Essay Sample about HR Issues in Toyota

Toyota has grown over the years to become one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world(Forbes, 2019). Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the company also has branches in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is also planning to acquire new subsidiaries as a way of enhancing production and ultimately increase profits. While the acquisition of subsidiaries is among the best expansion and entry strategies, it also comes with a myriad of challenges. At the moment, the company is estimated to have 352,000 employees(statistica, 2019). With the planned expansion, this number is bound to increase and the workforce is bound to get more diverse. The human resource, therefore, must be prepared to address the various challenges that come with a huge and diverse workforce. Expansion into new territories will also bring various cultural issues since cultural values and beliefs as well tastes and preferences vary from one nation to another. Therefore, the company must carry out extensive research into the cultures of the targeted markets and come up with strategies aimed at adequately catering for their needs. The human resource has a role to play in equipping the workforce with the necessary skills to allow them to perform optimally in the new subsidiaries(Brown et al., 2015, 20). Every organization and jurisdiction is governed by a specific set of ethical standards as well as legal obligations. Acquisition of the subsidiaries might expose the company to ethical challenges. For instance, the ethical and legal laws governing the workforce might be different across different countries. The human resource, therefore also has a role to play in ensuring that the company complies with all the ethical and legal requirements in the new markets. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming a necessity in the modern business environment and hence the company must be involved in CSR activities in the new markets. Human resource plays a critical role in ensuring that an organization successfully enters and thrives in new markets. This paper seeks to evaluate different strategies that Toyota can adopt to address the various human resource issues that are bound to arise following the intended acquisitions.

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Understanding the Issues

Cultural Issues

In the past, cultural diversity in an organization was not a big deal since companies mostly hired according to the unique culture of the employees. However, with globalization, the workplace has become increasingly diverse. Other than increasing the likelihood of occurrence of conflicts, diversity might also make it difficult to create cohesive teams(Al-Jenaibi, 2019). This is dangerous in an environment where teamwork is proving to be more and more important. The multicultural environment, therefore, presents a challenge for HR since cultural diversity must be managed without disrupting the harmony of the workplace(Stahl and Tung, 2014). However, before HR can adequately address the issues that arise as a result of the multicultural workplace, they must first understand the cultural differences. First, the HR must understand that diversity at the workplace does not only incorporate the culture of the employees but also their races, heritage, age, mental or physical disabilities, gender identity, sexual orientation, among other characteristics. Ignoring these differences might lead to loss of productivity, hurt the reputation of the organization, increase employee turnover, and even lead to lawsuits which could also damage the reputation of the company and dent the books of accounts. On the other hand, embracing diversity can lead to increased innovation and improve the problem-solving capabilities of the organization(Rodriguez-Pose and Hardy, 2015). This discussion, therefore, shows how important it is for the HR to understand the various cultural issues that Toyota is bound to face following the planned expansion. To fully understand these issues, HR should carry out adequate research regarding the culture of the countries in which the subsidiaries are situated. This will help the company adjust its structure and culture to fit the new environment(Kundu et al., 2019). Once in the new locations, the HR should allow open communication so as to detect any arising issues and arrest them in time.

Ethical Issues

As mentioned earlier, there exist ethical standards that govern various organizations or jurisdictions(Monshipouri, Welch and T. Kennedy, 2017). Ethics can be defined as a set of moral principles that govern a certain practice. There exist various issues in the field of HR. They include labor relations, health, and safety, remunerations, as well as training and development. Toyota's HR must sufficiently understand these issues in order to thrive in the new markets. Remunerations and minimum wages vary from one country to the other. Offering lower compensation than the market average can affect the attractiveness of the company to employees and also increased employee turnover. It can also hurt the public image of the company. While there exist global guidelines on the health and safety of the employees, some guidelines are only present in certain countries. Failure to follow these guidelines might affect the position of the company in the new markets. Therefore, before starting operations in the new countries, the HR must carry out the due diligence to ensure that the organization is in a position to comply with all the ethical requirements of the respective jurisdictions.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Global expansion will come with a responsibility for Toyota. The company must be involved in activities that improve the lives of the communities around which it operates. HR plays a critical role in ensuring that the organization adopts the appropriate CSR programs. HR also helps in the implementation of the CSR plan. The company must first understand the needs of the specific community before settling on a CSR program. (City Research Online, 2019) This way, the organization appears more sensitive to the needs of the people and hence its reputation is enhanced(Wang et al., 2016). Just like in the other issues discussed earlier, research is the best tool to understand the needs of a community in order to come up with the most appropriate CSR program.

