Organizational Development Strategies: A Case Study Of Toyota

Background of Toyota Company

Discuss about the Model of Knowledge Development and Markets.

Organizational development is considered as the systematic approach that facilitates to improve effectiveness of the organization. It is vital for the organization to implement change for attaining desired goals of high performance and competitive advantages (Burnes & Cooke, 2012). The case study of Toyota Company is taken for this assignment to elaborate the organization development theories. Various strategies will be defined in order to improve the organizational performance. Internal and External factors have the huge role in the organisational development which will be discussed in the term of Toyota Company.

Toyota PLC is a component of Toyota Motor Corporation which is the world’s seventh largest company. This company is responsible for marketing, sales and customer relations across its entire network globally. The case study of Toyota shows that it has decided to replace business-critical systems with open source business applications. It is the huge change in the organization that affects entire employees of the company. This case study shows that how one of the famous company chosen an open source solution to reinstate the core system of at Toyota (GB) PLC and chose 1Tech (1Tech, 2018).

It is defined by Bennis that organizational development is considered as a respond to amendment in educational strategy which is planned to change the attitudes, values and structures of organization so that an organization can adopt latest technologies, challenges, and markets.  There are various theories of organizational development which helps organization to move ahead without any obstacles. Lewin’s Theory is effective one of them which shows the balance regarding changes within the organization.

It has been found that one active theory of organizational development and change is the equilibrium theory. The change management model was introduced in 1940 and the component of this model still remains reliable and relevant today and this theory has developed by Lewin which is able to find out the balance factor between desirable and non-desirable behaviours that practioners of OD utilize to move the point of equilibrium to one side for attaining the desired results (Kaminski, J2011). It entails unfreezing, moving and freezing factors that can be found within the change process. In the context of Toyota PLC it has been found that unfreeze is the initial step that is able to reduce the forces that are resolute to sustain the status of the organization. It is the stage in which company can find out the gap between the desirable outcome and current outcome. The second step of this model is transition which consume a lot of time because in this stage people are looking for better things (Manchester, Gray-Miceli, Metcalf, Paolini, Napier, Coogle & Owens, 2014). As per the case study Toyota need to give proper training ti the employees due to amendments in the organization. Toyota has identified the potential strategic platform as opentaps and 1tech is the opentaps specialist in Europe. 1Tech was involved in the selection of opentaps which given the challenges of increasing a working prototype of a system that allow Toyota dealers to handle the customers, produce quotations, configure vehicles and analyse the activities and sales. These challenges were faced by Toyota PLC during this model that covers transition point. The last stage of Lewin’s model is freeze which shows that the amendments in the organizations are okay and can be freeze.

Organizational Development Theories and Strategies

There are various strategies of organizational development that enhance the organizational performance. Diagnosis, action planning, interventions, evaluation are the major strategies of organizational development.

The diagnosis is the strategy that helps to find out the potential causes that may affect the efficiency to the implemented changes. It is done by organizational development specialist by examining the goals, objectives, mission and vision of the organization. It is the effective approach that can identify the current situation and desired situation so that company can take appropriate actions to fill the gaps (Bushe and Marshak, 2009). It would be helpful to enhance the organization performance because once company identify the actual performance gap; the initiatives can be taken immediately to fill the gap that increases the efficiency and productivity of the employees as well as the organization.

Action planning is another strategy of organizational develop that can facilitates change makers revolve their mission and visions into reality and amplify the accountability and productivity within an organization. An action plan is the strategy that explains the process to the organization for attaining the objectives by details actions steps that explain how and when these steps will be taken. It allows company to make possible amendments in the action plan due to changes in the strategy. It would be helpful for the organization to improve the organizational performance because action plan aids them to do activity as per planned changes which reduce the chance of confusion and enhance the efficiency (Langley, Smallman, Tsoukas & Van de Ven, 2013).

Interventions are considered as the principle learning processes in the stage of action of organizational development. There are various kinds of interventions such as human resources interventions, strategic interventions and techno structural interventions that are able to increase the organization performance (Hayes, 2014). Toyota Plc is facing challenges regarding change in the process which can be reduced with the help of above mentioned interventions.

The evaluation can contribute to the organizational development in an adequate manner. This strategy enables the organization to attain its strategic goals. As per this strategy, Toyota Plc can assess the planned change endeavours by evaluating the progress of the organization in executing the change and by documenting its impact on the organization (Bhasin, 2016).

