The Toyota Management Style

The main aim of a business organization is to make a profit. Alongside the profit objective, business activities may be ventured into to utilize spare time, to offer inventions and innovations, and to be an own boss. Since there are competitions in the market, business enterprises must be realistic in their visions to create uniqueness in production because customers would always want to go for the best in the market. It implies, therefore, that an organization must have a well-drafted strategy that considers both quality and prices.   In all the motives, an idea must be conceived before its execution. It, therefore, demands a well-thought plan that captures all the concepts, vision, and mission of the enterprise. It implies that after setting aside the capital to start the business, planning is made on how its expenditure shall be spread and the profits expected both in the short and long run. It is imperative to mention that a business venture will collapse is such arrangements are not made. The process of planning, organizing, directing, staffing and controlling is referred to management. Good management is a recipe for success. This paper seeks to evaluate the Toyota management style; encompassing planning, organizing, leading and controlling in developing their products.

According to Mc Farland (1974), management as an abstract, theoretical and analytical duties in which managers have the powers to direct, maintain, control, direct and sustain a well-organized system by using well crafted and coordinated human resource. It means that all the five components of management must be involved at selective stages of the operations to realize success. It is, therefore, vital to understand the major managerial concepts.

Planning is the most basic of the management duties, and as such, it comes first in the managerial order. It is the protrusion of operations targeted to get to definite goals with an outline of the future.  It is the idea of what is estimated in the future within the organization premises and operations. The planning agenda starts with thoughts such as what and why and carries it forward on how, when, who and where an idea will be executed. Planning carries the vision of the organization thereby answering the ‘what, when and how’ questions of the business operations. The objectives, goals, missions, and objectives of the organization are captured in the planning chapter (Van Vliet, 2011).

Organizing is the process of trying to put into actions the decisions that have been reached after the planning stage. It is the basement of the structure in which the organization’s operations are founded. Organizing provides a framework through which work is done in an organization. It involves division of labor which means assigning employees that best suit specific assignments. Also, organization involves entrustment of authority to selected individuals mandated to supervise the operations of other employees so that all the operations may be done in line with the visions of the organization. Additionally, the concept requires that an organization creates departments and assign workers with relevant skills then coordinate all the activities in the organization to achieve the general goals (Daft, 2010).

Another component of management is controlling which is defined as a follow-up and fixing issues that may arise in the process. It is essential because businesses operate in environments that keep changing on many factors. Consequently, the today’s prevailing factors may not be the same the next day thus the need to have control to fix issues. Controlling involves setting up standards in line with the objectives, evaluating the performance and taking precautionary measures concerning the prevailing circumstances (Vliet, 2011).

At the same time, leading is another concept of management which means taking advantage of the one’s authority to stimulate the employees to realize the goals of the organization (Daft, 2010). It is vital that the managers find ways to motivate employees to perform at their best to realize the target. It may involve creating cell groups within the organization in which employees can have merry go rounds, or tea parties as a way to redeeming their attitudes (Vliet, 2011).

Toyota integrates product development with management tools in many ways. First, coordination at the Toyota Company is founded on written communication. The staff then ponders over it to get to a common ground by mutual adjustments. Additionally, the staffs are served with written communication before the meetings. This enables them to research and prepare well in advance before the meeting so that they can participate constructively. The coordination is taken a notch higher by ensuring the direct contact between members of different departments. For example, a manufacturing engineer and a product designer work together to realize a common goal (Sobek, Liker & Ward, 1998).

Also, Toyota’s mode of organization is unique and of a kind. The company embraces informative supervision when dealing with subordinates and senior staffs. The supervisors are highly involved in the operations of subordinate without hurling orders. This boasts the staff morale and gives everyone a sense of belonging. Additionally, the company uses integrative leadership method where staff members of different specialties to work together then assigning them to a supervisor who has universal knowledge of the whole concept. The leadership appreciates flexible working standards: today, the company is running away from design standards to embrace innovations and inventions that is, if an engineer develops a new concept, the knowledge is put into the checklist and fixed in all the company cars (Sobek, Liker & Ward, 1998).

In conclusion, the functions of management are the major component in a running organization. A company that embraces these tools is safer in delivering its objectives. For example, staff motivation boosts their morale and gives them a sense of belonging which in turn has a positive effect on productivity. Effective management is a step towards success which, therefore, should be embraced by all visionary companies.

Works Cited

Daft, Richard L., Jonathan Murphy, and Hugh Willmott. Organization theory and design. Cengage Learning EMEA, 2010.

McFarland, Dalton E. Management: Principles and practices. Macmillan Pub Co, 1974.

Sobek, I. I., and Jeffrey K. Liker. “Another look at how Toyota integrates product development.” Harvard business review 76.4 (1998): 36-47.

Van Vliet, V. ”Five functions of management (Fayol).” Retrieved from ToolsHero, Available at:.  Date accessed 15 (2011): 2016.