Organizational behavior is based on the principle of developing the necessary competencies and skills needed for effective growth contribution to an organization or company. Within an organization, there are several policies that are essential to success in an organization.
The context below shall elaborate more on these competencies in relation to the Toyota Brand. The competencies include the diverse management observing ethics and different cultures, team management, as well as the groups managing the communication and sales department.
Nature of groups and group behavior at Toyota
In relation to the nature of groups and the organizational the behavior within the Toyota brand, the management of Toyota is divides its staff to several categories. One group deals with consumer behavior also known as the psychology of marketing.
This group was formed with the aim of giving the company a better understanding of their customers. This group enables Toyota improve its marketing strategies by understanding such issues such as the psychology and how the consumers think, feel, reason and the factors that guide them when selecting between brands and products.
Other customer psychological factors that they study include how the environment, culture and media affects a customer’s decision when buying a car, for example customers usually choose a car shop which is regularly advertised in the media and one that is usually popular with the surrounding people. The several groups usually survey the consumer motivation and decision strategies.
Basically, the effectiveness of the organization structure of the groups within Toyota depends on how the company’s marketers are able to improve their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies so as to expand its consumer base and make the company’s products more attractive compared to competition. The other group formed in Toyota is the focus group. The focus group serves several purposes one being to find out the main issues that customers consider as most important.
The members of the above groups are encouraged to be open-minded so they can effectively deal with the myriads of customer opinions and preferences. Based on their findings from surveys and questionnaires carried out on customers, the above mentioned groups act as moderators between the company and its customers by collection and conveying customer preferences to the company’s management.
Factors that lead to effective teamwork
In order to get a better understanding of the factors that lead to effective teamwork at Toyota as well as their influence to the company’s success, one has to first dig into the company’s history. As noted by Potterton (1970), the Toyota brand was founded in 1937 and has since grown and diversified its operations. Today, Toyota owns and operates the Lexus and Scion brands and also owns numerous shares in other companies such as Fiji Heavy Industries, Isuzu motors Yamaha motors, and Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation.
The diversification factor in Toyota has resulted in the Toyota team brand whose aim is to encourage the company’s management and workers to improve their efforts in serving customers. The success of Toyota brand is the company’s large market share especially in the US market and in Europe where it controls a smaller market share (Mckern 2003).
One factor that has hindered Toyota’s growth in the recent times is the recent financial crisis. Being a global company, the financial crisis that struck the whole globe had a big impact on vehicle sales and therefore the company’s profits. The crisis was so devastating that in May 2009, the company reported a net loss amounting to 4 billion USD (NA, 2000).
Impact of technology on team functioning
One of the main benefits of technology in the team functioning within Toyota is that it has enabled the company to successfully implement lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing is basically the variation of efficiency based on optimized flow.
Technology has enabled the company induce manufacturing changes that are in line with what their customers value with little effort. Lean manufacturing began as a philosophy derived form the Toyota Production System and its main goal is to encourage team work within the employees as they work towards the improvement of customer satisfaction.
References
No author, (2000). Ward’s automotive yearbook (Volume 62). Ward’s Reports, Inc. Detriot.
Potterton, W.J. (1970) International businessmen’s who’s who. (Volume 2). Burke’s Peerage Ltd press: Michigan.
McKern, B. (2003). Managing the global network corporation. Routledge. London.