Percentage (%) Responses Total
Employee outsourcing 20 20 100
Supply chain
outsourcing
25 25 100
IT outsourcing 55 55 100
Table 5: Possible areas outsourced
6. Specify the negative impact of the outsourcing by the firm Toyota.
Elements Percentage (%) Responses Total
Confidentiality issues 36 36 100
Decline in customer
satisfaction
14 14 100
Hidden cost 41 41 100
Shrinking Talent Pool 9 9 100
Table 6: Negative impact of the outsourcing
7. What are the possible impacts on the climate due to outsourcing for the company?
Elements Percentage (%) Responses Total
Pollution 59 59 100
Depletion of resources 21 21 100
Increased waste
disposal
20 20 100
Table 7: Possible impacts on the climate due to outsourcing
8. According to you, what are the possible ways of reducing impacts on climate caused
due to outsourcing in the firm?
Elements Percentage (%) Responses Total
Green design 31 31 100
Green disposal 42 42 100

Green manufacturing 17 17 100
Green purchasing 10 10 100
Table 8: The possible ways of reducing impacts on climate caused due to outsourcing
Project costs
Resources required
for the project
Cost per hour (in £) Time of usage Total cost (in £)
Human resources £ 70 10 Hours £ 700
Financial resources £ 70 10 Hours £ 700
Stationeries £ 4 6 Hours £ 24
Software £ 13 4 Hours £ 52
Technical requirements £ 10 7 Hours £ 70
Miscellaneous £ 5 3 Hours £ 15
Total cost incurred by the project= £ 1561
Table 9: Cost requirements
Ethical issues
In conducting the primary quantitative data, it is important for the researcher to follow some
specific ethical considerations, which are as follows:
 Data Protection Act 2018: The researcher can imply this particular legislation in
order to ensure that data is safeguarded from hacker or any illegal uses. The data
collected for the research must be safeguarded and the researcher must comply in
order to maintain the confidentiality about the personal information of the
participants who are the employees of the organisation (Legislation.gov.uk. 2019).
 Appropriate questions: The researcher must prepare the questions in such a way that
the participants are not uncomfortable answering the questions. Moreover, the
questions must not hurt the sentiments of the participants in any case. This shall
enable the participants to collect appropriate data from them.
Reliability and Validity
In the research, the data collected through surveys and interviews are recent, as the
employees and managers of the organisation Toyota have provided the recent data about the
outsourcing of the data. The responses are valid and reliable as the participants belong to the

company and shall provided authentic opinion regarding the topic. Further, the secondary
data is based on the themes formed from the set objectives of the research and the journals
and articles selected are recent and from the authentic database such as Google Scholar.
These authentic articles are reliable and valid source of information about the research topic,
which shall make the research more appropriate and result in its successful completion.
Qualitative Data Collection
Q1. What are the current outsourcing strategies adopted by Toyota?
Q2. How are outsourcing strategies adopted by Toyota influencing the climate?
Q3. How is Toyota trying to combat climate change through outsourcing strategies?
Secondary Data collection
Themes Article/Book Author name Year of publication
Outsourcing
strategies adopted by
organisations
Reconsidering
outsourcing
solutions
Freytag, Clarke,
and Evald
2012
Outsourcing to
suppliers with
unknown
capabilities
Pun and Heese 2014
Relationship between
outsourcing and
climate change
Crowd sourcing and
outsourcing: the
impact of online
funding and
distribution on the
documentary film
industry in the UK
Sørensen 2012
Smart cities and
green growth:
outsourcing
democratic and
environmental
resilience to the
Viitanen and
Kingston
2014

global technology
sector
Table 10: Thematic Analysis
(Source: Created by the learner)

P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools, Analyse research findings and Data.
Primary Quantitative Data Analysis
1. Mention your age
20-30
25%
31-39
40%
40-50
15%
50 above
20%
Age of respondents
Figure 1: Age of respondents
Analysis
From the above graphical representation, it can be stated that in the organisation Toyota, the
maximum employees belong the age group of 31 to 39 years with 40 per cent of responses. It
must be noted that this age group and the employees belonging from 20 to 30 years have the
maximum knowledge about the organisation and its function of outsourcing. These
employees are assumed to know more about the outsourcing services of the organisation
Toyota.
2. Specify your gender

55%
45%
Gender of respondents
Male Female
Figure 2: Gender of respondents
Analysis
It can be stated from the graphical representation that the employees working in the
organisation Toyota are mainly male with 55 per cent. Since the maximum employees are
male, it can be assumed that they might be involved in outsourcing. On the other hand, the
numbers of female employees are less, which is around 45 per cent.
3. What are benefits of the outsourcing on the firm Toyota?
Cost Advantages
Increased Efficiency
Focus on core areas
Access to skilled
resources
22
35
17
26
Benefits of Outsourcing
Figure 3: Benefits of Outsourcing
Analysis

It can be observed from the above graphical representation that the organisation Toyota can
be benefitted by outsourcing. According to the responses of employees, it can be stated that
the major benefits of outsourcing are increased efficiency, access to skilled employees, focus
on the core areas, and cost advantages. The benefits received by the organisation Toyota are
increased efficiency, as with outsourcing the organisation shall be able to receive expertise
assistance from the best in the market. This shall help the organisation to do better along with
their knowledge and understanding. On the contrary, the aspects leading to organisational
success are skilled employees and cost advantages.
4. Do you agree with the fact that outsourcing strategies shall affect climate change?
Agree Strongly agree Neutral Strongly
disagree Disagree
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Outsourcing strategies shall impact
climate change
Figure 4: Outsourcing strategies shall affect climate change
Analysis
As per the graph above, it has been pointed out that the organisation Toyota uses outsourcing
and it is noted to affect the climate severely. As stated by the employees, they agreed with the
fact that outsourcing shall lead to the climatic changes. It must be noted that outsourcing can
affect the climate in many ways such as pollution, increase of contagious diseases, and
shortage of natural resources such as water, fuel, and natural gas. Further, it shall lead to the
increase of utility bills due to the increased pressure on the environment. Thus, it can be
stated that although the organisations’ outsourcing is beneficial, yet it shall result in many
climatic changes.
5. What are the different possible areas outsourced by the firm Toyota?

Employee outsourcing Supply chain
outsourcing IT outsourcing
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Possible areas outsourced
Figure 5: Possible areas outsourced
Analysis
According to the employees, the major outsourcing employed by the organisation Toyota is
in the field of IT. The major IT solutions of the organisation are outsourced from the leading
IT firms across the world. Further, it can be stated that the employees are also outsourced in
the company based on the skills and competencies. It can be stated that the employees are
selected from different places around the world according to the requirement and their skills.
Moreover, the supply chain outsourcing is effective in provision and delivery of effective
services as well as the product.
6. Specify the negative impact of the outsourcing by the firm Toyota.

Confidentiality
issues Decline in
customer
satisfaction
Hidden cost Shrinking Talent
Pool
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Negative impact of the outsourcing
Figure 6: Negative impact of the outsourcing
Analysis
As it has been represented in the graph, and as the employees have responded outsourcing has
resulted in the major negative impacts in the organisation Toyota. The major negative effects
are hidden costs, confidentiality issues, and decline in customer satisfaction, and shrinking
pool talent. However, as the employees have stated hidden costs are noted to have huge affect
on the organisation, as outsourcing results in increase in the overall costs. Further, with
outsourcing, there is rise of confidentiality issues between the organisation and the
outsourcing partner. Thus, apart from climatic impact, the negative impact is on the business
as well.
7. What are the possible impacts on the climate due to outsourcing for the company?