Category: Toyota

Introduction

This assignment is a discussion on the topic of corporate social responsibility. In the assignment, I have argued if business can be moral entities. I have used information from various academic sources about the issue. I have also related the topic to a real life experience, whereby I have selected an article from PR Newswire business media about Toyota Company’s involvement in corporate social responsibility.

The discussion therefore begins with a brief description of the topic and theoretical framework, summary of the article about the company, how the company has used or is utilising the practice of corporate social responsibility and finally how the topic can be applied in general business settings.

Discussion

Corporate Social Responsibility

This concept is generally used to refer to the relationship between businesses and their environment. All the businesses operate in social, political, economic and natural settings.

The concept therefore takes into account how businesses interact with these environments, either positively or negatively. The topic of corporate social responsibility can be broken down into four main components, namely, ethical, economic, philanthropic and legal components (Aras & Crowther, 2010).

The ethical component of corporate social responsibility comprises the expectations of the society for any business. Such expectations include doing what is just, fair and right, using the law as the basis of organisational behavior, avoiding questionable practices and running a business in a manner which does not compromise the well-being of the people and their environment (Baken, 2004).

The economic component comprises taking care of the interests of the shareholders, investors and customers, profit making and benefits’ maximization, minimization of the costs in undertaking the business and formulation as well as implementation of strategic policies which propel business forward (Aras & Crowther, 2010).

The legal component includes the respect and compliance of the business to the policies, such as environmental laws, consumer laws, laws which protect the employees as well as ensure respect of contractual agreements between a business and its clients or employees (Carroll, 2008).

Finally, the philanthropic component basically entails returns to the society from the business. Businesses may do this in a variety of ways like establishing or supporting programs which directly benefit the society like health, education and cohesion programs as well as activities which boost harmonious living of people from diverse backgrounds (Carroll, 1979).

Theoretical Perspectives to Corporate Ethics

One of the theoretical perspectives to business ethics is the normative approach. This approach constitutes two theoretical perspectives, namely, utilitarianism and deontology. The two vary in terms of how they contextualise business ethics.

However, they have one thing in common, which is they are characterised by centralization of decision making on issues touching on ethics. This means that in both cases, the employees play minimal or no role at all in influencing and setting the ethical climate for organisations (Jamali & Mirshak, 2007).

In business ethics, utilitarianism is about considering several courses of action, considering the costs involved and choosing the course of action, which produces maximum good for the maximum number of people irrespective of the negative effects of the maximization of the good, in this case, profits (Britannica Educational Publishing, 2011).

Utilitarianism is an ethical model of reasoning which emphasises on the maximization of good and happiness and the minimization of the reverse of happiness and good. Its key proponents are John Struat Mill and Jeremy Bentham..

According to them, the principles of human interaction are based on the overall good. In this sense, therefore, good is looked from an objective sense that it should produce ‘good’ for the maximum number of people (Scarre, 1996).

Utilitarianism is based on the principle, ‘the end justifies the means’; meaning if the end of a process or action is good, then the means of achieving that outcome are also good and justifiable.

According to the model, for an action to be considered ethically or morally correct, it should have an outcome which benefits the maximum number of people. What this means is that people should focus on the end of a process but not the means of attaining to that end (Kizza, 2010).

Due to this reason, utilitarianism is considered a consequentialist theory because it focuses on the consequences of an action. An action may therefore be both correct and incorrect or moral and immoral at the same time.

Take the example of killing, which is considered by many as immoral as well as illegal. From the utilitarian point of view, killing of one person to save the lives of a hundred people may be justified in that the killing of that person has an intrinsic value, which is saving lives of many people (Scarre, 1996).

On the other hand, deontology requires employees to perform their duties as per the given instructions, leaving no room for them to give their opinion regarding the consequences of their actions as they perform their duties, but rather, carrying out their tasks, as instructed, because doing otherwise considers as unethical behaviour (Britannica Educational Publishing, 2011).

The other perspective to corporate ethics is the decision making model, which begins with clarification of the issues on which ethical decisions are to be made.

After doing the clarification, what follows is the evaluation of the clarified decisions, which paves the way for arriving at a precise decision on the most appropriate course of action. The decision is then implemented with modifications coming after the implementation (Marshall, 2007).

This model is more or less similar to the normative approach to ethics because during the implementation stage, the guiding principle is mainly the maximization of profits and minimization of the costs.

This is done usually with a view of ensuring that organisation realises its objectives with the use of minimum resources possible. The decision making model, similar to a normative approach, exclusively involves the corporate leaders with the employees playing insignificant roles in the same.

Summary of the Article

The article is titled “Al, Today and Toyota Lend a Hand to Local Las Vegas Charity” and is obtained from the PRNewswire united business media. The article is about how the Toyota Company has been participating in the ‘lend a hand’ program series since the year 2009.

The program is aimed at supporting community programs in Las Vegas through linking the community programs with potential well-wishers, mainly businesses and corporations (PRNewswire, 2011).

For example, the organisation undertakes a program in which free meals and hospitality services are provided to needy children. In the article, the company donated a brand new Toyota Sienna to the program as a way of giving back to the community (PRNewswire, 2011).

The Toyota Company and Corporate Social Responsibility

The company has been involving itself in corporate social responsibility activities for many years through supporting programs on education, environmental safety and philanthropy. Since 1991, the company has donated $500 million to such programs.

Apart from donating a brand new Toyota Sienna to the culinary training academy (CTA) organisation, as mentioned in the article, the company has another charity program on its Facebook account. The program is dubbed “100 cars for good” and entails engaging the public in sending their donations to purchase 100 cars for charity programs in the United States (PRNewswire, 2011).

Application of Corporate Social Responsibility in General Business settings

Corporate social responsibility can be applied in all the businesses by holding them accountable and responsible for the welfare of the society. All the companies participate in one way or another, either consciously or unconsciously in corporate social responsibility.

Recently, with the advent of climate change, there has emerged the trend through which many companies have started engaging themselves in climate change mitigation measures. Other organisations engage themselves in various programs which positively impact on the welfare of the communities.

This practice also helps the corporations establish and maintain a good public image, which in turn increases customers’ and shareholders’ confidence and interest in the companies (Visser & McIntosh, 1998).

Conclusion

As discussed in the assignment, corporate social responsibility is about the relationship between businesses and society. It is composed of four main components, namely, legal, economic, philanthropic and ethical components. Many corporations engage themselves in various social responsibility affairs.

One of such companies is the Toyota Company, which has been actively involved in environmental, educational and philanthropic programs in the United States as discussed in the article titled ‘Al, Today and Toyota Lend a Hand to Local Las Vegas Charity’.

Corporate social responsibly helps the organisations cultivate and maintain a good public image, which boosts investor and customer confidence in the company, which in turn increases their stability.

Reference List

Aras, G. & Crowther, D. 2010, A handbook of corporate governance and social responsibility corporate social responsibility series, Gower Publishing Ltd, Farnham GU9 7PT.

Baken, J. 2004, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, Constable, Vancouver.

Britannica Educational Publishing 2011, Thinkers and Theories in Ethics, The Rosen Publishing Group, New York, NY.

Carroll, A. B. 1979, Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Social Performance, Academy of Management Review 4: 497-505.

Carroll, A. B. 2008, A History of Corporate Social Responsibility, In The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility, edited by Crane, McWilliams, Matten Moon & Siegel, OUP, Oxford.

Jamali, D. & Mirshak, R. 2007, ‘Corporate social responsibility (CSR): Theory and practice in a developing country context’, Journal of Business Ethics 72, pp.243-262.

