Case Study Toyota crisis Essay Example for Free

Case Study Toyota crisis Essay Organizational Crisis negatively effect organization’s name and image, as well as adversely impact employee by instilling doubt, insecurity and distrust (Tahmicioglu, 2010). Employees are directly effected by the crisis, as they are the primary stakeholders (Obston, 2014) and brand ambassadors of the company. Thus, to ensure wellbeing of employees, especially in time of catastrophe, they should be well informed and fostered under the guidance of company’s leaders. Leaders at Toyota should take an immediate action; start with early internal crisis communication, take accountability and show their commitment to resolving the crisis. Male (2004) suggests, being proactive and transparent lessen doubt and distress among employees. It will be beneficial if a live talk is set up with the employees. Live podcast will personalize the message, and will allow employees to directly hear compassion and empathy in the leader’s voice. Establishing an active feedback loop is also very effective (Miller, 2014), an online forum on company’s intranet will be a great way to facilitate two-way dialogues between employees and executives. The forum will be pivotal in giving direct feedback to employees’ questions and concerns, and for consistently providing updated information. Along with starting communication, hotlines dedicated for crisis should be provided as part of employee assistance program; employees should be encouraged to actively use the services to get professional help they need for dealing with crisis. Lack of immediate dialogue leads to speculation (Miller, 2014), and when the magnitude of the crisis is as big as Toyota’s recall, consistent media scrutiny and amplification of negative news can further fuel anxiety and uncertainty among employees (Cole, 2011). Therefore, its imperative leaders eradicate uncertainty by giving timely crisis communication that precedes external news and provide continuing support to employees. An early two-way dialogue is a good start to lessen the chaos among distressed employees. However, in addition to continuing practice of honest internal communication, for the long run, leaders will need to establish processes specific to employees’ welfare to restore lost trust.  Organizational strategy needs to improve to rectify behaviors that effected employees’ welfare in past. Toyota’s work philosophy which Liker (2004) described as â€Å"The Toyota way,† was known for continuous improvement and people development; however, aggressive focus on rapid growth (Cole, 2011) resulted in detrimental practices, such as, reward system based on cost control versus quality control, poor training, declining working conditions and work overload (Sullivan, 2010; McNeill, 2013; Cole, 2011). These practices were not only damaging to employees trust, but also clearly violated psychological contract (Rousseau, 1995) of Toyota employees. To rebuild eroded trust caused by the violation of contract, leaders need to validate employees wellbeing is not compromised again. Gillespie and Dietz (2012) recommend implementing a strategy that will safeguard against future untrustworthy actions. This can be done by articulating and enacting a system instilled with high ethical standard, clearly communicated processes and better working conditions. Providing flexible working hours, manageable workload and regular training programs will prove leaders mean well; consistently incorporating employees voice will assure their role is imperative in recovery of company image. Lastly, proactively engaging in regular evaluation of processes will result in improved performance and ultimately recapturing the reputation. References: 1. Cole, R. E. (2011). What Really Happened to Toyota. MIT Sloan Management Review The New Business of Innovation. 2. Gillespie, N., Dietz, G. (2012). The recovery of trust: Case studies of organisational failures and trust repair. Institute of Business Ethics: London. 3. John, S. (2010). A think Piece: How HR caused Toyota to Crash. Retrieved from http://www.ere.net 4. Liker, J. (2004). The Toyota way 14 Management Principles from the Worlds Greatest Manufacturer. McGraw-Hill 5. Male, B. (2010). How to handle a product recall. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com 6. McNeill, D. (2013). Cover-up: Toyota and Quality Control. The Asia Pacific Journal, Vol 11, Issue 36, No. 1, 7. Miller, J. (2014). 4 Tips to help leaders communicate during a crisis. Retrieve from http://smartblogs.com 8. Obston, A. (2014). 5 ways to communicate with employees during a crisis. Retrieved from http://www.ragan.com 9. Tahmicioglu, E. (2010). Surviving your company’s mistake. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com 10. Rousseau, D. (1995). The psychological contract: Violations and Modifications. The Organizational Behavior Reader. 8th ed.

