Case Study of Yamaha Motors

Change, in any organization is routed through it’s Human Resource Department. Thereare always disgruntled employees who complain that change has adversely affected them. There are employees who believe in status Quo and believe that if a system is working,there is no point in changing it. Escorts going out and Yamaha coming in was a change that influenced each other andevery employee working on all levels. Strangely though, the resistance to this majorchange and to all subsequent decisions taken to enforce the change was minimized,. Itonly depicts the success of the H. R. epartment in educating all employees. Change wasviewed as mandatory rather than optional. Employees were made to believe that theirfuture bread and butter depended upon the success of this change. Almost everyemployee understood the need for this broad change. There were some voices ofdiscontent regarding small details which had to be worked out. The H. R. department’srole in handling the entire process of change is summarized below :

Agreement with the Union :

Escorts left behind a strong labour union which wasknown to use aggressive tactics to get it’s demand met. Yamaha suspended the oldagreement with the union and entered into a new one after taking over. Theagreement covered various aspects like pay packages, increments, working hours,leaves schedule etc. Yamaha also offered V. R. S. ( Voluntary retirement schemes)to those who did not wanted to continue with the organization. However, theattraction rate of labour and managers was very low. What Yamaha ensuredthrough was there are no dissatisfied employees in the organization. Yamaha knewthat workers will be facing a cultural change soon and only wanted thoseemployees who were ready and willing to accept change in it’s true spirit.

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Training of employees in Japan :

Not every employee looks upon training inJapan as an opportunity or value addition. Certain employees are reluctant toleave their families back in India for a period of 6 months. People used to thesocial and cultural environment of India find it difficult to adjust to a foreigncountry. The challenge for the H. R. Department was to motivate such employees. These employees were assured that their families will be taken care of. While trainees will receive salary for their work in Japan, their families will be a paid afixed amount periodically by the company during the [period of training. Securewit the knowledge that their families are taken care of, employees were motivatedto undergo training in Japan.

Networking with dealers :

Yamaha is currently in process of networking all it’sdealer all over India. Dealers are seen as valuable channel partners and not meresupply chain members. The purpose of this online network queries on a perpetual basis. Dealers are encouraged to report all complaints, suggestions, ideas throughthis network. The network will also be used for online order processing.

Routing bills through Tedfel :

Dealers were not happy with Yamaha routing it’sbills through Tedfel. Earlier, dealers were not asked to pay until the motor cycleswere actually sold. Now Tedfel only offered a 15 days credit period to the dealers.

Presently, may dealers have already approached Yamaha and have asked to revertback to the old system. At the time of our research, the dialogue between thedealers and the company was still on. Yamaha still believes in the companyvalidity of hiring an outside agency for bill payments and wants to bring aroundthe dealers to its way of thinking. Yamaha has also followed the policy that Indian managers are best equipped to handle Indian work force. The Japanese presence in the H. R. department is bare minimum. Language barrier is a significant constraint in this regard.

So, while the company boastsof presence of Japanese professionals in production, quality assurance and financedepartment, the H. R. department is still completely handled by their Indian counterparts.  His employees soon came to understand that poor performance would not be tolerated. People recognized his total determination to succeed and to establish an engineering business. Honda was a true leader with vision and passion. He was sufficiently aware of his own managerial shortcomings. The employees called Honda ‘Mr. Thunder’ for his bursts of anger in answer to their mistakes. His employees loved him but they were afraid of his anger. Honda was not a perfect man. He admitted his mistakes: ‘When I look back at my work I understand I have made mistakes – many blunders, serious omissions. However, I am proud of my achievements. Although I made one mistake after the other, these mistakes and failures did not happen in connection with one and the same thing. ’ (Peters & Waterman 1982) As a transformational leader Honda tended to see the big picture, but not the details.

Motivation is one of the major concepts of the human resource management. The research of motivation and its necessity for organization is closely connected with the Behavioral Management that arouse at the end of the Scientific Management era. Human resource management views an employee not as a machine but as a personality with its own goals and aspirations. The objective of managers is to build relationships in which workers would see themselves working with the manager, rather than working for a manager. Motivation can be defined as the process of arousing, directing, and maintaining behavior toward a goal.

He points out that people are motivated to fulfill their needs. Companies view workers as being interdependent, meaning, managers cannot do their job without workers, and workers depend on their managers. Consequently, instead of management treating employees like machines, organizations should take a genuine interest in the employee and help them reach their goals. Human resource management supposes that if employees are happier at work the production would increase. Soichiro Honda placed human initiative and attention to all workers on the first place.

He tried to create a better environment for his employees, attract specialists and motivate them to do their work in the best possible way. Honda paid much attention to experimental work and did not accept attempts to control him or his corporation via the traditional caste system. He was the innovator and was against the hierarchy management structure: ‘On the whole, people work better if they are not forced and controlled. ’ (Peters & Waterman 1982) This thought is proven by psychologists and new styles of management are very effective and should be used by others.

Honda understood that encouraging his worker’s personal development, their wish for self-actualization will bring him success in business. He was a passionate person. Honda did not admit defeat and could risk everything he had achieved for the sake of his beliefs and ideas. He is the embodiment of persistence. Soichiro Honda was a man with modern mentality and readiness to risk in order to invent something new. He is the example of persistence, modesty, and the ability to see his own mistakes as the most valuable achievements.

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