Kizza, M. 2010, Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age, 4th ed, Springer, New York, NY.

Marshall, J. 2007, ‘An Ethical Decision-Making Model’, The Ethics Scoreboard, Pro Ethics, Ltd.

PRNewswire, 2011, ‘Al, Today and Toyota Lend a Hand to Local Las Vegas Charity’, PRNewswire business media. Web.

Scarre, G. 1996, Utilitarianism, Routledge, New York, NY.

Visser, W. & McIntosh, A. 1998, ‘A Short Review of the Historical Critique of Usury’, Accounting, Business & Financial History 8(2): 175-189.

Introduction

Operations management deals with all the aspects of goods and services production. Operations management involves supervision, design and if necessary redesigning of business processes with the sole aim of achieving efficiency with minimal resources while meeting the requirements of customers.

Management and direction of a firm or organization’s physical functions forms the core concern of operations management (Greasley, 2009, p. 47). Though operations management is wide and includes fields such as equipment maintenance, industrial relations and systems analysis, this discussion will focus on processes related to manufacturing and production systems in a particular industry (Stevenson, 2008, p. 56).

Operations management has increasingly become a critical component in corporate world today. Increased consumer awareness thanks to education coupled by stiff competition has led to major corporations implementing exceptional management systems to ensure maintainace of the market share.

Outstanding performance on a global scale entails heavy investment in both labour and capital-intensive systems in order to maintain relevancy. This analysis will focus on various aspects of operations management and production at Toyota, a leading Japanese car manufacturer with a considerable share in the global auto industry.

The analysis will especially lay emphasis on a brief overview of the company, a somewhat detailed description of Toyota’ s operations management system, an evaluation on the use of teams in its production and operations management and a brief evaluation of the company’s ability to deal with a major crisis.

Toyota Motor Corporation

Toyota Motor Corporation is a multinational car maker with headquarters in Aichi Japan and, also the largest automaker in terms of production. In 2010, Toyota employed slightly over 317, 700 people worldwide. In 2010, the Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA) ranked Toyota a head of General Motors and Volkswagen, in car sales.

According to the OICA, Toyota sold 8.55 million units representing a market share of 11% while GM came second with 8.4 million units representing 10.9% (Jones & Edward, 2010, p. 35). In 2006, Toyota became the most profitable vehicle manufacturer with $ 11 billion in profits. In the year 2011, Toyota recorded an operating income of $5.2 billion and a profit of $5.07 billion.

Total equity in the same year totaled $128.30 billion with the total assets topping $370.3 billion. From its humble beginnings as department of Toyota Industries, Toyota has grown to become one of the leading brands in vehicle manufacturing and, in the business world. In 2005 Toyota emerged eighth leading world company.

Toyota today has numerous manufacturing plants and dealerships distributed throughout Asia, North America, Europe and Africa. The Daihatsu subsidiary of Toyota has been crucial in establishing a foothold in Asia while the company has struggled to effectively compete in the European market.

Though it faced fierce competition in North America from American auto manufacturers, the effects of the financial crisis on American auto companies have led to a significant rise in the Toyota market share in North America (Jones & Edward, 2010, p. 25).

Toyota’s production or operations management system

Many analysts agree that Toyota’s Production System (TPS) has been the main catalysis fueling the phenomenal growth associated with the company. Experts credited TPS for Toyota solid performance during the oil embargo crisis in the 1970’s (Monden, 2011, p. 89).

According to the MIT, efficiency of TPS was so high that compared to traditional mass production to an extent that it helped in introduction of a new paradigm “lean production”. Toyota designed TPS with the aim of providing the best quality products at the lowest cost and shortest time. Realization of the above is through elimination of waste.

Two pillars make up TPS i.e. Just in Time and Jidoka (automation). Maintainace and improvement of TPS is possible through standardized work and continuous improvement (Kaizen) through the use of Plan –Do-Check-Act (PDCA cycle) method (Monden, 2011, p. 102).

It is important to note that through TPS, Toyota has been able to produce cars through the “Lean system” whose principle belief is that it is wasteful to use resources for any other goal other than creation of customer value. Toyota production and/ or operations management therefore considers anything that does not meet the above principle “wasteful” hence a target for elimination.

According to TPS value is anything that a customer will be willing to pay for. In a nutshell, TPS translates to a Lean system that emphasizes preserving value with less work effectively a production approach credited with helping Toyota to become the world’s leading car maker (Monden, 2011, p. 104). Currently, Toyota has in place another system it refers to as the Toyota Way which is more or less improvement of TPS.

The illustration below helps put TPS into context.

Figure 1: The TPS system used by Toyota

Use of teams in production and operations management at Toyota

The success experienced at Toyota could not be possible without widespread employment of the teamwork ethic.

According to Liker (2004, p. 1), success of Toyota is largely due to its ability to develop leaders and create teams as well as a supportive culture with suppliers and customers. The Kaizen part of TPS that empathizes on continuous improvement is mainly composed of teams keen on delivering value through the TPS operations management system.

According to Liker (2004, p. 6) Toyota under the TPS operation management system organizes teams from the start to finish of projects. For instance, the design of the brake system is normally responsibility of a single team throughout the design phase to the end of the production system. Enrichment and empowerment of employees is always the goal in the teamwork approach through TPS.

The logic behind it is that challenging but attainable goals and determination of progress towards the achievement of these goals motivate people. TPS mechanisms therefore always make sure that teams are always updated on their progress and on what they should do to reach their targets. Liker further says that under TPS, team members have four tools that they use in designing quality products.

They include: Go and see, analyze the situation, Use one-piece flow and “andon” to surface problems, Ask “Why?” five times (2004, p. 11). Through TPS, Toyota has taken specific steps meant to help in building high performance teams in the production process. The steps include orientation, dissatisfaction, integration and production.

Toyota’s ability to adjust to a major crisis

Despite the quality and efficiency delivered by operation management systems like TPS, it is impossible to predict or avert crisis. In the world today, many crises ranging from economic, environmental, or natural have become common.

Besides terrorism the ever looming threat from terrorism and the 2008 shocks from economic cycles for instance the 2008 financial crisis, natural disasters have hit businesses in recent times with devastating effects (Penuel et al., 2010, p. 298). Judging from the response to such crises so far has been very wanting.

For instance, the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan affected the manufacturing industry including Toyota leading to a rise in the prices of Japanese cars worldwide.

The preparedness of Toyota has however not been tested given that its plants only suffered minor damages in the disaster. However, safe for the quake specific designs characteristic of most Japanese buildings, there is no evidence of any preparation by Toyota to mitigate calamity of the magnitude described above.

Conclusion

There are as many operation systems as there are business entities. At the same time, it is not easy to determine which one is best suited to deliver desired corporate results. However, the Toyota case study has proven that TPS has constantly delivered at Toyota. In fact many companies have tried to implement TPS with the hope of replicating the success experienced by Toyota.

However, few have equaled the Toyota level of success. The TPS system discussed above, the resultant lean system and the most recent Toyota way are operation systems that have finer components linked together whose understanding may need detailed elaboration.

The most dominant principles however, include avoidance of wastefulness, delivery of value to the customer and customer satisfaction. TPS achieves the above through consistent teamwork and emphasis on continuous improvement as the Kaizan principle dictates.

There is a need however for further research in ways to through operations management systems, in this case TPS can help in mitigating the effects of a disaster. During the Tsunami disaster for instance, Toyota announced the closure of a number of North American plans apparently owing to the effects of the disaster. Such an action is a clear indication of the vulnerability such corporations in face of such events.