Boston Tea Party Essay -- American History Boston Tea Party Essays

Boston Tea Party When the Boston Tea Party occurred on the evening of December 16,1773, it was the culmination of many years of bad feeling between the British government and her American colonies. The controversy between the two always seemed to hinge on the taxes, which Great Britain required for the upkeep of the American colonies. Starting in 1765, the Stamp Act was intended by Parliament to provide the funds necessary to keep peace between the American settlers and the Native American population. The Stamp Act was loathed by the American colonists and later repealed by parliament. (http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/History.htm) However, the British government quickly enacted other laws designed to solve monetary problems. Each act was met with resistance. The Boston Tea Party was the final act of focused rage against a Parliamentary law. The Americans were well organized to resist new financial demands placed upon them by the British Parliament. In 1765 the secret organizations known as the Sons and the Daughters of Liberty were created to boycott British products. By early 1773 the assemblies of Massachusetts and Virginia had created the Committees of Correspondence, which were designed to communicate within the colonies any threats to American liberties. In April 1773 the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, which allowed the East Indian Company to undersell colonial tea merchants in the American market. The stage was set for a confrontation. (Burns, B31) In the first few months of 1773 the British East India Company found it was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England. It was on the verge of bankruptcy, and many members of Parliament owned stock in this company. (USA, 1) The Tea Act in 1773 was an effort to save it. The Tea Act gave the company the right to export its merchandise without paying taxes. Thus, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. By October, the Sons of Liberty in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston threatened tea imports and pledged a tea boycott. The Tea Act was incendiary for many reasons. First, it angered colonial merchants who feared they would be replaced and bankrupt by this powerful company. Second, the company chose to give exclusive privileges to certain merchants for the sale of their tea. Third, the Tea Act revived... ...itish government. In Boston, the site of a bloody confrontation between British redcoats and Americans citizens less than 10 years before, emotions ran high. Boston was a center of agitation and finally on the night of December 16,1773, the course of world history was changed. A revolutionary event was on the horizon. As once patriot mournfully observed, â€Å"Our cause is righteous and I have no doubt of final success. But I see our generation, and perhaps out whole land, drown in blood.† (Liberty, 2) The rest is history. Works Cited: Boston Tea Party Burns, Robert E. Episodes in American History. Massachusetts: Ginn & Co., 1973. Gilbert, Philip, and Norman Graebner. A History of the American People. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1971. Hewes, George. â€Å"Boston Tea Party – Eyewitness Account†. The History Place. http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/teaparty.htm (13 Mar. 2001) â€Å"Liberty: High Tea in Boston Harbor†. PBS Online. 1997. http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/chronicle/episode1.html (13 Mar. 2001) â€Å"USA: Boston Tea Party†. Department of Humanities Computing. 1997. http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/teaparty/bostonxx.htm (10 Mar. 2001)

