Essay: Leadership Case Study For Toshiba's Global Leadership.

Toshiba Corporation

Discuss about the Case Study of Leadership for Global Leadership of Toshiba.

Toshiba is a multinational corporation dealing with several different products and services which include modern information technology, communication devices and equipment and systems, customer electronic components and devices, devices in the medical field, household appliances, and office machine and devices. Its most popular electronic device especially with the Toshiba computers coming with different specifications of the processor speed, display properties and different generations of computers ranging from laptops to desktop Toshiba computers. The earlier state of leadership in Toshiba is barbaric and unethical. However, the corporation has made changes to this effect of leadership. From my investigation into the previous Toshiba scandal, I realized that there was major accounting inappropriateness such as booking future profits early, disregarding possible losses, neglecting charges, and several other barbaric methods that resulted in overstated profit margins (Aronson) 2001. Despite these issues being discovered by the internal auditor and not an external auditor, the management who are exercising bad leadership practice did cut down his rights of expression and was silenced and forced to deliver his “duties” to the bosses. This is a perfect scenario where ethical framework to the workers is heavily affected and abused by the company management and carrying out scandalous activities. I have also noted that the employees received no direct instructions from the CEOs, but instead, the high management set unachievable targets for the workers (Ito) 2015.  This has made the employees postpone losses and lie by bringing forward the sales. And because of their selfishness and self-centered character, the CEO and top management have taken advantage of the Japanese corporate culture which heavily displays obedience, respect, and loyalty to their bosses which have led people lower in the chair to do whatever they had to. this included abandoning the making of decision for oneself as an ethical framework and manipulating the account figures through booking future profits early, disregarding possible losses, neglecting charges and several other barbaric methods that resulted in overstated profit margins to meet their bosses demands (Russell) 2015.

The management has also enforced the manipulation of Toshiba accounts. Looking into Toshiba accounting practices starting 2009 to 2014 I have discovered a chain of inappropriate accounting errors made during entry that amounted 152 billion Japanese Yen, about 1.2 billion United States Dollars, of net profit, brought about through the visual production unit, semiconductor unit, and the personal computer unit. I have also noted that top executives, with Toshiba President Hisao Tanaka and his by then predecessors Norio Sasaki and Atsutoshi Nishida, were directly part of the manipulation, yet the company had no internal system to prevent them from the scandal (Ahmadjian) 2016. I have also realized that the goal of the president is to gain profit by the quarter, thus setting high targets, making subordinate staff ‘improve’ the company’s performance through the manipulation of accounts. I have also found the means in which leaders at Toshiba have handed down exaggerated profit targets. This resulted in challenges to the business units and hence the initiation of manipulation, and bad leadership practice starts here (Russell) 2015.

Considerations That Have To Be Made When Determining Effective Leadership

A successful leadership program starts with the alignment of the leadership development with the company strategy and understanding the various types of leadership styles that are needed to execute the strategy. When determining an effective leadership, the following considerations has to be made (Mumford, Marks, Connelly, Zaccaro, and Reiter-Palmon) 2000;

Various theories stipulate techniques for the determination of the best leadership style for an organization. Like, for example, the situational leadership argues that the best type of leadership is given by the situational variables at hand. However, it is important to note that identification of the type of leadership by this style for any organization involves approaches including the kind of work, the complexity of the firm and qualification of the workers. The leadership style that is required by the head of corporate security would obviously be different from the leadership style of a museum director (Rainey) 2010.

An evaluation of the potential leaders within an organization is a crucial consideration when determining effective leadership. This can be achieved by starting a leadership program to identify and pick the expected leadership potentials, skill, and competence within the workforce.

To achieve this, the organization should;

Determine the present and future requirements in leadership

Compare those requirements with the existing leadership team

Identification of present leaders who may leave

Identification of succession plans for those who may leave

Determination of gaps in skills and the possible time required to fill those gaps (Sosik, and Godshalk) 2000.

A good succession plan is excellent for productivity as such plans help avoid disruption of the production process and employee trauma when the in charge leader leaves. Creation of a succession plan for the available critical positions should not exclusively be confined to the executive board (Palmer, Walls, Burgess, and Stough) 2001.

Career planning in most cases is considered an individual responsibility. However, companies that support career planning for their workforce gain in engagement, retention and protection of the leadership pipeline. Research shows that employees need more than work. They need a higher level of engagement that the employers are currently not providing. Even though employers are not actively looking for a job, other companies tend to snatch employees and giving the "greener pastures" and if a company does not incorporate the employees in career planning and advancement opportunities, the competitor firms will. Career planning helps motivate and retain talent in an organization (Leban, and Zulauf) 2004.

