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BUS 660 Rick Hesterberg and Toyota Motor Manufacturing

Case study on Toyota�s manufacturing strategies.

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    Running head: RICK HESTERBERG OF TOYOTA 1 Rick Hesterberg and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Jackie Olney BUS 660 Dr. Beth Langevin May 5, 2014 Analyze Rick Hesterberg's leadership style at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, Kentucky. How does his leadership approach contribute to the company's success, particularly during challenging situations such as the vehicle recall crisis? Discuss the impact of his transformational, bureaucratic, and charismatic leadership styles on employee morale, public relations, and community engagement. Additionally, consider how Hesterberg balances communication and change management within the organization. Provide recommendations for enhancing leadership practices at Toyota Motor Manufacturing. Word Count Requirement: 750 - 1,000 words

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    RICK HESTERBERG OF TOYOTA 2 Toyota Motor Manufacturing The drive through Georgetown, Kentucky is not only beautiful but it is home to a large manufacturing facility considered a sense of pride in the Bluegrass state. Containing more than 7 million feet of floor space and about 7,000 team members the Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Kentucky (TMMK) plant is the largest Japanese car plant outside of Japan. The TMMK plant produces approximately 2,000 vehicles every day or 2 cars every 55 seconds. To keep the plant running at an optimal level it takes many leaders and no two are alike. TMMK contains leaders to build each separate aspect of the car from the assembly line, inventory control, administrative personnel, and communications. Communications is responsible for ensuring the TMMK name and product are properly represented and reported in print and media (R. Hesterberg, personal communication, May 1, 2014) . Rick Hesterberg has been the manager for external affairs for Kentucky’s Toyota plant for many years. He will only say that he joined the Toyota team after graduating from college with a BA in journalism from Morehead University and that it is a rewarding and invigorating career. Hesterberg’s duties are very diverse and include working proactively with public relation or affair departments, media outlets, government entities, some stakeholders. He is an advocate for the community and ensures team members and stakeholders are involved. An essential part of his responsibilities is to research, forecast and evaluate public policy on Toyota using all the resources available, including political, public, or personal contacts (R. Hesterberg, personal communication, May 1, 2014) . Leadership style As the front person for Toyota in Kentucky, Hesterberg must have high integrity, be humble, and self - aware. This skill set makes him a transformational leader. The transactional

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    RICK HESTERBERG OF TOYOTA 3 leader is typically an effective leader in the business sector because of the ability to inspire others, expectation of the best of others, and his or her accountability. In fact Hesterberg could be the prime example of a transformation leader because of his ability to communicate, solve problems, get results, show compassion for the community, and share the vision of TMMK with the state and world ( Spinosa, Glennon, & Sota, 2008). Communication It is very important to TMMK that they set goals to achieve an ultimate agenda. The first thing top management does is develop a strategy to ensure there are open lines of communication. The communication strategy is not only for top management but also includes supervisors, technical and production employees who will be affected by the changes. When changes are in the works, communication between management and employee is done regularly to make sure targets dates are effectively set. Change must be given to employees at the onset to help each of them focus on why, what, and how. Developing a message is important in the beginning to make sure TMMK’s vision is captured in the correct manner. Behavior goals for each group of employees are enacted like the use of company mottos and statements, which are also used as encouragement tools (R. Hesterberg, personal communication, May 1, 2014). Change requires communication, not only for stockholders and upper management but an entire organization. Functional and technical excellence should be demonstrated by employees. Toyota expects employees to embrace the “Toyota Way” and continually improve themselves through a set of principles Toyota has enacted. The 14 principles are organized into four broader categories: long - term philosophy, the right results will be produced by the right process, developing the people will add value to the organization, and organizational learning is done through continuously solving root problems (Fujio, 2001).

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