References

Greasley, A. (2009). Operations Management. New York: Routledge.

Jones, M. & Edward, R. (2010). Toyota Motor Corporation: Japan’s Industrial Treasure. Chicago: FastBook Publishing.

Liker, J. (2004). The Toyota Way. New York: McGraw Hill.

Monden, Y. (2011). Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach to Just-in-time. London: Taylor and Francis.

Penuel, B.K. et al. (2010). Encyclopedia of Disaster Relief. New York: Routledge.

Stevenson, W. (2008). Operations Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Through observation Toyota’s decisions where more of reactive. The company provides solutions and warnings to customers only after complaints are made. Though there was an effort to notify customers with regards to the dangers of the floor mats, Toyota communicated the wrong information to clients.

The basis of each decision made were complaints of customers or family member which became victims of Toyota’s manufacturing defects. Though the company claims there is nothing wrong with their systems, it is quite confusing why they would recall car models even if they claim that everything was in good condition.

Toyota only makes decisions after accidents happen and complaints and suits are filed against the company. This is only the time when the management team examines and makes decisions with regards to taking actions.

The consequences of Toyota’s decisions have given the company a bad reputation which led to the lost of millions of dollars. If Toyota opted to make examine the safety of their cars, conducted studies and surveys before suits are filed and paid attention to complaints by customers they could have saved much public embarrassment and court time. The decisions made by the Toyota management were always late.

True the company was reactive in nature but lives were already lost and it was reported that there were hundreds if not thousands of complaints made because of the problem in terms of the break.

The company did not take action then. Complaints were ignored and the company kept telling its dealers that problems were minor. When suites were filed already, that’s the only time Toyota took action by announcing to recall specific models which are suspected to have problems. In this way the company already lost money and its brand was already tarnished.

In terms of the bounded rational model, Toyota’s actions acknowledges and confirms that the management team of the company has been considering environmental and behavioral constraints in their decision making. Since Toyota is a Japanese based company operating in the United States (where most complaints are made), Toyota failed to implement strategies that go in line with the western culture.

Where the Japanese business scene is considered reactive to problems, western business culture expects a more proactive approach in handling complaints and problems. Asian and western behaviors must also be considered for customers in the US are far different than those in Asian countries.

American and European customers complain over the slightest detail in every commodity they buy because they want to get the best of what they have paid for as compared to customers in Asia who are submissive in nature. Decisions and actions made by Toyota were based on the awareness of such limitations.

According to the bound rational model, humans divide or factor problems into small pieces and deal with them one by one due to the complexity of real life. This can be seen on how the management team dealt with Toyota’s faulty car systems and accessories. At first Toyota warned its customers about the faulty floor mats which disrupt drivers when the car accelerates and becomes out of control.

The breaks may not have any good use during such time thus accidents may occur. Then Toyota’s system engine was the culprit for accidents thus the management team slowly focused on such claim and tried to make decisions to resolve such issue. Lastly the faulty pedals due to manufacturing defects were pointed out as the source of the problem; again the management team discussed and analyzed such claim.

Problems were solely evaluated one by one proving that decision makers of Toyota indeed factor or divide problems and deal with them one by one. Another characteristic of Toyota’s decision makers is they settle for what is good enough thus problems occur consistently because they do not think through the alternatives and other consequences.

When complete information cannot be obtained, human decision makers seek a course of action that is good enough rather than maximizing utility. When complaints were made about the faulty floor mats Toyota could have taken action not limited to the issue of the floor mats but could have also checked other parts of the cars which may have caused accidents.

The management team only focused on solving the floor mat problem and did not look through beyond such thus problems arose continually. Alternatives can be generated sequentially but the search was aborted once the first good enough alternative was identified.

The management team of Toyota also avoided uncertainty thus they would always provide short term feedback which sought to enable change with any emerging outcomes. As observed with the management team’s pattern of decision making the team only addressed problems which are already publicly declared. When problems are still small they do not seem to pay much attention to them.

In relation to all of Toyota’s stakeholders featured in the case study, Toyota acted unethically with great caution that is why actions were always delayed. From a relativism point of view where what is right is determined by the culture, Toyota may have had a hard time adjusting to the western culture and needs as the CEO was still of Asian descent who is used to the ways of the Asian world.

The customers in the west expected that actions be taken right away and as the Toyota management team slowly made decisions and came up with solutions, the management team limited themselves with that is within the given scope and did not expand because of the fear of uncertainty.

In the relativism point of view the moral and ethical choice is determined when the social group to which one belongs approves of the decisions made. In this case Toyota was waiting for the approval of the western culture before it implemented their actions. At the same time the egoist theory also applies to the said situation. This theory is often seen as the core to business where executives act from prudence.

It represents the choice of expending which promotes self over any other. Toyota wanted to gain more profit and market share thus their decisions were delayed as they wish to get away with manufacturing defects and make sales thus resulting to lives lost and many injured.

This theory explains human conduct thus the goal is to gain more whether the gain would mean lost to the other party but empirical evidence supports that there would be occasions of non-egoistical behaviors. This can be seen in Toyota’s action to comply with court judges as to the recall and improvement of their cars.

Also Toyota issued apology letters to families and paid compensations for damages. Though such conduct is self-serving because Toyota is motivated by self-interest and they benefit in the long run by winning over a new set of customers or retaining the old affected ones.

Project Background

Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Ltd. is the dominating company which operates within the automobile industry of Australia and over the world.

Toyota Motor Corporation produces vehicles which meet the customers’ expectations in relation to their quality and effect on the environments (Toyota Sustainability Report 2012).

Thus, Toyota Motor Corporation focuses on the development of specific strategies regarding the corporate social responsibility (Toyota Sustainability Report 2010). The company focuses on principles of sustainability and aims to respond to the global needs of the environmental protection using the innovative technologies.

The project of implementing the new water cycling technology at the company’s plant in Altona, Victoria, Australia, provides a lot of benefits for developing the firm’s image within the industry as the successful company which follows the ideas of sustainability and implements projects to reduce using water resources and pollution.

Water cycling technologies are used within the industry and associated spheres by such companies as Mitsubishi (Japan) and Magic Hand Car Wash (Australia) (Magic Hand Car Wash 2012; Mitsubishi Electric: a practical water recycling solution 2013).

Implementing the water cycling technology in Altona following the experience of Mitsubishi, Toyota Motor Corporation aims to become the leader company within the Australian automobile industry which uses the effective recycling technology basing on the implementation of the microfiltration system, several reverse osmosis systems, and the industrial storage tank (Commercial water tanks 2013; Reverse Osmosis Unit 2010).

This fact can contribute to increasing the company’s competitive advantage and profits.

The focus on the non-waste process is effective for the company’s progress and developing the notion of sustainability.

355,611 kL of water used at the Altona plant during 2011/2012 can be saved with the help of the new technology (Dissolved metals removal from wastewater 2011; Toyota Australia Sustainability Report 2012).

The 100% reuse of the water resources is the main goal of Toyota Motor Corporation in Australia. The company’s profits will increase basing on the expense reduction and usage of cycling technologies.

Project Definition

Nature of Project

The project planned to be implemented at the Altona plant is based on the usage of the water cycling technology which provides the 100% reuse of the water resources necessary for the production process with references to using the specific microfiltration system, several reverse osmosis systems, and the industrial storage tank.

The water cycling technology guarantees the usage of all recycling water to reduce costs and resources. The stages of the project implementation include the development of the plan, training of employees, construction of the system, and the shift to the new system.