After the identification of high potential employees, they should come up with a roadmap for future leaders. And because workers learn and develop skills both outside and inside the classroom, coming up with a development program can be crucial to support both the traditional and nontraditional learning. And to boost formal learning activities such as rotational assignment, coaching, job shadowing, project leadership and mentor relationship should be incorporated as part of the worker’s development plan (Yukl) 2002.

Monetary and gift rewards can be used to boost the retention of the employees. However, special attention needs to be focused on the high performers and potential leaders employees. The linking of pay to performance output can be a motivating factor for an employee. However, goal alignment can prove helpful to potential leaders to stay focused on what is important to the organization (Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, and Fleishman) 2000.

Analysis of Leadership Styles

There are types of leadership styles like;

This type of leadership has its basis on the desire to serve and that in the course of serving one may be called to lead. It is characterized by the servant leader serving others rather than others serving the leader (Spears) 2004. The leader achieves this by aiding the follower to achieve and improve. Skills associated with the servant leaders is awareness to workers’ situation and needs, listening, persuasion, to believe, foresight and stewardship (Gregory Stone, Russell, and Patterson) 2004.

This is a leadership process that puts emphasis on leaders to influence a process over follower. It is characterized by the leader identifying a worker's need and meets them and in return, he will expect certain objectives and performances are met (Politis) 2001.

This form of leadership is characterized by the leader taking account forces that may occur in the situation. Here the leaders are determined by the situation and his behavior changes according to the ability and confidence of the employees in a given situation. The leader changes his style of leadership according to his/her analysis of the worker's readiness to face a particular situation. The readiness here is mainly a subject of the level of motivation and competence of the workforce (Eagly, and Johannesen‐Schmidt) 2001.

This leadership style focuses on the emerging motives, value, desires and goals of leaders and the employees on a common cause. This form of leadership aims at generating the employee's commitment to the idea and vision of the company rather than to themselves. This style is characterized by the expansion of the interests of the followers, creating awareness and commitment to the organization values (Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, and Van Engen) 2003.

The appropriate leadership styles for the leadership of the Toshiba Corporation are servant leadership where the corporation management other that forcing the employees to meet certain unattainable target they should involve themselves in the production process and set good examples in the production field (Priest, and Gass) 2005. Another is the situational leadership style where the management upon realization of the losses the company would face, they would have made a quick and correct decision based on the situation to curb and control the loss. The transformation leadership style can also be incorporated in Toshiba. The organization could take advantage of the Japanese loyal and hardworking nature to nature organizational values, motives, desire and goals hence generating the employee's commitment to the organization and not to themselves and this would greatly improve their productivity (Keegan, and Den Hartog) 2004.

At Toshiba Corporation, the leadership role is entirely dependent on the leadership structure present in the organization. Here is a breakdown of the leadership structure at Toshiba. There is a board of directors that have been elected by the shareholders. The board of directors comprises of two representatives. The first being category involves those chosen from within the company. This in example entails the CEO, CFO and the manager at Toshiba. The second type of representative entails those selected externally and are considered to be independent of the company. The role of this board in Toshiba is to monitor the Toshiba Corporation management and taking the role of acting and advocates for the stockholders in the company. There are charged with a responsibility of ensuring that the shareholders' claims and interests are well served.

At Toshiba, these board members can be divided into three categories;

Technically he is considered the leader of Toshiba Corporation. He is the one responsible for smooth and the effective running of Toshiba. His main duties entail maintenance of secure communication with the high-level officers especially the chief executive officer. He is also charged with the formulation of the company business strategy and the representation of the management and the board at large to the general public

This director at Toshiba is charged with the role of approving high-level budget prepared by the management. Also, he is in charge of the implementation and the monitoring of Toshiba strategies. Also the approval of Toshiba corporate initiatives and new projects.

In Toshiba, they are too charged with the same responsibility as the inside directors. However, unlike inside directors the don not directly form part of the management team (Mumford, Campion, and Morgeson) 2007.

This is responsible for the daily running of Toshiba. This include;

The is responsible for the entire operations and reports directly to the board of directors and the chairperson. He is charged with the responsibility of implementing the board initiatives and decisions (Ellis Jr) 2011.

He is responsible for Toshiba operations. He is responsible for personnel, production, marketing, and sales issue of Toshiba.

At Toshiba, the chief financial officer is charged with the task of the analysis and reviewing of the financial data. He also reports financial performance, monitor expenditures, and costs, and prepares budgets. He is required to present the financial information to the board of directors at regular intervals (Dulewicz, and Higgs) 2005.

