Diagnosing Change at Toyota Company
The organization chosen is the Toyota automobile company. Toyota Company is a global company operating in more than 100 countries in the world. Its market share is approximated to be the second largest, with the company itself being the second largest automobile company in the world. It has an employee base of over two million people, most of which are professional automobile engineers and marketers (Frakes, 2004). . The growth of the company has been attributed to its design of the brand that has met the preference of many beverage-drinking clients in the global market. As a global brand, it has managed to move its products and services from the small local outlets to many other global outlets that aid in distributing the brand in all parts of the world.
At Toyota Company, HR is a critical docket that goes all the way to determining the magnitude of production within the company. Through the activity of making things, the company believes in educating people to make them able and competitive in their work (Magee, 2008). The company has a strong believe that the development of the human resource needs handing down values together with perspectives of production. The company has undertaken numerous human resource initiatives globally, driven by the desire and location of different activities promoting the company's brand. The company has established tangible, a new facility of learning, and intangible, course content, structures that are related to the development of the team members to offer a secure and steady flow of quality and competitive human resource that can carry out the company's global business.
The company has a strategy in divisional training together with different assignments directed at training the employees to be professionals and hence utilize their capabilities in production. The company has defined its needed qualities of 'professional staff' as a guiding principle to identify and assert professional conduct among its employees. The company looks forward to having employees who can conduct day-to-day activities while expanding their skills and technical positions. The company carries out companywide training based on the qualifications of the employees, specialized training for different divisions, language development, and special knowledge and skill training. In October 2002, Toyota Company developed a booklet called, "Toyota-Developing People." In the book was one message of telling the employees that the source of competitiveness is employee development.
Through its initiative of the 'The Toyota Way-2001,' the company developed a document that expressed values and conduct guidelines that are supposed to be embraced by all employees. These guidelines offer procedural avenues in the line of production. The aim of this initiative was to develop valuable people and transfer values, philosophy, and attributes of the company to all the smaller entities. The values of the company are important in transforming and sustaining high levels of production at all times. The company also developed an institute in 2002, which is an initiative for internal human resource development aimed at promoting self-sufficiency within the company. The company has a strong pursuit of competency of its products and services. It knows that to achieve this dream, innovation and creativeness have to be instilled in its processes and products. Such levels of competitiveness can only be realized through schooling and training of the employees and the stakeholders within the company.
The other major initiative of HR development and management within Toyota Company is the Toyota Culture. This is the heart and soul of the Toyota Way. Culture refers to a universal way of doing things to maintain the status of production and strength of the company in the local and international market. The essence of the Toyota Way is to have people understand that the company values hiring people who are going to be competitive and promote the growth process. Through this principle of human resource development, Toyota Company has done some things. The company has defined competencies, inclusive of the behaviors and traits, that employee ought to have. For instance, the company has clear statements of teamwork, work pace, attention, work ethic, problem-solving, motivation, and integrity, among others. The company hires people with these competencies. The company has provided lean systems and training of the employees. Moreover, the company has a way of removing people who refuse to embrace the culture of high performance.
The effectiveness of the initiative of the Toyota Way is a crucial ligament that cannot be ignored within the company. Through this initiative,...
The initiative is deemed at providing values and behaviors that are worthwhile to the growth and success of the company. Through this initiative, the company has managed to capture a cohort of competitive personnel that has made the dream of the company alive. This program besides the others has given the company a better way of dealing with emergent issues that require a competitive and skilled response. The company has nurtured skills, competence, and expertise that every company in the world so desires. For instance, through the initiative of the Toyota Way, which encompasses training, many of the employees have developed to become experts in the production of automobiles, and have become global brands themselves.
Even with the presence of massive human resource initiatives of development within Toyota Company, change is still imminent. Toyota Company is competing with other tough competitors in the global market. There is a need for continued growth and development, especially when it comes to productivity and competitiveness of the products and services produced by the company. Change is good for a company that intends to remain on top of the rest in the market. Toyota Company has been bracing itself with the idea of employee employees who are have demonstrated their competency and ability to live and work within the limits of the company. Failure to live within the requirements of the company means that the employee is deemed to fail and hence will not be able to have further space to work for the company. This is a representation of self-centered production, which is a characteristic of many other competitive scales in the market. While dealing with such cases, there is a need for Toyota Company to adopt a strategy of training employees to work within the means of the company, while also trying to meet their diverse needs. The company can adopt the initiative of employee needs recognition. Such an imitative is aimed at meeting the diverse needs of the employees, and not just the training that is focused on benefiting the company alone.
Toyota Company is an ever-changing company. The changes come in the form of initiatives, programs, and procedures of work. Since 2002, the company has been developing different initiatives while making sure that new strategies are adopted. For instance, technology is a new tool for production and marketing that must be embraced by any growing business. With the new initiative focusing on employee needs, Toyota Company will be able to ensure the well-being of the employees even when they are not working for the company. Most initiatives within the company have been directed at company productivity and growth. Not so much have been expressed as concerning the growth and development of the employees. Employees are treated like machines that are deemed to work hard for the success of the company, not considering their personal growth and development. This is why the company has been having issues in dealing with employees who do not meet their specific requirements; they are fired indefinitely. This initiative will ensure that as the company provides training and skill imparting engagements, it should also focus on growing the well-being of the employees as it is growing for the company.
According to Kotter's 8-Step Change Model, change has to come from an organization because what was right 2000 years ago might not be right today. This theory of change implies that growth is associated with change. Any change intended comes from a particular need or opportunity from the organization. This theory is further supported by another theory of change that stipulates that one should anchor change with respect to the particular needs and availability of personnel and equipment to effect the change. The change will certainly influence the performance of the company in a positive or negative perspective. Nonetheless, with the change invented with an intention of influencing growth, the company will certainly benefit from it in the market as described by Kotter's 8-Step Change Model.
Several tools can be used to determine the organizations' readiness for change. One of the tools used in this case was the Organizational readiness to change assessment (ORCA) tool. The other tool that can be used is the Change Preferences Tool. With the use of the ORCA tool, the company will be able to know the perception of the employees and their readiness for change. The diagnostic tool reveals the mood of the organization, together with the productive levels. After diagnosis, this too produces a robust report that has specific recommendations. The Change Preference Tool reveals how different integrated groups within an…