The internal and external factors of the Toyota Plc can be evaluated by SWOT analysis which entails the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company which will be helpful to reflect the influence about the process of organizational development and change.

Lewin’s Equilibrium Theory and Its Application in Toyota

The strength of Toyota Plc is to move ahead towards the change that is replacement of business critical systems with open source applications. 1Tech Company is being chosen to advice on and implementation of open taps within the organization. It would be helpful to enhance the organizational performance of Toyota Plc. It is the world’s seventh largest company second largest manufactures of cars. 1Tech has been working with company for many years on Information system solutions that extent the operations of business.

Toyota offers a wide range of vehicles with integration of more than 20 million configurations options that involve customization which should be sustained by a production such as the supply of extra parts and workflow across the entire lifecycle of every model. The company is not that much capable to respond in effective way. Lack of training about the implemented changes is another weakness which may bring conflicts and low morale among employees.

There are various opportunities can be evaluated in Toyota Plc such as technological innovation, sustainability and diversification. In the context of technological innovation, company can increase its investment in research and development which boost the competitive advantages. The company can develop new engines and designs to improve the fuel economy (Cummings, 2009). The Toyota Company has low level of diversification which can be increased by investing in high level of machineries to distribute its business in various industries.

The biggest challenge for the company is managing the change within the organization. It is necessary for the company to implement the progressive approach. It has been analyzed that current threats facing by Toyota is rise of fuel prices, aggressive competition and new entrants. Competitors started to use aggressive strategies like increasing the aggressive marketing for the purpose of increasing the market share in comparison of Toyota Company (Victor & John, 2011). The fuel price has been raising day by day which turns customer towards more economical options. The threat of new entrants by adopting the same changes as Toyota Plc did can be the major threat for the organization.

The role of various strategies in organization is huge as it affects change and development of the organization. The strategies are given below in the context of Toyota Plc.

It is vital for Toyota to produce incentives plan that will certainly motivate the employees of the company to engage with the new direction of the company. The change and development can be affected properly by the employee recognition process and rewards strategy that increase the potential of each employees towards change.

SWOT Analysis of Toyota’s Internal and External Factors

Redefined cultural values strategy is effective as it helps to bring the positivity within the organization. However, the changes in the cultural values may brings conflicts within the organization but Toyota can do make changes in an efficient manner by keeping consideration of company’s values (Hatch, 2018).

An organization can opt to exercise its authority to reduce opposition of employee and get workers to adhere to new process and cultures as quick as possible. It has been found that the coercive strategy is the fastest process to implement change but it can be problematic for the organization if it is not implement with efficiency (Green, 2012). 

The strategy of shifting the burden of change can enhance the productivity of the workers by diverting their mind from one place to another. It will increase the learning environment in which an employee can learn new things (BEM, 2017).

Radical change is met with upper level of resistance but it has been analyzed that the odds of growth can be developed of the voices championing amendment belong to workers. Toyota can recruit the champion of change who can provide proper guidance to the employees of Toyota.

The role of structure and design is valuable in organizational development and change. The proper structure and design of organization is able to define the responsibilities of each individual of the organization. Decision making process can take place in the organization in an effective manner due to proper structure. The structure and design of Toyota Company is effective as it helps each employee of the company in case of any conflicts. It has been found that the organizational structure and designs are vital aspects affecting behaviour of individuals that entails the organization. The role of structure is to make the expectations for what an individual will do to attain the purposes of the organization (Vahlne & Johanson, 2017). On the other hand the role of design is to determine the way employees do their tasks. Work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, centralization and formalization are the specific elements of organizational structure of the company. Toyota has adopted this strategy which would be helpful for it to encourage employees for attaining the objectives of the company. Differentiation is the approach by which an organization delegates the responsibility to the workers (Burke, 2017). In the context of case study of Toyota, it is vital for the organization to understand the requirements of the users in depth manner and explain the software architecture to sustain them by utilizing standards opentaps things and services with customization in necessary points.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that organisational development is used to increase the knowledge and efficiency to attain more successful organizational change and performance. The report has been made on Toyota Plc Company in which various strategies implemented to enhance the performance of the organization. Internal and external factors have been implemented to define the opportunities and challenges with considering the case study of Toyota. Along with that the strategies have been discussed which may affect the change development. The role of structure and designing organization development and change is huge which described in depth in this assignment.

References

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