The effective implementation of the definite strategy is based on the effective strategic management where such factors as the organizational structure, control systems, and organizational culture are important. The management of any company realizes its new strategies with references to these factors, and the level and type of development of the corporate structure, culture, and control systems can influence the strategic implementation significantly.
In 2011, Toyota Motor Corporation presented some perspectives and strategies to overcome the difficulties associated with the recall issues of 2010 and the customers’ reaction to the recall. The presented strategies were oriented to winning back the customers’ loyalty.
The report’s task is to analyze the possible effectiveness of the developed strategies to overcome the issues with references to Toyota Motor Corporation’s organizational structure, control systems, and organizational culture.
The Effectiveness of Strategic Implementation within Toyota Motor Corporation Basing on Organizational Structure, Control Systems, and Organizational Culture
The type of the organizational structure depends on the environment within which the company operates. According to Burns and Stalker, there are two types of the organizational structure which are the mechanistic and organic organizational structures (Burns & Stalker, 2009).
Toyota Motor Corporation takes one of the leading positions within the car industry which is characterized by its stability. It is possible to note that Toyota Motor Corporation’s management is based on the centralized decision-making and standardization as important features to preserve the corporate stability.
In spite of the fact managers pay much attention to stimulating the individual’s initiative and effective team work, the decision-making process is standardized and based on the strong hierarchy (Hill & Jones, 2009). Thus, the type of the organizational structure can be discussed as mechanistic.
The control system of Toyota Motor Corporation can be discussed as financial management in which managers are more focused on profits than on quality, and the problem is in the fact the quality of the work as well as quality of production decreases in this situation (McNamara, n.d.). The extreme focus on profits was determined as on the problems facing the company’s management in 2010 (Shirouzu, 2010).
The organizational culture of any company is complex, and it is based on the values, attitudes, and beliefs shared by the leaders, managers, and employees of the company in relation to the organization’s mission, goals, and the ways to reach them. According to Tharp, the organizational culture can be ‘control’, ‘create’, ‘collaborate’, or ‘compete’ (Tharp, 2009).
The organizational culture of Toyota Motor Corporation can be analyzed as ‘control’ because it is based on the strong hierarchy, formal policies, strict following the company’s principles, and strict coordination. Although the accents are based on the development of self-managing teams and more flexible decision-making process, the company’s culture lacks the necessary flexibility.
The strategies mentioned in Toyota’s annual report of 2011 are oriented to restructuring the company’s management and changing the approaches to the decision-making process. To overcome the issues associated with the customers’ loyalty and brand image, it is necessary to focus on the safety problems with references to management aspects.
Thus, the orientation to making the decision-making process and control systems more flexible can be effective to renew the approach to management within the company, but the implementation of these strategies can face the problem of the employees’ inability to adapt to the new goals priorities.
The organizational structure and culture of Toyota Motor Corporation are based on the rather conservative approaches to implementation, and this fact can be discussed as the difficulty to overcome the mentioned problems.
Toyota Motor Corporation’s Strategies for Implementation
Toyota Motor Corporation determined several strategies to implement within the company in order to overcome the problems connected with safety issues, ineffective management, and winning back the customers’ loyalty in relation to the brand.
It was announced in the company’s annual report of 2011 that Toyota Motor Corporation is ready to implement definite strategic changes regarding the organizational structure, basing on the main aspects of the corporate culture. Thus, the definite changes in human resources were expected with references to the structural modifications in order to create the competitive management structure and renew the company’s image.
The main changes were connected with restructuring the company’s hierarchy in relation to providing more rights to the lower managers, reconstructing the Toyota Group to centralize the company, in transforming the decision-making process, and expressing more interests in the customers’ opinions and vision of the company’s products (Toyota: Annual report 2011, 2012).
The corporate culture of Toyota Motor Corporation is based on valuing the role of the individual in the process and the individual’s creativity, much attention is paid to the company’s reputation based on the quality of the products. However, the decision-making process was too based on the company’s complex hierarchy to provide the quick response to the definite issues or customers’ expectations.
It was necessary to develop the approach according to which managers could make the necessary decisions according to the current data and information. The definite changes in the decision-making system proposed by the company’s strategic department can be discussed as successful to address the mentioned issues.
The main challenges for the implementation of this strategy are based on the peculiarities of the company’s organizational structure depending on the strict vertical hierarchy.
According to the new strategies, more rights should be given to the local management groups of the company with references to the general flexibility used in the decision-making process.
The next strategy is the focus on the position of the general manager to provide the direct communication with the team leaders and employees in order to reactive the access to the on-site information according to which it is possible to make the conclusions about further continuation of the work or overcoming the problematic issues.
The team leaders, engineers, and specialists should be also involved in the problem solving process in order support the company’s claims about the focus on the role of everyone in the company’s development (Toyota. Vision and philosophy, 2012).
It is possible to state that the mentioned strategies are important for the implementation within Toyota Motor Corporation to make its corporate structure and culture more flexible in relation to the modern and globalization tendencies, but the effective implementation of the strategies which are associated with changing the approaches to corporate organization is based on the effective pre-implementation work.
The employees should be aware of the goals and principles of the new strategies correlated with the company’s traditional corporate culture. Toyota Motor Corporation’s strategies can be discussed as rather effective to contribute to developing more flexible management system with further winning back the customers’ loyalty. Nevertheless, the strategic implementation process can be associated with some difficulties and challenges typical for the changing corporate environment.
References
Burns, T., & Stalker, G. (2009). Mechanistic vs. organic organizational structure (contingency theory). Web.
Hill, C., & Jones, G. (2009). Strategic management theory: An integrated approach. USA: Cengage Learning.
McNamara, C. Management function of coordinating/controlling: Overview of basic methods. Web.
Shirouzu, N. (2010). Inside Toyota, executives trade blame over debacle. Web.
Tharp, B. M. (2009). Four organizational culture types. Web.
Toyota: Annual report 2011. (2012). Web.
Toyota. Vision and philosophy. (2012). Web.