Table of Contents
The Toyota Company is facing challenges in several of its departments, especially related to the issue of poor employee morale. The seven divisions of the company’s Toyota’s Quality Control Department that are experiencing low morale, requiring that the issue be addressed. Additionally, the company is also facing the problem of overall poor Quality Control Department performance, the outcome of which there is now a great deal of pressure for each division to perform. In this respect, this paper presents the outlined plan for turning around Toyota’s Quality Control Department and set the department on a path of recovery and high performance.
Objective
The major strategic objective set for the company is to turn around Toyota’s Quality Control Department and its divisions by boosting the departmental morale and improving productivity performance.
Short-term (1 year) goals
Foster a culture of inter-divisional cooperation, integration and collaboration in setting departmental targets and strategies for executing the targets in the next 60 days
The Toyota’s Quality Control Department is made up of seven divisions. However, effective performance and productivity in the division can only become possible if all the divisions of the department work together as a unit. Therefore, the goal is to establish a culture of integration, teamwork and collaboration in the department within the next 60 days, a weekly inter-divisional 2-hour meeting session every Friday afternoon, where all the employees and their heads in different division converge in a single forum. The forum will be geared towards bonding the departmental staff, while also affording the opportunity for evaluating of the week’s performance for each division, and then all divisions collaboratively to identifying and setting targets for the coming week. The peer divisional evaluation will be applied where the staff and leaders from one department evaluate the weekly performance of another department, and recommend the appropriate measures than can build-on and enhance the productivity going into the new week.
Upgrading equipment and systems of the Toyota’s Quality Control Department in the next 6 months
The target objective of improving the productivity performance of the department may not be effectively attained, without first streamlining the systems and equipments applied by the divisions. Therefore, the equipment and systems of the seven divisions will be evaluated, assessed and audited for best performance, with the objective of upgrading them to best performance levels within the next 6 months.
Long-tern (2-10 years) goals
To increase Toyota’s Quality Control Department productivity performance by 10% in the ext 2 years
The targeted goal of improving the department’s productivity performance 20% in the next 2 years is an ambitious objective, but one in which the only requirement is the commitment of the departmental divisions to realizing this target. Increasing the department productivity is an objective that will be simply realized through enhancing the inter-divisional communication channels of the department. Effective communication is a fundamental anchor of an organizational productivity. Streamlined communication it bolsters the ease of dissemination of information, including communicating the target goals and strategies of the organization, as well as the timely communication and resolution of problems hindering productivity (Conlow, 2001). Therefore, the first initiative is to streamline the communication channels between the seven divisions of the department within the next 18 months, to ensure that communication on targets and strategies of executing them, flows freely and smoothly among the departments. Once effective inter-divisional communication is attained, it will be easier to set and communicate targets for each of the divisions, while also effectively communicating the strategies for executing the set targets.
To motivate and inspire the Toyota’s Quality Control Department’s employees to increase their divisional productivity by 50% in the next 5 years.
The goal for motivating and inspiring employees to increase their productivity specifically targets to ensure that the employees’ efforts are rewarded accordingly. Employee motivation is important to the overall organizational performance, because it informs the employees’ moods, enthusiasms and zeal in performing their respective job tasks (Glick & Huber, 1995). Therefore, the department will establish and implement an employee performance evaluation and reward program within the next 15 months. Once the program is established, the performance of the employees will be assessed continually every month and their quality improvements in terms of material wastage reduction, reduction in product quality errors and innovativeness in shortening the task times will be rewarded commensurately. The employees performance monthly reviews will then be build upon to generate the quarterly, bi-annual and then annual reviews and rewards. The employees will earn $500 stipend for their monthly improvements, with the quarterly improvements earning the employees $1500, biannual improvements earning $3,000 and finally the annual performance reward of $6,000 be given to all improved performers from each division.
Reorganization Plan
The Toyota’s Quality Control Department is facing low morale and poor productivity in all its seven divisions. The top management of an organization, department or division has a significant bearing on the overall morale and productivity motivation of the subordinate employees (Conlow, 2001). The working in the same division for many years by the divisional managers could create a culture of laxity and sluggishness in the management of the divisions of the Toyota’s Quality Control Department. Therefore, there is a need to institute fresh leadership orientation in each division, thus injecting an aura of fresh leadership in each division every 2 years. The inter-divisional leadership swap will go a long way in introducing new ideas and ways of doing things, which will also works towards stimulating high productivity in the divisions.
Assistance requirement
The pursuit of the set departmental objectives as well as the reorganization of the departmental leadership will require the assistance and support of the other departments of the organization. For example, the plan to introduce a reward system for the departmental employees will require the assistance and support of the finance department of the organization. The finance department has to approve the finances required for implementing the reward program, before the program can be implemented in the department. Further, the implementation of the interdivisional-reorganizational reorganization plan will also require the support of the human resources department of the organization.
Training requirements
One of the set goals for the department is the upgrading of the systems and equipment applied by the department in the next 6 months. The plan for improving the productivity performance of Toyota’s Quality Control Department will require stand-alone training programs to be developed for each division of the department. The stand-alone training program will focus on retraining all the staff in each division on the best and most recent application of the upgraded systems and equipments, to improve work performance in the different areas of the divisional operations.
Challenges
The process of improving the performance of Toyota’s Quality Control Department is likely to face the challenges of internal resistance. Change is a disruptive occurrence within organizations, which is always perceived from a point of suspicion and always resisted, because it disrupts the status quo of the organization (Glick & Huber, 1995). Considering that the targeted change in the department will touch on the employees and the divisional leadership, the challenge of change resistance is expected to feature highly in the targeted turnaround of the department.
Target leadership traits
The three leadership traits that will be targeted for the leaders in the department are open-mindedness, accountability and resilience. Open mindedness as leadership trait will be targeted because the leaders will require to be open, responsive and adaptive of the new changes and transformations that will be implemented in the department (Alonso, 2014). Accountable leaders will be required because they will be required to account for all the changes, transformations and rewarding of the employees with improved performance. On the other hand, resilient leaders will be required to ensure that they are able to remain steadfast and strong throughout the process of pushing through the various changes needed in the department (Alonso, 2014).
- Alonso, R. M. (2014). Critical leadership: From error prevention to error learning. Madrid: Aebius.
- Conlow, R. (2001). Excellence in supervision: Essential skills for the new supervisor. Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications.
- Glick, W. H. & Huber, G. P. (1995). Organizational change and redesign: Ideas and insights for improving performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.