Scribd
Upload
89 views2 pages

Portfolio Activity Chapter 3

The document describes an American manager who has accepted a job as a middle manager at a Toyota plant in Japan. It notes key differences between Japanese and American management practices, such as Japanese firms having looser organizational structures, decisions being made by one or few people, a focus on long-term growth over short-term profits, and broader job descriptions. The manager will face challenges in adapting to Japanese culture and management style at Toyota, and will need to change their planning, organizing, influencing, and controlling approaches to be successful.

Uploaded by

Zehra Abbas rizvi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
89 views2 pages

Portfolio Activity Chapter 3

The document describes an American manager who has accepted a job as a middle manager at a Toyota plant in Japan. It notes key differences between Japanese and American management practices, such as Japanese firms having looser organizational structures, decisions being made by one or few people, a focus on long-term growth over short-term profits, and broader job descriptions. The manager will face challenges in adapting to Japanese culture and management style at Toyota, and will need to change their planning, organizing, influencing, and controlling approaches to be successful.

Uploaded by

Zehra Abbas rizvi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

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:____________________________________________________________________
What I will do to meet Challenge 1:

______________________________________________________________________________
Challenge2:____________________________________________________________________
What I will do to meet Challenge 2:

_____________________________________________________________________________

Challenge3:____________________________________________________________________
What will I do to meet Challenge 3:

______________________________________________________________________________

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:

______________________________________________________________________________
Changes to the way I will organize in Japan:

______________________________________________________________________________
Changes to the way I will influence people in Japan:

______________________________________________________________________________
Changes to the way I will control in Japan:

Exercise 3: Do you think you would be successful in this job as manager at Toyota? Why?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

You might also like