Project Aim

The main aim of the project is to contribute to the corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability implementing the recycling process and gain profits with references to reducing expense and resources.

Relating to the corporate social responsibility, the implementation of the new technology provides many people with the workplaces. Relating to the concept of sustainability, the water cycling technology can decrease the usage of water and environmental pollution.

Project Scope

The effectiveness of the project’s implementation depends on the efficiently set time frames for the project. The implementation of all stages of the project involves twelve weeks with references to the engagement and training of the internal staff and constructing the necessary elements of the project.

Prerequisites and Assumptions

The implementation process is based on the planned interruption of the current technological process at the Altona plant. The effective implementation of the water cycling technology depends on following the worked out schedule strictly regarding the planning, assessment, implementation, training, and monitoring activities.

As a result, the introduction of the new water cycling system should lead to the complete usage of recycling water, to reducing costs, and creating the greener image of the company. There are some potential assumptions of the project’s implementation (Toyota Sustainability Report 2012).

It is important to focus on preventing such problems as the absence of the water flow within the manufacturing section which can cause the cease of the process.

Project Objectives

Operational Objective

To decrease the amount of water used by the company for the production process by 50% for the period of 2013/2014, it is necessary to implement the water cycling system interrupting the current process of production within twelve weeks, and to provide the training for employees within ten weeks.

The effective implementation of the project is based on such activities as the development of a specific schedule, the work with the staff, the assessment of introduction aspects, the introduction of the technology’s elements, the monitoring of the process, and the final shift to using the new technology.

The outputs of the process are the adequate introduction of the technology’s elements, the usage of the correct techniques, the necessary testing of technologies, and the qualified training for the staff.

As a result, the implementation of the new water cycling system is successful and leads to saving costs and providing the company’s green image.

Financial Objective

The financial objective of the project is to reduce the company’s costs in 20% till the end of the 2013/2014 financial year with references to reducing the water usage in 50% providing the 100% water reuse with the help of the new cycling water system.

The achievement of this financial objective depends on finding additional suppliers, researching specific licenses and laws in order to complete the reports and achieve the increase in profits basing on reducing the expense.

The achievement of the increase in profits till the end of the 2013/2014 financial year can be discussed as the main expected financial outcome of the water cycling project implementation at the Altona plant.

Marketing Objective

The marketing objective of the Toyota Motor Corporation associated with the implementation of the new water cycling technology is based on the intention to increase the competitive advantage of the company within the industry referring to the sustainability and costs’ savings within the 2013/2014 financial year.

The focus on using the innovative water cycling technology provides the company with opportunities to support the leading positions within the market. The main activities which can lead to the achievement of the goal are the changes in the company’s focuses and practices associated with using the new technology.

Corporate Social Responsibility Objective

The company’s CSR objective is to decrease the negative impact on the environment with references to reducing the amount of water used for the production processes in 50% within the twelve months of the 2013/2014 financial year.

The activities connected with the process of the technology introduction will result in saving resources and reducing the pollution. Thus, the company will respond directly to the concept of sustainability in relation to the community and to the issue of environmental protection.

References

Commercial water tanks 2013. Web.

Dissolved metals removal from wastewater 2011. Web.

Magic Hand Car Wash 2012. Web.

Mitsubishi Electric: a practical water recycling solution 2013. Web.

Reverse Osmosis Unit 2010. Web.

Toyota Australia Sustainability Report 2012. Web.

Toyota Sustainability Report 2010. Web.

Toyota Sustainability Report 2012. Web.

The key drivers to the success of Toyota before the crisis

Production and operations management

The actual production and delivery of products including the operational management was essential to the success of Toyota. The company’s product design incorporated product process, planning and implementing production processes as well as acquiring and organizing resources.

With this broad scope, the production and operation functions had a fundamental role in the company’s ability to attain the set goals and objectives before the crisis. Besides, the operations managers were familiar with the concepts and issues that surrounded the functional area.

The basic performance objectives that pertained to all operations including quality, speed, flexibility, dependability and cost were well planned and realized. Thus, Toyota Company was successful in meeting these objectives through its production and operation function.

Over decades, Toyota operations were streamlined thus resulting in the popularly known Toyota Production System (TPS). The TPS was conceived when the company realized that producing massive quantities from limited product line to achieve maximum economies of scale led to flaws.

Its major objectives were to reduce cost, eliminate waste and respond to the changing needs of the customers. Under this system, quality was considered as doing things right via the provision of error free products that satisfied the targeted customers. Conversely, Toyota vehicles were among the leading brands in customer satisfaction.

Voting Toyota as the best annual vehicle by most marketplace reviews indicated that the company had an appealing reputation globally. Due to good quality, Toyota success had kept growing and in 2009 the company was the best worldwide. Moreover, Toyota was keen on producing quality vehicles with many technologies that improved the performance of the vehicles.

The TPS method applied during operation focused on the reduction of complications via the use of undersized and uncomplicated machineries that were elastic and strong. On the other hand, rescheduling run and outline to promote plainness enhanced the pace of manufacturing and assembling Toyota vehicles.

Another driver to the success of Toyota was dependability, which implied timely working to ensure that customers got their products within the promised time. Toyota had included just in time manufacturing method comprising of experienced employees who worked in cooperation while the Kanban management assisted the team in delivering manufactured goods and services as guaranteed.

Every worker, mechanical expert, and director was concerned with the improvement of value and effectiveness of Toyota vehicles. The organization admired making adjustments while developing receptive and supple structures that helped in dealing with the changing trade settings. Inside the company’s production area, Toyota Corp had the ability to attain large-scale flexibility whilst manufacturing tiny product bunches that hardly generated any value or output loss.

Team working in TPS

From this case, the corporation emerged to be among the few vehicle producers in the automobile industry, which constantly generated profits during and subsequent to the 1974 oil disaster. Due that crisis, producers that rivaled Toyota envied and visited the company in order to find out the reasons behind Toyota’s triumph in the declining souk environment.

The company’s discovery was the unique team working of the Japanese who utilized scientific management rules. Japanese team working was very dissimilar to that which became prominent in the American and European companies in the 1960s and 1970s. The Japanese team working usually referred to as Toyotaism implied a certain form of work organization that emphasized on lean production.

The technique combined the JIT creation methods; dilemma-resolving groups, job consistency, as well as influential first-line administration and nonstop but succeeding Toyota process step up. All these drivers contributed to the success of Toyota before the crisis.

The JIT manufacturing scheme attempted to accomplish the clients’ requests devoid of generating any waste products while offering faultless value. Organization and scheduling of various Just in time approaches took into consideration draw arrangement, staged forecasting, Kanban organization, flow harmonization, and assorted reproduction development.

Besides, Toyota was one of the biggest players in transforming Japan into being a kingpin in automotive production. Other companies which had adopted the company’s production system increased efficiency and productivity. Thus, Toyota was developing over the years since the industry’s analysis of the best plant winners showed that the company used lean manufacturing techniques extensively.

The primary causes of this crisis

The Toyota Corp experienced a crisis in the fiscal 2010 subsequent to its vehicles being involved in industrial accident. The quality of Toyota started to fall impulsively despite attaining its 2010 Global Vision. With the potential fatal defects, it was essential for the Corporation to stop its manufacturing in several areas and recall back cars ranging to more than a million.

The TMC crisis arose primarily due to the inability of the company to manage its quality given the hurried expansion and unique production philosophy. Besides, Toyota’s poor quality production increased following the Second World War that left the company with competitive disadvantage. Conversely, Toyota Corp was suffering from financial problems while struggling with quality problems. In a war- desolated economy, Toyota considered it necessary to exploit low costs while producing a wide range of vehicles.