The leadership structure Toshiba is excellent. Especially after the reforms that we made to ensure the avoidance of financial scandal the corporation had faced before they are more keep on the leadership roles. This has enabled the corporation to bail itself out of the financial woes that had earlier faced Toshiba, come up with better production channels and invention of designs for their products and the expansion of their marketing bases to new geographical areas and now the corporation is again making profits. No one could have believed this especially after the global humiliation the company faced from the exaggeration of their profits margin. However, from the smart and achievable strategies placed to progress by the directors the company is back in the market and has attained its market share proving even more competitive in the production of computers and semiconductors. Openness has been restored in the corporation and the abuse of workers in an attempt to gain unachievable profits has been stopped.  Motivation and employee empowerment are some of the key factors that Toshiba has incorporated to ensure increased productivity and sales in the corporation (Hiller, Day, and Vance) 2006.

a.  Communication

The ability to listen, ask questions, provision of feedback and the generation of an effective two-way communication builds trust among the leaders and the employees. And can prevent performance issues. The ability to incorporate various communication styles with the aim of articulating goals and the objectives of the company paves the way for a healthy working relationship (Hiller, Day, and Vance) 2006.

This is a technique to develop workers' productivity through effective and appropriate leadership style based on different individual skills, performance, and needs (Bell, and Kozlowski) 2002.

This is the ability of a leader to put the issues, concerns and needs of their workforce ahead of their own. The ability to show concern, empathize, understand, engage and encourage and connect directly with the working force shows a key feature of excellent leadership skills.

To inspire and lead the workforce, the leader must possess honesty and integrity. He must set a good example as leaders with a strong sense of character do possess the sense of always doing what is right, and this can be enumerated by the workers (Leskiw, and Singh) 2007.

The leader must have a sense of direction. Where he sees his company shortly and the goal, the company is to achieve. The leader must possess the ability to share and mobilize the workforce towards the achievement of a common goal (Fry, and Kriger) 2009.

Leaders at Toshiba should adopt communication in which the leaders will avail themselves ready to listen and act upon the employees’ complaints and suggestions. Visionary in which the leaders should be able to mobilize the workforce toward the attainment and realization of Toshiba goals and dreams (Webb) 2011.  They should also uphold value and integrity in that they should set good moral and ethical practices. They should also possess emotional intelligence and empathy in that they should listen carefully and act upon the workers' complaints. They should also possess excellent management skills and knowledge of good recordkeeping, problem-solving, identification of market gaps among others (Mumford, Campion, and Morgeson) 2007.

Emotional intelligence is the ability of a person to understand and comprehend the emotions and relationships. He/ she will then utilize this knowledge to solve problems. The emotional intelligence contributes to leadership effectiveness in his/her administrative role. From research, it has been discovered that leaders with high emotional intelligence tend to be better performers at achieving their personal or organization goals and dreams in their outcomes (Dulewicz, and Higgs) 2003. For leaders with high emotional intelligence can control other employees' emotions and understand peoples' feelings and direct their attitude and feeling toward the success of their performance and the success of the organization at large. Leaders should learn to understand and handle different employees feeling and emotions as it will prove crucial to the smooth running of the organization (Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee) 2013.  Emotional intelligence should be transformed into transformational behavior by leaders to boost the productivity of workers. In an organization, leaders and the subordinate staff should be aware of their feelings and the feeling of each other as the leader can sometimes make a decision based on the emotions through communication with group guide on the employee's thinking and behavior. Emotional intelligence entails understanding the workforces; emotion and knowing how to manage them based on these emotions (Alon, and Higgins) 2005.

Toshiba Corporation leaders show emotional intelligence. Unlike before when the managerial staff didn't care of the employees' emotion and continually pressurized them to be more and more production with no concern whatsoever on the employees' strains, complaints and emotions because they were just focused on gaining more profits (Addady) 2015.  The situation has changed under the new management system after the previous CEO quit the organization. The employee's emotions are taken care of and their woes and worries, complaints and suggestions are taken into great consideration. The organization has also developed a department entirely focused on the handling of employees' complaints with an aim to provide the best working environment for their workers. This has greatly boosted productivity as shown by the company profits margin that has been releasing the previous years. The management has been sensitized about emotional intelligence, and this has resulted in the managerial staff listening and acting upon the employee's concerns. The penalty has also been imposed by the organization for those staff who don't exercise emotional concern for the needs of the employees, and this provided a perfect working environment for them hence the boost in productivity.

