How HR Caused Toyota How HR Caused Toyota Crash??//////////Crash??//////////

By-ABHISHEK PANDEY

What is Human What is Human Resource Resource Management????Management????

The analysis of definition of HR mangt can be summarised as follows:

HRM is concerned with employees both as individuals & as a group in attaining goals. It is also concerned with the behavior, emotional & social aspects of personnel.

It is also concerned with the development of human resources, i.e knowledge, capability, skill, potentialities, and attaining and achieving employee goals including job satisfaction.

ObjectiveObjective

To find out the root cause of the crash of the TOYOTA

Whether HR plays any role in the crash or not?????///

Series of mistakes… Are related to each other or not?????///

HR factors responsible for Toyota’s downfallFormulate an ideal strategy to solve out

this problem

To find out the root cause of the To find out the root cause of the crash of the TOYOTAcrash of the TOYOTA

Since it is known that the cause of the TOYOTA is due to mechanical failure but seeing the polished side of the mirror, some other scenario come into picture. Taking the example of the sinking of the

great TITANIC it can be concluded that…. HR may be the root cause of the CRASH.

Whether HR plays any role in the Whether HR plays any role in the crash or not?????///crash or not?????///Taking the example of TITANIC some

factors can control & rectify the mechanical failure such as:-

Senior management, adequate information, job training, org. inputs to the processes, rewards in line with documented goals.

It can be seen the above factors are of HR Dept.

Hence it is clear that HR plays a major role in the CRASH.

SWOT AnalysisSWOT Analysis

strength

threatopportunity

weakness

StrengthStrength

Well known reputation of brand

Quality in its construction- SIX SIGMA

Reward & Recognition- initially strength but later converted into threat

Performance mangt programme- later shifted to weakness

WeaknessWeakness

Poorly deigned practices Weak executionon on the part of the HR

Dept. like…1. Training2. The performance management process3. Leadership development & succession4. Lack of adequate information5. Lack of documented goals

OpportunityOpportunity

Can come back in the marketCan recover the brand name and

reputationCan understand the main causeCan understand the importance of

effective HR Dept. and should be periodically check

ThreatThreat Several mechanical failure

Brand reputation was damaging

Sales declining to their lowest point in more than a decade

Poorly design hiring process

Reward & recognition Their corporate culture Retention programme Risk assessment team Downfall/losses 0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Loss/week(million) Loss in stockvaluation(in billion)

recovery

The 8 HR processes that The 8 HR processes that contribution to Toyota’s downfallcontribution to Toyota’s downfall

1. Rewards & recognition2. Training3. Hiring4. The performance management

process5. The corporate culture6. Leadership development and

succession7. Retention8. Risk assessment

KEY QUESTIONSKEY QUESTIONSKEY QUESTIONSKEY QUESTIONS

Rewards & recognitionRewards & recognition(strength to threat)(strength to threat)

Q:- Were rapid growth and “lean” cost cutting recognized and rewarded so heavily that no was willing to put the breaks on growth in order to focus on safety??????

Ans:- yesQ:- Were the rewards for demonstrating error-free

results so that obvious errors were swept under the table????

Ans:- no idea

Training (weakness)Training (weakness)

Q:-If Toyota’s training was more effective, would the managers

involved have been more successful in convincing executives to act on the

negative information received????? Ans:- yes

Hiring (threat)Hiring (threat)Q:-Did Toyota have a poorly designed hiring

process that allowed it to hire individuals who were not experienced in the required constructive confrontation technique??????

Ans:- I don’t admittQ:-Were their hires poor learners that did not

change as a result of company training?????? Ans:- may be

The performance management The performance management process ( weakness)process ( weakness)

Q:- Was the performance appraisal and performance monitoring process so poorly designed that they did not identify and report groupthink type errors??????

Ans:- noQ:- Did Toyota’s famous high level of trust of its

employees go too far without reasonable metrics, checks, and balances????

Ans:- yesQ:- Did HR develop sophisticated metrics that produced

alerts to warn senior managers before minor problems got out of control??????

Ans:- no, I think never……

The corporate culture (threat)The corporate culture (threat)

Q:- Did HR’ failure to measures or monitor he corporate culture contribute to its misalignment????

Ans :- diplomaticQ:- Was the corporate culture so biased towards

positive information that employees learned no to make waves, in spite of their professional responsibility to be heard on safety issues???

Ans :- yes

Leadership development Leadership development and successionand succession

Q:-Was the leadership process at toyota so outdated that it produced the wrong kind of leaders with outdated competencies, who could not successfully operate in the rapidly changing automotive industry????

Ans :- yes

Retention (threat)Retention (threat)

Q:- Did the retention program ignore people that bought problems and as a result, did these whistleblowers often leave out of frustration?????

Ans :- yes

Risk assessment (threat)Risk assessment (threat)

Q:-Should HR work with risk assessment experts and build the capability of identifying and quantifying the revenue impacts of major HR errors, including a hiring failure, a high turnover rate among top performers, and the cost of keeping a bad manager or employee??????

Ans :-

WhatWhat other human resources factors other human resources factors may have contributed to Toyota’s may have contributed to Toyota’s downfall??????downfall??????

Motivation- negatively motivatedDelegation of authority- may be

lackingHR accounting & HR audit MIS

ConclusionConclusion

Toyota’s problem are not the result of a single individual making an isolated mistake, but rather due to a companywide series of mistakes that are all related to each other. Ultimately it can be inferred that crash of Toyota is a systematic management failure.