Nevertheless, the competency that drove the American giant car manufacturers was inappropriate for car fabrication in Japan thus generating crisis. The American techniques highlighted large consignments made on specialized machines. Hence, the crisis augmented due to little capital meant for business venture after the warfare. That is, the system proved not to be cost-effective particularly for low-volume demand.

The crisis also came due to surplus rework needed during the production of faulty products and surplus inventory of finished products, work in progress, and raw materials. In addition, the deprived product and instrument design resulting into the erroneous over-production and overindulgent movement of products past the necessary production procedure also caused the crisis.

Finally, the pointless waiting of tools and personnel for the subsequent production and over manufacturing ahead of demand are some wastes that increased the Toyota crisis.

The adjustment of Toyota after the crisis

In case of a major crisis, Toyota should adjust by shutting down its production or operations in areas that were affected most and particular products that underperformed in such a situation. For example, during the 2008 financial crisis the company closed down its production of large vehicles for some time and switched the factory that produced SUVs into that which produced Priuses.

This adjustment was also evident during the Japanese earthquakes when Toyota suspended its operation in plants within the affected region. The company should also respond by eliminating some of its workforce especially the temporary workers in the affected facilities. This included extending leaves and making such employees work on part time basis. Toyota may similarly minimize the remuneration for plant managers and reduce bonus for every salaried workforce.

Since the crisis affected Toyota employees and customers directly, the company should ensure that the stakeholders are aware of the changes. When crisis ends, Toyota should establish a committee that takes the opinions of employees and customers in the affected areas in order to determine the most appropriate crisis adjustment strategies.

The committee should be responsible for devising methods to explain the reasons for the adjustments and the benefits they have for the stakeholders. The employees should be given options to extend their leaves or get assistance to secure other jobs. Through this strategy, Toyota will maintain good relationship with customers and employees affected by the crisis.

Toyota

Toyota is one of the biggest automobile companies in the world. The company is based in Japan, but it has operations in numerous countries across the globe. The company is ranked 11^th largest in the world in terms of revenue. Its headquarters is in Toyota, Aichi, Japan.

Toyota operates in the automotive industry. Its main products are cars. It also offers services related to vehicle maintenance. The company produces a wide range of vehicle models including SUVs, luxury cars, pickups, trucks, as well as sports cars, among others.

Apart from the automotive activities, the company is also involved in some non-automotive activities. For instance, Toyota has some shares in the Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation.

It also supports some philanthropy programs like the Toyota Literacy Program and the National Centre for Family Literacy.

Toyota Motor Corporation started in 1937. Its founder was Kiichiro Toyoda. Toyoda had inherited a company that created automobiles from his father.

It is important to note that Toyota is a company that has formed partnerships with other companies, like Hino Motors, Daihatsu, and Lexus, to form the Toyota Motor Corporation. Before the formation of this corporation, the company’s operations in the Toyota Industries had started back in 1933.

The first product produced by the company was ‘Type A Engine’ in 1934 when the company was still operating in Toyota Industries. Later in the 1936, Toyota produced a passenger car for the first time. The car was called the Toyota AA (Liker & Meier, 2006).

Toyota operates in an industry that is highly competitive. Its major competitors are the German automobile companies, such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, and Porsche. It also faces competition from Ford, Chrysler, and Fiat, among other companies.

Toyota has been able to survive the stiff competition due to its strategic business plan. It applies product differentiation and costing to muscle out its competitors.

Significant management personnel in Toyota

The management system that Toyota has adopted focuses on decision making in a prompt manner. The management focuses on developing a global strategy that helps the company get a competitive edge over its competitors, as well as improve its quality and quantity in production.

To achieve this, the company has committees and councils that discuss and monitor management activities. This is meant to increase the level of transparency in the company and enhance the effectiveness of the management team.

The management system in Toyota currently consists of Chief Officers as the highest personnel in the hierarchy. The Chief Officers are also the directors. In addition, the Chief Officers form a link between the senior managers and the operations managers.

This enables the topmost managers to make decisions in liaison with the operations managers. The operations managers ensure that all the operational activities are conducted smoothly.

There is an audit system that is adopted in line with the Japanese Corporations Act. It is meant to monitor the activities and performance of managers (Borowski, 2012).

Other significant personnel in the company include the President, the Board of Directors, as well as the Chairman and the Vice Chairman. There are also the Vice President and the Senior Advisor to the company. The Chairman is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Toyota’s Business Strategy

Toyota has been successful in its business, both in Japan and in the international market. One of the major reasons that have contributed to its success is its quality in production. Producing quality automobiles is the major strategy that the company has adopted to succeed.

There is a general belief in Japan that even the best things can be improved. This has driven the urge for Toyota to strive to improve its products. The company is guided by the term KAIZEN, which means continuous and consistence improvement (Hino, 2006).

Technological innovation is vital in the maintenance of quality production processes. Toyota has made innovation as part of its business strategy. This has helped the company succeed in the international market.

Toyota is able to continuously improve the quality of its products, as well as produce new products through innovation. Innovation is known to give organizations a competitive advantage. Other strategies that the company applies are product differentiation and cost leadership (Hino, 2006).

Toyota is able to produce differentiated goods that are meant for specific market segments. The company is also able to produce goods whose prices are favorable for many people.

Specific area of the business to be addressed

Toyota has a number of businesses that it conducts under its brand. Each area of business operates independently, or it may operate in conjunction with other areas (Borowski, 2012). The area of business in focus in this article is the sale of cars.

Toyota has a variety of cars that are sold across the globe and intended for different classes of customers.

There are SUVs, pickups, as well as luxury cars. Luxury cars are differentiated cars that are meant for the wealthy class of customers, while pickups are made for the middle income class of clients. This is the most profitable area of business for Toyota.

KSAs and Strategic Skills Analysis

Knowledge, skills, and abilities are very important attributes in any successful company. Employees should have the knowledge, skills, and ability to carry out the activities assigned to them. An employee who has these attributes is able to analyze the task that is assigned to him.

Such an employee is also able to solve problems effectively (Dreher & Dougherty, 2002). This ability helps in achieving the organization’s strategy given that an organization cannot achieve its strategy without competent employees.

The HR should ensure that it hires the right employees who have the above attributes. This is one of the strategies that Toyota has used. The company hires the right employees who can help it in innovation and improving its products continually.

Toyota needs people who are able to use technology for the purpose of innovation. It needs people who have the knowledge and skills to make right decisions.

Internal and External Pay Equity

The amount of salary that an employee is given is defined by a number of factors. Among these factors are the knowledge, skills, and abilities that the employee possesses (Aswathappa, 2005). The more knowledgeable, skillful, and able an employee is, the higher the salary will be.

It is important to manage pay equity internally to motivate employees and encourage internal competition among employees. This eventually facilitates innovation (Dreher & Dougherty, 2002). Failure to manage pay equity internally leads to low morale and poor performance in employees.

Externally, it is important to manage pay equity to maintain employees. Employees with high level KSAs are usually rare and highly sought after. Such employees are likely to move to competitor organizations if an organization does not manage their pay properly.

References

Aswathappa, K. (2005). Human resource and personnel management: Text and cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.

Borowski, A. (2012). Report on the Toyota Company. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH.

Dreher, G., & Dougherty, T. (2002). Human resource strategy: A behavioral perspective for the general manager. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Hino, S. (2006). Inside the mind of Toyota: Management principles for enduring growth. New York, NY: Productivity Press.

