How would you describe Akio Toyoda’s leadership style?

Leadership is the process of directing the behaviour of others toward the accomplishment of some objective. Leadership style is the behaviour a leader exhibits while guiding organization members in appropriate directions. Today leaders are often eliminate unnecessary levels of organization and introduce work teams in order to enhance organizational decision making and work flow. In this case study, Akio Toyoda’s prove himself as today’s leader by making few necessary changes in organization to boost his way to make Toyota as number one auto maker in the world.

Entrepreneurial leadership Akio Toyoda can be categorized in entrepreneurial leadership because of his critical role in Toyota. Toyota must have global outlook, interact with environmental changes to make its way to the top. Akio Toyoda as a senior managing director and was appointed as head of china business, when it was joint venture with troubled firm. He is impatient to see faster growth of business in China, work hard for a year to complete the merging of Toyota with a larger, more aggressive local firm by convincing top management and government officials to approve the deal.

Once he succeeded, Toyoda’s next step was to revamp the management structure. Transformational leadership Akio Toyoda also can be categorized in transformational leadership by studying his action toward management structure he created. In China’s country department under his leadership, departmental heads will only answering to headquarters executives which isolated the managers and complicated coordination. This method making way for them to work closely with each other and report to an executive vice president who can make decisions for the China business instead of waiting for the corporate approvals. ) Where on the continuum of leadership behaviour would you place Yoshi Inaba, and why? Continuum of leadership behaviour that emphasizes decision making can be arranged into 7 type of behaviour: 1. The manager makes the decision and announces it 2. The manager “sells” the decision 3. The manager presents ideas and invites questions 4. The manager presents a tentative decision that is subject to change 5. The manager presents the problem, gets suggestions and then makes the decision 6. The manager defines the limits and asks the group to make a decision 7. The manager permits the group to make decisions within prescribed limits

Yoshi Inaba helps Toyota managers grapple with decisions about balancing market share and profitability. He can be placed in and as the manager, who permits the group to make decisions within prescribed limits in the continuum of leadership behaviour. Yoshi Inaba can be characterized as a leader who makes decision by exercising little control and allowing subordinates much freedom and self-direction. He is becoming an equal member of problem solving group which is allowing his managers to fact finding some solutions in balancing market share and profitability, bring it in discussion and finding the best achievable solutions.

The best example in this context is when an official from the U. S division described about competitive price cuts and warn him about the sales and profits which could be affected if he couldn’t give discounts for the rental car companies that buy in volume. He participates in discussion and suggested alternate solution by selling to businesses that buy in volume which contribute to higher profit opportunities. “Maybe we lose in terms of total volume,” but that’s acceptable because “it’s all about return” this quote explain to us of his participation and his way of acted as equal member in finding solutions.