HR Strategies to Address the Issues

Cultural Issues

Cultural clash has been cited as one of the major reasons why acquisitions fail. The HR, therefore, has a huge role to play to ensure that cultural issues do not come between the organizations to expand and increase profits. Fortunately, there exist various strategies that can be used to address cultural issues. First, there should be adequate planning in order to ensure a smooth cultural transition(Gupta and Bhaskar, 2016). The leaders and employees in the organization must be trained to understand the expected cultural changes in the new markets and how to respond to them. The company should also create a diversity initiative to oversee the various inclusiveness strategies. The goals and objectives that the company seeks to achieve in regard to diversity should also be made known to all. The company should establish an open communication channel to ensure that all the feedback and opinions of the employees are heard(Brannen, Piekkari and Tietze, 2017). This helps arrest any issues before they affect productivity. As mentioned earlier, cultural issues increase the likelihood of the occurrence of conflicts in the workplace. Therefore, there must be a well-developed conflict resolution process. These strategies can help Toyota effectively transition into the new markets.

Ethical Issues

Ethical issues are the most difficult to address of all organizational issues. Ethical issues in Hr include problems with the cash and compensation plans, restructuring and layoffs, health and safety, privacy issues, among others. To address these challenges, the company should design a code of conduct that is in line with the requirements and guidelines of the new markets(Rhodes, 2016). The code of conduct should be borrowed from the Company's code of conduct which emphasizes values such as integrity, non-discrimination, and inclusivity. It should only be tailored to mirror the special regulations in the new jurisdictions. In line with Toyota's culture, the new subsidiaries should seek to create and maintain an ethical culture. This will enable the company to adequately address all the ethical issues during the transition period as well as in its operations in the new countries.

Corporate Social Responsibility

HR can promote the company's CSR initiative by creating a culture of responsibility and change within the organization. Before the company addresses the needs of the community, it must first satisfy the needs of its employees. When the employees are well-taken care of, they are bound to take up the CSR initiatives more enthusiastically and hence lead to their success(LINS, SERVAES and TAMAYO, 2017). HR can also provide training and development programs to explain the relationship between the products of the company and their value to the community. This can also play a big role in the accomplishment of CSR initiatives(Flammer, 2015).

Collaboration

In the modern business environment, various departments in a company have become increasingly interdependent. As a result, the HR department must collaborate with other departments in the organization to ensure the success of the recommended strategies. For instance, since all the strategies require capital, HR must work closely with the finance department. Likewise, since some of the strategies, such as the CSR programs might require marketing, the marketing department must be involved. Finally, HR must collaborate with the legal department in order to get a clear understanding of the ethical and legal requirements in various jurisdictions.

New challenges may arise in the course of implementing these strategies. For instance, the CSR program chosen might be deemed inappropriate or several other organizations might be involved in it. Divisions might also emerge in the workplace as some groups feel disadvantaged over others. To address these challenges, the company must be flexible enough to change its strategies in order to address the prevailing conditions.

Evaluation

Various tools can be used to measure the effectiveness of the recommended strategies. The attractiveness of the company to the best talents in the market as well as its ability to retain them can be used as a tool to measure the effectiveness of the strategies targeted at cultural issues. Increased productivity can also indicate the success of the strategies. A healthy relationship with the authorities in the new markets can be used to measure the success of the strategies targeted at ethical issues. Finally, the response of the community to the CSR initiatives can help indicate the success of the CSR strategies.

Conclusion

In its efforts to acquire new subsidiaries, Toyota is bound to face various ethical, cultural and CSR issues. To adequately understand them, the company must first understand them. This can be achieved by carrying out extensive research. Using the findings of the study, various strategies can be designed to address the issues. Though the implementation of most of these issues falls under the HR department, collaboration with other departments is critical for success. The strategies that can be used in entering and operating in the new markets, as well as tools of evaluating them, have been discussed in this paper.

Reference List

Al-Jenaibi, B. (2019). The scope and impact of workplace diversity in the United Arab Emirates - A preliminary study. [online] Ejournals.ukm.my. Available at: http://ejournals.ukm.my/gmjss/article/view/18159 [Accessed 9 May 2019].

Brannen, M., Piekkari, R....