Liker, J. K., & Meier, D. (2006).The Toyota way fieldbook: A practical guide for implementing Toyota’s 4Ps. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Introduction

This paper looks into factors that will determine the Lexus RX 330 Line plant location. The plant can be located either in Canada (Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada) or in the United States (North American plant in USA).

The team asses the location decision using a Weighting Model. The team tasked with the work of determining the location develops a list of factors, which are weighted using different weights, and the location with the highest score is chosen.

Weighting and choice of location

The team develops several factors that will be influential in the company’s decision to find the plant’s location. The following are the factors. The factors are categorized into exogenous and endogenous typologies.

The exogenous factors refer to external factors that a company is not in control of while endogenous factors are factors within the control of the company. For example, a company can control salaries and wages but cannot control the availability of markets.

Endogenous

• Salaries and wages
• Internal Infrastructure

Exogenous

• Laws and Regulations
• Industry Competitiveness
• Infrastructure external
• Human Resources Availability
• Taxation
• Cost of Expert Expatriation
• Regional Growth potential
• Plant Expansion possibility
• Cost of leasing
• Market availability

After that, the team develops weights for each criteria depending upon the hierarchy of importance to the company operations (Schwalbe, 2012). The following weights and scores are assigned to each factor.

Examples of factors

Economic Conditions

The motor industry is quite unpredictable. The industry had been recording slumps in profits intermittently since 2000. For example between 2001 and 2006, the industry recorded cumulative losses amounting to $42 billion. Toyota tries to operate in predictable markets to avoid such losses.

It had been making profits even in a time when the industry was recoding losses. For example, it has signed exclusive contracts to operate in particular countries (Toyota in US, Canada etc) to increase profitability and enhance predictability.

For the past decade, the prices of crude oil have been unpredictable because of terminal wars and global economic crises. This makes the industry to operate at a state in which it cannot accurately predict costs.

Additionally, in 2008 the world plunged in an economic crisis emanating from the finance systems of United States. This has led to a situation where world customers and businesses have cut spending spelling doom to an industry that mostly targets business and leisure customers.

Role of Government

Competitors and critics have constantly complained that success of Toyota is not attributable to its strategies. They have painted a picture where environmental forces, specifically governments, play a key role in the success of Toyota.

The industrial climate in those countries is favorable compared to other nations. That is why the company has invested in few different countries since inception and subsequently written off those investments. Critics argue that this indicates Toyota can only succeed in its own country.

However, this is untrue, according to management and Toyota proponents, as the company operates in a similar environment as other competitors and they have not matched Toyota’s global success.

Calculations and results

The team finds that Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada is the ideal location for the new plant. The plant meets the criteria of having the highest score. The score is obtained by multiplying the respective weight with the respective score for each factor (Jacobs & Chase, 2013).

The resultant figures are added together to obtain the final score. The scores are compared and the location with the highest score is chosen. In this case, USA obtained a score of 67 while Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada obtained a score of 70.

The results are summarized in the Excel file attached and the grid analysis attached. The pie charts indicate the score for individual factors as percentages.

Conclusion and recommendations

The results indicate that the North America option obtains a higher weighted score of 70 than Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, which scores 67.

This indicates that the location of the plant in USA will be beneficial to the company’s operations more than, if it is located in Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.

Hence, it is prudent for the company to operate in USA since it will enjoy higher potential for growth, an available market, better taxation regime, stable laws, and regulations among others. However, it crucial to note that the difference between the two scores was quite small.

This indicates that the difference may be down to small factors such as difference in laws. Additionally, the team should understand that these small differences can lead to catastrophic outcomes in the operations of the firm and should be taken into account in decision-making.

References

Jacobs, R. & Chase, B. (2013). Operations and supply management: The core. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Schwalbe, K. (2012). An introduction to project management. Minneapolis: Kathy Schwalbe LLC.

Introduction

Trust is important in any business. Trustworthiness in a company contributes to its competitive capabilities, as it allows the organisation to have more opportunities in the medium-term. Appearances of trustworthiness and actual trust may be the same. However, they are very different. The first one is only a potential that the business expresses. It does not absolve the business of any loss that would occur if there is an actual breach of trust. The second one is an actuality, which ensures that there is never a breach of trust, and no losses are suffered due to a loss of trust.

Trust increases referrals to business and repeat business, leading to a loyal customer base (Sinha, 2010). Other than customers, other business partners rely on trust to form long-term relationships. A good, trustworthy business can obtain financial assistance from its financial partners, even when it is unable to meet its short-term debt commitments. Similarly, a business can use trust as the basis for seeking agreements with the employees, as the internal stakeholders, and the suppliers, as the external stakeholders, to allow it to make some changes in its operations so that it can pass through difficult times.

Public trust is the most important factor in public organisations, as well as not-for-profit organisations. Public trust determines the legitimacy of the organisation’s funding. Ethics and accountability are important factors in building trust in all kinds of organisations. Building trust requires transparency and adequate communication with all the internal and external stakeholders of the company. Structures to maintain a trustworthy business can be formal, like a code of ethics, or informal, like traditions, values, organisational culture, and work principles (Greiling, 2007).

The BBC Case Study

The BBC is a publicly funded organisation that experienced a trust crisis in 2007 due to editorial misjudgements. The incidences happened to pre-recorded programs that caused misinformation about competitions and features that fooled the public into thinking there was public participation in the programs.

The root causes leading to the loss of trust

The root cause of the problem was the lack of policies governing the ethics of particular acts done by the staff in charge of the programs. Program editors also allowed the need to broadcast programs on time to override their need to be accountable and truthful in their approach in delivering services to the public. There was a need to compete within the industry and to highlight the BBC as an organisation that was responsive and innovative in broadcasting. Unfortunately, there was no mechanism for ensuring that the goals were met. As such, the employees responsible opted to do things without following the due process, as required in their profession. They made the matter worse by liaising with their immediate superiors to hide the irregularity, with the excuse of saving the particular programs from obsolesce.

How effective do you consider the taken mitigation actions?

In the BBC case, mitigation actions included communication with all the workers through bulletins and meetings to reassert the core BBC values. The communication also included a policy of no tolerance to deception. The organisation suspended phone-related and interactive competition and embraced mandatory training on editorial ethics. This training involved all the staff involved in content production. These measures were effective in ensuring that workers had the necessary knowledge and skills to inform their decisions about deception. However, knowledge was not enough to deter workers from preferring to use deception. Workers had the likelihood of finding incentives to cheat the system that was going to inform the management of the company about the deception.

There was a need to address the root origin of the problems to eradicate them. One way that the BBC did this was by subjecting all publicity materials to formal editorial compliance. This ensured than non-editorial employees did not have room to allow other non-ethical incentives to influence the performance of their work. They were restricted to providing the right work that met the trust policy of the organisation. If they failed to do so, then the editors would have an obligation to point out the mistakes and seek remedies.

One challenge of relying on additional authority to safeguard trust issues is that it can prompt junior officers to collude with the higher authorities and continue with the harmful behaviour in their duties. The original editorial misjudgements happened because the higher authorities were unable to perform their duties well. Therefore, relying on the competency of the higher authorities alone was not enough. There was a need to reduce the incentives for the employees to be deceptive. One of the ways to do so would be by addressing the performance thresholds put in different positions in the organisation (Greiling, 2007). Ensuring that enough resources were allocated to the employees and considerable time allowed to perform a given duty was another way. Reducing job pressures would also allow the employees to follow the due process and maintain the right values and philosophy of the organisation as they performed their duties (Greiling, 2007).

