Reference no: EM133904425

Assignment:

The Toyota Production System (TPS) has been copied by rivals and other organizations in various industries. Lean-­manufacturing experts have extolled the virtues of TPS so often that it is referred to in textbooks around the world. But for Toyota it is successful because of the company's belief in employee collaboration and teamwork. Although many companies proudly proclaim their team culture, at Toyota the endorsement seems well deserved and sincere. Teamwork is one of Toyota's core values, along with trust, continuous improvement, long-term thinking, standardization, innovation, and problem solving. In addition, four management principles (the 4P model) guide employees: problem solving, people and partners, process, and philosophy.

The idea behind these principles is that "Good Thinking Means Good Product." Another interesting detail about Toyota is its belief that efficiency alone cannot guarantee success. The company recognizes that teams of employees are more than several pairs of hands but represent chie-the wisdom of experience. So . . . how does Toyota's culture reflect its emphasis on teamwork?

First, individualism-a prominent value in Western ­culture-is deemphasized. Instead, Toyota emphasizes ­systems in which people and processes and products are seen as intertwined value streams. As we noted earlier, employees are trained to be problem solvers with an important responsibility to make the production system leaner and better.

Next, Toyota's hiring process "weeds out" those who are not ­oriented to teamwork. Job applicants must not only be competent and possess technical skills, but must exhibit strong teamwork capabilities, such as the ability to trust their team, comfort in solving problems collaboratively, and motivation to achieve collective outcomes.

Next-and this should not come as a surprise-Toyota structures its work around teams. Every Toyota employee knows the Thomas Merill adage, "All of us are smarter than any of us." Teams are used not only in production but at every level and in every function. "Toyota University" illustrates its view on continual education. Job rotation is commonly used to build individual competencies that benefit the whole team.

Finally, Toyota considers employee teams to be the power centre of the organization. The leader serves the team-not the other way around. When asked whether he would feature himself in an advertisement, the former CEO of Toyota said, "No. We want to show everybody in the company. The heroes. Not one single person." At Toyota Canada, employees have long resisted attempts to unionize because they are happy. In April 2014, Unifor, Canada's largest private-sector union, withdrew its application to represent Toyota workers because it did not have sufficient support from employees. That could change in the future, but as long as Toyota continues to focus on employees, it may not.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you think Toyota has succeeded because of its team-oriented culture, or do you think it could have succeeded without it?
2. How does Toyota emphasize teamwork throughout the organization?
3. How would the way managers manage be different in this team-based organization?
4. Would you be comfortable working in such an environment as this? Why or why not?