Identity of the Artist: Bob Dylan’s Chronicles Essay

Early on in his rambling memoir, Chronicles (2004), Bob Dylan expresses a surprising affiliation. I’d read that stuff. Voltaire, Rousseau, John Locke, Montesquieu, MartinLuther—visionaries, revolutionaries†¦it was like I knew those guys, like they’d been living in my backyard. (p. 30) This â€Å"backyard† of the songwriter, identified through much of his career with subversion and rebellion, is a striking revelation, though the â€Å"intellectual† content of his most famous early albums may, in retrospect, be viewed as a preparation for it. In various other ways Dylan is surprising. It seems likely that he took on the writing of the book out of a drive to clarify his life-motive, to â€Å"set the record straight† with regard to both his artistic heritage and his character as a man. The stereotype of the â€Å"misunderstood artist† applies in his case, in a manner to highlight not his inner reality as a mystagogue, or political luminary, but as a man, relatively, of convention—family-oriented, taking pleasure in consumption, in friendship, in home ownership, in success as a parent and provider. With marriage and fatherhood, in fact, Dylan seems decidedly to take the measure of his own would-be character. Political/cultural spokesmanship is not for him. In fact he repeatedly deplores the sort of activist political role others try to cast him in. In the â€Å"New Morning† chapter, he writes: The events of the day, all the cultural mumbo jumbo were imprisoning my soul—nauseating me—civil rights and political leaders being gunned down†¦ —the whole shebang. I was determined to put myself beyond the reach of it all. I was a family man now, didn’t want to be in that group portrait. (p. 109) Bob Dylan’s Chronicles 4 Fame and political miscasting evolve eventually into a martyrdom. Seeming proud of his acquaintances among the conventionally and competently famous (actor Tony Curtis, singer Frank Sinatra Jr. , country music star Johnny Cash), he wants no part of either his starry-eyed fans, or his politically revved-up and misguided disciples. His home is no refuge. Pursuers follow him to the country. Intolerably besieged, he moves from Woodstock in rural New York, to New York City, to the West Coast, to East Hampton on Long Island, where at last he seems find partial refuge. Visited there by Bono of the radical group U2, he shares not so much any politically â€Å"correct† views, or high-powered visions of change, as his recollections of small-town Minnesota: memories of ordinariness: the giant kitsch statue of a Viking in the town of Alexandria, the Mesabi Iron Range where he grew up (pp. 174-175). One of the more impressive aspects of Chronicles is Dylan’s candid self-assessments, especially in the â€Å"Oh Mercy† chapter. My performance days in heavy traffic had been grinding to a halt for a while, had almost come to full stop. I had single-handedly shot myself in the foot too many times. †¦You have to deliver the goods, not waste your time and everybody else’s. †¦There was a missing person inside of myself and I needed to find him. (p. 147) Here the artist appears as an honest workman. His fame established, he recognizes that his live performances have grown shoddy. He takes himself to task, rejects self-indulgence and excuses. â€Å"I felt done for, a burned-out wreck† (p. 147). Such comments are not the evasions of a complacent drone, or a degenerate renegade resting on ill-gotten laurels. This is the voice of chagrined manhood, of the tough personal stance. The singer goes on from here to chronicle his personal struggle toward a new performance style, eventuating in a whole change of approach. Dylan’s capacity to work through crises appears to stem from formative childhood situations later recapitulated in his musical influences. In the fifth chapter of Chronicles , â€Å"River of Ice,† Bob Dylan’s Chronicles 5 he reminisces about the period in his career just prior to his relocating in New York City. At this time he is living in Minneapolis, in the same state as his family, awash in Minnesotan resonances and recollections. That he is so powerfully drawn to the music of Woody Guthrie is clearly attributable to the blue-collar surroundings of his early home life, the homely truths purveyed as standard growing-up fare by his parents. His father, he tells us, was â€Å"pragmatic and always had a word of cryptic advice. † His mother concerns herself with his not being harmed by â€Å"a lot of monkey business out there in the world† (p. 226). Within two pages of these recollections, he makes explicit his antipathy for â€Å"the mondo teeno scene† and his preference for â€Å"the traditional stuff with a capital T† (p. 228). And the singer who embodies for him the conjunction of working class roots and â€Å"the traditional stuff† is, unquestionably, Guthrie. The whole uniqueness of Dylan’s musical art seems to take its early inspiration from this towering figure, whose work â€Å"tore everything in his path to pieces† and â€Å"had the infinite sweep of humanity† in it (p. 244). It is not too much to say that Guthrie is even a father figure to the young musician, who aspires to be his â€Å"greatest disciple† and feels, though he has never met the older man, that the two of them are â€Å"related† (p. 246). An exact connection between Dylan’s folk-music-and-blue-collar heritage on the one hand, and his rather middle-class approach to life in the wake of his economic success as a â€Å"star† on the other may not exist except in the singer’s own psyche. Notwithstanding, the aspiration to a â€Å"better life†Ã¢â‚¬â€understood as an increased ability to purchase and consume—is as much an American â€Å"tradition with a capital T† as folk music, or union membership. Dylan makes it clear that, once he has a family (and probably before), there is never any question of divided loyalties, or the assumption of a role seriously at odds with the political status quo. For him, the American scene of his youth â€Å"was wide open†¦not only was it not run by God, but it wasn’t run by the Bob Dylan’s Chronicles 6 devil either† (p. 293). And, on the evidence of his career and allegiances, this negative certainty has proven endorsement enough for him. Bob Dylan’s Chronicles 1 Running Head: BOB DYLAN’S CHRONICLES Identity of the Artist: Bob Dylan’s Chronicles Name School Professor Course Bob Dylan’s Chronicles 2 Abstract In his autobiographical memoir, Chronicles, Bob Dylan reveals a character that is conventional and politically unradical, despite popular misreadings and the attempts of his activist contemporaries to recruit him as spokesman for radical causes. His life and work show strong allegiances to traditional American family life and American folk music, especially that of Woody Guthrie.

Children Are Wearing Christmas Hats And Doing Cooking

In the image, three children are wearing Christmas hats and doing cooking (Bykhunenko, 2013). It seems that they are represented as competent and active learners and their childhood seems colourful as they are given opportunity to experience different activities such as cooking. The potential purpose of the representation is that children are competent and active learners and they enjoy activities include cooking. The conception of the child as competent and active learners is a generally believed image. Early childhood education philosophies, practices, and policies have strongly implicated this view of childhood so that children are given time and space to participate in different activities and learning. In this imaging of the child, we allow children to participate in cooking which can promote their fine motor skills and cognitive development. From the developmental perspective, cooking is one of the ideal activities that benefit children to engage in as it stimulates all the sen ses and each area of development (Beaver Brewster, 2002, p.39). In the image, children are using a rolling pin, egg-whisk and other tools to make meals which involve hand-eye coordination and their muscles of the hand would be strengthened. Moreover, children are learning to read the receipts and menus, gain some simple maths knowledge and origins of food during cooking which will enhance their cognitive development. According to the Belonging theories, children are the centre of the concentricShow MoreRelatedThe Ballad of the Sad Cafe46714 Words   |  187 PagesAmelia did not speak. She was moving her jaw slowly from side to side, and you could tell from her face what she was thinking about. Stumpy MacPhail took the photograph and held it out toward the light. 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