What would happen if the company did not publicly address the issues and make changes?

Failing to address the issue publicly would result in an on-going mistrust from the public stakeholders. Continuing mistrust would lead to the loss of legitimacy of the organisation and cripple its ability to perform its duties well. Such an eventuality would cause it to shut down because of failing to do its public duty as a publicly-funded organisation. Also, a new organisation with adequate control measures would be set up as a replacement for the BBC.

Apart from the radical consequences, the failure to address the issues publicly would also create room for the guilty staff to continue with the practice, as they failed to see the significance of the matter in the overall welfare and mandate execution of the BBC. This failure would ensure that the BBC would not handle all the loopholes, even with the interventions to prevent a repeat of the same problem. The BBC needed adequate scrutiny to manage all the loopholes and regain trust. Internal stakeholders had a stake in keeping things going on as they were, as long as they fulfilled their immediate needs.

In the case of the BBC, the immediate need was the ability to fulfil work duties without going through tasking processes that were required by the organisation’s policy on truth. The organisation opened up its internal programs and operations to scrutiny due to public involvement created by the public attention to the issues. This prevented employees from continuing with their wrongdoing.

Do you believe that the company reputation can be rebuilt, or will they suffer the consequences also in the years to come?

The BBC can be rebuilt. Although its intervention did not create a robust solution to the problem, there is still room for improvement. The organisation now has a better chance to detect similar violations should they occur in the future. Although workers would be inclined to maintain operational ability, the management was adamant that protecting the reputation of the organisation and gaining a high value of integrity was more important. Thus, the management set the pace for the workers to consider what was most important to the organisation and to exhibit the best behaviour and make the best decisions concerning the integrity of their jobs (Dietz & Gillespie, 2012).

If any other scandals that taint the trustworthiness of the BBC appear, they will probably be the remnants of the present scandal, which are unlikely to have additional inherent causes. Going forward, the increased monitoring and training of the editorial staff will ensure that the BBC can sustain its policy of non-deception and avoid the consequences in the coming years. Interim reports at the BBC will be effective in presenting the most challenged areas to the stakeholders. This will raise debate on the issue and provide solutions for additional reforms that would further move the organisation towards being more reputable. As long as there is persistent scrutiny of its operations, the BBC will remain on a good path and should not suffer the consequences of loss of trust. Nevertheless, as highlighted earlier in this review, corruption in the system can undermine its integrity. Future interventions on monitoring and reform must be public so that they do not succumb to internal manipulations by the employees at any level of the organisation.

Toyota Case Study

Toyota faced a loss of trust challenges when one of its cars caused an accident and killed the occupants because it was faulty. The company sold faulty products and jeopardized its reputation of being a reliable and safety-conscious company. Even after the incident, it took considerably longer for local responses to the crisis to start. This highlighted quality assurance problems at Toyota. The evidence further tarnished the image of the company. As a remedy, Toyota recalled the affected cars, but it did not handle the exercise well. This created more safety-related panic and additional mistrust from the consumers (Dietz & Gillespie, 2012).

The root causes leading to the loss of trust

Failure to monitor the manufacturing and marketing processes to ensure that they aligned with the values communicated by the company was the main source of the lost trust. However, these failures occurred in the background, but they manifested in the form of faulty cars that had failed to pass adequate tests. They also manifested as Toyota’s lack of innovation in the process of testing safety and additional safety features in its vehicles, in line with changes in technology and the progress in the automotive industry.

The company had allowed its aggressive growth strategy to stand in the way of its need to maintain diligence in the manufacturing process. It also went against its principle of constant improvement and elimination of waste by allowing the high demand for growth to supersede quality assurance operations within the company. Consumers were appalled by the high number of affected cars. They saw it as evidence of a system-wide failure, which would mean there could be other problems with Toyota that were waiting for an accident to occur to be discovered.

How effective do you consider the taken mitigation actions?

Public communication done by the head of the company was effective in assuring consumers that there would be adequate attention given to the problem. However, the events that followed the communication showed that the company lacked an adequate internal mechanism to address the problem in a way that would quickly restore its public reputation. Toyota chose to reverse the basics of the Toyota Way. The effectiveness of this intervention would depend on the direction of change, and the features of change embraced. The original Toyota Way was effective, only that it needed adequate safeguards to prevent a repeat of the loss of accountability incidence caused by a focus on growth.

The new system of testing in the manufacturing process would include a combination of five accident-avoidance technologies. This was a case where Toyota was finding advancing its methods and operations to adhere to industry best practices as appropriate. It was a good way of advancing the company’s capability. However, if the interventions by Toyota to embrace industry best practices on safety were only isolated interventions, then the company may still face the same problem in the future. The company should have put the adoption of industry benchmarks and best practices as part of the revision of its Toyota Way (Dietz & Gillespie, 2012).

The creation of a 50-strong global quality task force was welcome. Still, like many task forces, there was a gap between policy formulation, investigation reports, and the actual amendments of practice on the manufacturing plants. Thus, the mitigation was good, but not very effective. It would have been better to combine the mitigation with a mechanism for ensuring that interventions by the experts, the task force, regulators, and other stakeholders quickly found their way into the manufacturing process and operation as safety improvements (Dietz & Gillespie, 2012).

What would happen if the company did not publicly address the issues and make changes?

Toyota’s failure to address the problems publicly would have created insurmountable press attention to the company, with calls for the authorities to take punitive measures against the company. Customers yet to be reached by the recall program would have panicked and sued the company for neglect of safety for any foreseeable issue that they would have with their Toyota cars. Addressing the issues publicly, ensured that Toyota was able to respond to the aftershocks of the crisis and came up with a possible intervention that responded to the most pertinent needs of the problem, as expressed by the stakeholders. Without publicly addressing the issues, the company would be lost on what to resolve first and what to schedule for later. It would lack the on-going feedback from the stakeholders, who are necessary for navigating a trust crisis.

The trustworthiness of the Toyota brand would plummet to unrecoverable levels. Moreover, it would be very difficult for the company’s leadership to maintain a market leadership position in the future. The intervention would not attain levels of responsiveness that it did. The centralised corporate structure in Toyota aided a top-down approach to the intervention, while the incident demanded decentralised intervention. Thus, the entire response was bungled, as the central company authority was trying to bypass its bureaucracies to fight the lost reputation. However, were it not for the public attention on the case. The resolve to deal with internal bureaucracies, create a separate global task force to analyse, and formulate future safety policies might have been impossible.

Do you believe that the company reputation can be rebuilt, or will they suffer the consequences also in the years to come?

Toyota’s reputation will be rebuilt. The company did well in coming up with new measures that affected its entire operations and management activities. It embraced industry benchmarks on safety and opened itself to public scrutiny. In the future, it will be possible to detect failures in its system, as the company revised its core manufacturing and business principles as outlined in the Toyota way. At the same time, it now has a task force to advise future company policies on safety and related issues, as a way of safeguarding its reputation. Based on these remarks, it is unlikely that Toyota will be a victim of the same trust loss crisis in the future.

Toyota is unlikely to allow too much growth to cripple its organisational systems and values again. Therefore, the company will retain a good balance between its quest to increase its competitive capabilities with growth strategies and its need to safeguard its current market share by keeping stakeholders satisfied through the maintenance of trustworthiness. Lastly, there will be more transparency in the pursuit of growth, as the internal processes of the company open up to central management, task force, and public regulatory scrutiny. This will aid the Toyota’s quest to sustain its values and core working principles in all its operations. Consequently, there will be no additional consequences suffered in the future regarding the same trust issues.