Summary And Conclusion Of Key Points

Effective leadership is a key factor for the success of the business. Leadership skills like communication, integrity, and honesty, vision and emotional intelligence play a major role in the success of the business.  This is so because it boosts the employee confidence and spirit of work in the organization. Several leadership styles should be incorporated in an organization to fuel the achievement of the company's goal. Servant leadership is best suited for improving success through enumeration of what the boss is doing. Situational leadership is best suited for an opportunistic chance of during dire situation where the immediate and correct response is needed. Transformative leadership aims at improving the productivity of workers through their self-motivation to the organization (Van Rooy, and Viswesvaran) 2004. Effective leaderships should be chosen and determined. Actions like the adoption of the best leadership strategy and identification of current and potential leaders should be put in place. Coming up with a succession plan would prove vital in the case where leadership gaps have been identified. Career planning should be put in place by an organization to help solidify loyalty of employees as it gives them hope of the future promotion and prevents best talents and performers in the organization from being snatched by rival firms (Jennings) 2015.

PART B:

1.Key / Important Learning	Why are they important?	How will you benefit from them?
Features of effective leadership in an organization. Considerations to be made when implementing effective leadership The various leadership styles. Effective management skills	These are important because they form the basis for an effective management practice in an organization. Through proper management technique, a manager can organize and define the factors of production such as capital, labor, land in achieving the best output capacity for his/ her organization. Through effective management skills like integrity, trust is developed between the employer and employee.	I will be able to choose the best leadership style for my business organization after a serious analysis of the leadership styles present like the servant, transactional, transformative and situational leadership I will be able to select the perfect style depending on the goal and the urgency of the results. I will also be able to incorporate features of effective leadership like the adoption of the best leadership strategy and identification of current and potential leaders. I will also come up with a succession plan would prove vital in the case where leadership gaps have been identified. I will also incorporate effective management skills like open communication, integrity, and honesty, visionary and emotional intelligence which plays a major role in the success of the business. This is so because it boosts the employee confidence and spirit of work in the organization.
2. Achievement of Module Objectives	How will it contribute to your personal development?	How will it impact your professional life?
The achievement of module objectives takes patience, excellent management skills, practice of the appropriate leadership styles suite to both the organizational structure regarding size and the management technique	The methods used in the achievements of the module objective contribute to my personal development in that I can organize myself, plan my time, plan the activities and go to indulge in and when for the maximum output results of my life and to gain more for the limited resources and time I have. The achievement of module objectives will also boost my personal value like confidence, the spirit of work and set up of goals when tackling any life situation that comes my way	Achievement of modules will impact on my professional life in that learning the various strategies I went through to achieve the module objectives I can as well incorporate them into my professional life to attain the best out of me in my area of work. Achievement of module objective will also help me develop and practice crucial skills that I attained in the learning process like time management and combining of the factors of production to realize the best out of my professional life.
3. Barriers or Obstacles Faced	How did you overcome them?
There was disagreement and continuously changing of the strategies to be implemented to achieve our objectives. The decision-making process was huge and lengthy which consumed a lot of time which could have been spent realizing the objectives. The was the lack of adequate resources. There were unclear expectations of the quantity and quality of the product Setting up of exaggerated goal that could only be achieved under heavy supply of resources and capital.	A committee was established to deal with fast decision-making the process to the whole group to minimize tome wastage which could have been used productively. The available resources were used economically. Some did use for more that one function with the aim of generation the final product and hence realizing the set goal. We did revise our goals and set realistic ones that we could achieve without straining the various factor of production. The issue of unclear expectation was fixed by carrying out a market research and determination of the exact market and production output. This enabled clear the doubt of what products to indulge in and on what quantity and quality output should we produced for it to be fully accepted in the market
4. Skills Acquired	How are they important to your future learning?	How are they important to your professional work?
I acquired the following skills; Leadership skills Organizational skills Accounting skills Communication skills Negotiation skills Management skills	Leadership skill is important to my future learning as I can hold a leadership position in future. Organizational skills are important because I will be able to organize myself effectively in future learning. Accounting skills are important as it formed the basis of accounting career in me for future learning. Management skills are important as I will be able to manage my tie and production utilities even better in future learning	The accounting skill is important to my professional career as I will be able to manage money more easily and effectively to avoid losses. Management skills are important as they have formed a basis where I can manage workers in an organization. Communication skills are essential as it has given be the basis that I can use to communicate with workforce and share ideas and understand what they find a challenge. Organization skills can prove profitable in that I can clearly organize viable activities with the organization for each employee of the business to follow. Negotiation skill can prove useful when trying to find the best prices for a product either with a buyer or supplier.
Other Reflections There was the issue of waste disposal management, and concern was raised that the after extraction of the important production components from the was materials the waste was being through just anyhow to the environment. Water used in washing was also directed to water bodies, and this proved hazardous to the marine life. However, after a lengthy discussion, it was agreed upon that the solid waste material should be carried to city council waste disposal area, and the waste water from washing be channeled to the sewers where they will be disposed appropriately.

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