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Assignment 3

The document describes an American manager who has accepted a job at a Toyota plant in Japan. It notes that Japanese and American management styles differ in that Japanese companies have looser structures, involve fewer people in decision making, focus on long-term growth over short-term profits, have more centralized management, and have broader job descriptions. The manager is asked to identify challenges and changes needed to be successful working under the Japanese model.

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Sobia Ali
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101 views

Assignment 3

The document describes an American manager who has accepted a job at a Toyota plant in Japan. It notes that Japanese and American management styles differ in that Japanese companies have looser structures, involve fewer people in decision making, focus on long-term growth over short-term profits, have more centralized management, and have broader job descriptions. The manager is asked to identify challenges and changes needed to be successful working under the Japanese model.

Uploaded by

Sobia Ali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Assignment 3 (POM)

Portfolio activity: Managing a Business in Japan.


Study this information and complete the exercises that follow.
You are an American-educated manager who believes in Western management
philosophies. You have just accepted a job as a middle manager in a Toyota
manufacturing plant in Tahara, slightly south of Osaka in Japan. The plant
manufactures Toyota’s new Lexus hybrid sedan. For your entire career, 10 years,
you have worked as a middle manager in a General Motors plant in the United
States and followed traditional American management practices. Toyota was clear,
however, about expecting you to fit into its culture and following its management
practices that have built company success. You know little about Japanese
management practices and start to read as much as you can about how Japanese
companies operate Based upon your study, you reach the following summary
points about the differences between the way Japanese and American companies
are structured:
1. U.S. companies tend to have a well-defined organization structure while
Japanese firms tend to be more loosely structured.
2. U.S. companies tend to have a number of people involved in making decisions
while decisions made in Japanese firms tend to be made by one or a few people.
3. U.S. firms tend to value making profit in the short run while Japanese firms tend
to value building long term growth.
4. Management of Japanese firms tends to be more centralized while management
of U. S. firms tends to be more decentralized.
5. Job descriptions in Japanese firms tend to be broader and less precise than in
U.S. firms.
Exercise 1: Overall, based on the information given, list three major
challenges you will face as a manager at Toyota and steps you will take to
meet these challenges

Challenge1:
To tackle the involvement of all the shareholders or too many people in decision
making.
What I will do to meet Challenge 1:
I’ll try to learn more things about how Japanese company operates and how they make
decisions alone. I’ll try to make my decision-making stronger and learn to take all the
decisions handle individually.

Challenge2:
To overcome the broader Job Description.
What I will do to meet Challenge 2:
I’ll learn all the things about my Job description, what will be my roles and
responsibilities as a manager, and I’ll try to fulfill all my duties efficiently and effectively.

Challenge3:
To be patient and focus on long term business growth rather than aiming on short
term profits.
What will I do to meet Challenge 3:
To understand the company’s ultimate goal, how they plan and work on long term
projects and make decisions according to it. To adopt the strategies of Japanese upper-
level management in order to be more focused on long term growth.
Exercise 2: Based on the information given, to be successful in Japan, you will
probably have to somewhat change the way you plan, organize, influence, and
control. List the changes for each management function you probably will
have to make.

Changes to the way I will plan in Japan:


1. To be more focused on long term growth.
2. Avoid involvement of any stakeholder in my decision making.
3. To fulfill all the roles and responsibilities according to my Job Description

Changes to the way I will organize in Japan:


As leadership is more centralized than US, I’ll learn to be more organized. I’ll read more
about how organizations are centralized in Japan, what policy do they follow, what are
their hierarchy structures, and how they communicate with each other.

Changes to the way I will influence people in Japan:


I’ll try to influence people in Japan by adopting their strategies and leading them. I’ll try
to fit in as much as I can in the internal and external activities of the company. I’ll learn
and promote their welfare which will influence the people.

Changes to the way I will control in Japan:


As decision making power will be in my hands, I’ll control individually and directly.
Exercise 3: Do you think you would be successful in this job as manager at
Toyota? Why?

I think that I’ll be successful in this job as manager at Toyota because I’ll adopt all the
strategies and policies which are being followed by the organization as I’ve already
recognized all the differences between USA and Japan, I’ll follow the Japanese structure
and culture and try to be fit in the Japanese environment, so I’ll be able to tackle any
discrepancy or hurdle in the work. I’ll work individually and will try to make decisions on
my own and will judge before implementing any strategy. I’ll not involve any other
stakeholder except one or two from my upper level management and will work directly
according to their will and instructions

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