Summary of recommendations for The BBC and Toyota cases

Trust remains an on-going strategy in all organisations. Thus it should not be handled as a time-bound project. Therefore, the BBC needs first to address the motivating factors for deception by the employees before it relies on the interventions of training and oversight to solve the trust problem. It has to balance workloads, performance expectations of the employees, and reduce the instances of collusion between administrators, editorial staffs, and other employees, to avoid jeopardising the internal system established to maintain trustworthiness in its operations.

For Toyota, the interventions of the central management are good, because the created task force forms a bypass mechanism for defeating internal bureaucracy and ensuring that there are adequate responses to future challenges in the Toyota way. A review of the Toyota way is also a good initiative that the company should keep doing periodically. Also, it has to come up with another separate organ for injecting task force recommendations into normal operations. Alternatively, Toyota should expedite the process of linking task force reports with actual practice by giving the task force some central management mandates and powers, which will ensure that the company can respond very fast to future trust challenges.

In addition to relying on the executive leadership to drive reforms, the two organisations must also consider the practical implications of their solutions. This consideration will look at whether they add unnecessary processes that cause resistance and produce likely causes of neglect in the future. The organisations must recall the underlying causes of their respective problems and address them, in addition to responding to the most pertinent issues raised by the public (Bracey, 2014). Therefore, the two companies should embrace a proactive strategy to maintain trust.

References

Bracey, L. (2014). The importance of business reputation. Business in Focus. Web.

Dietz, G., & Gillespie, N. (2012). The recovery of trust: Case studies of organisational failures and trust repair. London, UK: Institute of Business Ethics.

Greiling, D. (2007). Trust and performance management in non-profit organizations. The Innovation Journal, 12(3). Web.

Sinha, A. (2010, December 1). Preparing for growth, time to rebuild trust and reputation. Forbes. Web.

Toyota is a motor manufacturing company based in Japan and is widely known around the world as a community organization. The company has several community support programs that depict the company’s involvement and responsibility to the community. Toyota’s team members in collaboration with other environmental conservation agencies have actively been involved in the completion of several green initiatives. Some of the green initiatives that have been facilitated by Toyota’s community support programs include tree planting, construction of footbridges and trail maintenance.

Toyota has community outreach programs through which the company makes time and monetary donations towards the completion of community projects. Volunteer teams from Toyota participate in maintenance and cleanup initiatives that are beneficial to the community. The volunteer teams from Toyota maintain community facilities through renovations and upkeep. Toyota is involved in fundraising initiatives that are necessary in funding community development projects. Through these initiatives, it is evident that Toyota has performed well when it comes to corporate and social responsibility.

The social responsibility strategies of Toyota are influenced by quite a number of factors. To begin with, globalization is major factor that influences social responsibility strategies for multinational organizations such as Toyota. Governments and International bodies such as the United Nations have guidelines and declarations that organizations should follow when developing social responsibility strategies. Consumers and investors have a great influence on the social responsibility strategies of Toyota because the company needs them in implementing some of its social responsibility strategies especially those that are related to environmental conservation. The growing need to observe corporate ethics is another factor that has influence on the social responsibility strategies of the Toyota Company. Members of the public continually demand for accountability and transparency from corporate organizations and this has a significant influence on the social responsibly strategies of organizations such as the Toyota Company.

The social initiatives that have been put in place by Toyota demonstrate the fact that the company if fully committed to making a significant contribution to the general development of the community. The company’s social responsibility initiatives are shared globally and it is estimated that company spends over 14.4 billion yen every financial year in its social responsibility activities. The need to contribute to sustainable social vitality is what motivates Toyota to get involved in social initiatives. Some of the social initiatives facilitated by Toyota include literacy promotion efforts, environmental conservation, traffic safety programs, outreach programs and humanitarian initiatives. All the Toyota companies across the world are guided by the company’s principles and policies regarding social contribution.

The social initiatives put in place by the Toyota Company end up having some ethical effects. Toyota has an ethical responsibility to its shareholders and it therefore necessary for the company to maintain a good image that in turn enhances the company’s financial sustainability. Although the company uses a lot of money to fund social initiatives, an act of balancing is needed to ensure that the company does not suffer any financial loses. The Toyota Company has to ensure that it does not go against social norms in the course of its activities. Environmental conservation initiatives put in place by Toyota have an ethical effect in the sense that they might increase the company’s image as a result of the good image that the company portrays. Toyota’s social initiatives have enhanced the company’s reputation in the society.

In the world of business, every firm’s sole aim is to survive the competition and accrue maximum profits in the operations. As such, the key to success as well as prolonged existence in the market calls for the organizations to establish a tradition that ensures the development of modern initiatives, training and the application of new technology (Von Stamm, 2008). Through the drastic modifications and improvements in the design and modernism as well as creativity, the organizations are able to achieve competitive advantage over their competitors.

In fact, studies have shown that firms embracing research, design and improvements in technology results into the rapid growth. For instance, the radical transformation of the Toyota Company by increasing the quality of its products through innovation and design has ensured continuous expansion of the firm (Von Stamm, 2008). In addition, the design of the operation techniques enhances competitive advantage by stressing on quality as well as adaptability to meet the demands of diverse customers across the globe.

Further, through the adoption of modern technologies, the firms are capable of modifying their products and services through configurations of processes. For example, customizations as well as standardization have enabled Toyota and H & R tax services improve on their product and services quality resulting into improved competitiveness. In this regard, the firms are capable of producing high volumes of goods as well as providing services to larger markets (Julier & Moor, 2009).

In other words, design, modernization and creativity enable elastic production as well as specialty in the production processes of the firms thereby improving their competitiveness in the market. Further, the customizations of the existing technologies as well as restructuring by the firms have enabled them to offer products and services with unique advantages and client worth (Von Stamm, 2008). The firms have also managed to use advanced support equipments that have enabled rapid prototyping of operations. Consequently, the firms have achieved the required quality and speed in developing their products.

Processes, products, or services of H & R tax service and Toyota

H & R tax service stresses on the quality of their services delivery to their customers through employing trained tax professionals in their operations. The firm employs a strategy of recruiting experienced specialists who are capable of solving any tax issues (Julier & Moor, 2009). Further, the firm strategies involving tax preparation software as well as online tax processing has enabled efficiency in its operations. The firm engages in offering advice relating to bookkeeping, audit support and tax filing requirements to its clients.

On the other hand, Toyota Company employs diverse strategies that go beyond concentrating on its motor vehicle manufacturing service only (Julier & Moor, 2009). For example, the firm has diversified its production lines ranging from financial services to communications. Through the incorporation of knowledge and technology, the company enables the presentation of different segments of housing structures that meet the requirements of diverse clients around the globe.

In addition, the firm is embracing a technology enabling business transactions through the incorporation of information technology. As such, the customers are able to gain extra worth from the company’s services. For example, the company’s improvements in the area of telematics has enabled the establishment of G-link that has increased efficiency of communication networks (Julier & Moor, 2009). Further, the firm has taken into account the impacts of harmful emissions on the state of environment. Therefore, through the TOYOTA GREEN WAY, the company is developing environmental-friendly automobiles that have a positive impact on the atmosphere. In fact, such vehicles are darlings to many customers expanding its market base (Julier & Moor, 2009).

References

Julier, G. & Moor, L. (2009). Design and creativity: Policy, management and practice. Oxford, England: Berg.

Von Stamm, B. (2008). Managing innovation, design and creativity. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons.