CASE STUDY 1: “LESSONS FOR ‘UNDERCOVER’ BOSSES”

Executive offices in major corporations are often far removed from the day-to-day work that most
employees perform. While top executives might enjoy the perquisites found in the executive suite, and
separation from workday concerns can foster a broader perspective on the business, the distance
between management and workers can come at a real cost: top managers often fail to understand the
ways most employees do their jobs every day. The dangers of this distant approach are clear. Executives
sometimes make decisions without recognizing how difficult or impractical they are to implement.
Executives can also lose sight of the primary challenges their employees face. The practice of
“management by walking around” (MBWA) works against the insularity of the executive suite.
To practice MBWA, managers reserve time to walk through departments regularly, form networks of
acquaintances in the organization, and get away from their desks to talk to individual employees. The
practice was exemplified by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who used this management style at HP to
learn more about the challenges and opportunities their employees were encountering. Many other
organizations followed suit and found that this style of management had advantages over a typical desk-
bound approach to management. A recent study of successful Swedish organizations revealed that
MBWA was an approach common to several firms that received national awards for being great places
to work.
The popular television program Undercover Boss took MBWA to the next level by having top executives
from companies like Chiquita Brands, DirectTV, Great Wolf Resorts, and NASCAR work incognito among
line employees. Executives reported that this process taught them how difficult many of the jobs in their
organizations were, and just how much skill was required to perform even the lowest-level tasks. They
also said the experience taught them a lot about the core business in their organizations and sparked
ideas for improvements.
Although MBWA has long had its advocates, it does present certain problems. First, the time managers
spend directly observing the workforce is time they are not doing their core job tasks like analysis,
coordination, and strategic planning. Second, management based on subjective impressions gathered by
walking around runs counter to a research and databased approach to making managerial decisions.
Third, it is also possible that executives who wander about will be seen as intruders and overseers.
Implementing the MBWA style requires a great deal of foresight to avoid these potential pitfalls.
Questions:
1. What are some of the things managers can learn by walking around and having daily contact with
line employees that they might not be able to learn from looking at data and reports?
2. As an employee, would you appreciate knowing your supervisor regularly spent time with workers?
How would knowing top executives routinely interact with line employees affect your attitudes
toward the organization?
3. What ways can executives and other organizational leaders learn about day-to-day business
operations besides going “undercover?”
4. Are there any dangers in the use of a management by walking around strategy? Could this strategy
lead employees to feel they are being spied on? What actions on the part of managers might
minimize these concerns?
Solutions:
https://www.slideshare.net/amythafp/lessons-for-undercover-bosses-organization-behavior-case-study
https://studymoose.com/lessons-for-undercover-bosses-essay
CASE STUDY 2: THE FLYNN EFFECT
Given that a substantial amount of intellectual ability is inherited, it might surprise you to learn that
intelligence test scores are rising. In fact, scores have risen so dramatically that today’s great-
grandparents seem mentally deficient by comparison. First, let’s review the evidence for rising test
scores. Then we’ll review explanations for the results. On an IQ scale where 100 is the average, scores
have been rising about 3 points per decade, meaning if your grandparent scored 100, the average score
for your generation would be around 115. That’s a pretty big difference—about a standard deviation,
meaning someone from your grandparent’s generation whose score was at the 84th percentile would be
only average (50th percentile) by today’s norms.
James Flynn is a New Zealand researcher credited with first documenting the rising scores. He reported
the results in 1984, when he found that almost everyone who took a wellvalidated IQ test in the 1970s
did better than those who took one in the 1940s. The results appear to hold up across cultures. Test
scores are rising not only in the United States but in most other countries in which the effect has been
tested, too. What explains the Flynn effect? Researchers are not entirely sure, but some of the
explanations offered are these:
1. Education. Students today are better educated than their ancestors, and education leads to higher
test scores.
2. Smaller families. In 1900, the average couple had four children; today the number is fewer than two.
We know firstborns tend to have higher IQs than other children, probably because they receive
more attention than their later-born siblings.
3. Test-taking savvy. Today’s children have been tested so often that they are test-savvy: they know
how to take tests and how to do well on them.
4. Genes. Although smart couples tend to have fewer, not more, children (which might lead us to
expect intelligence in the population to drop over time), it’s possible that due to better education,
tracking, and testing, those who do have the right genes are better able to exploit those advantages.
Some genetics researchers also have argued that if genes for intelligence carried by both parents are
dominant, they win out, meaning the child’s IQ will be as high as or higher than those of the parents.
Despite the strong heritability of IQ, researchers continue to pursue mechanisms that might raise IQ
scores. Factors like brain exercises (even video games) and regular physical exercise seem to boost brain
power at least temporarily. Other recent research in neuroscience has had difficulty pinpointing physical
mechanisms that can lead to a boost in IQ, although researchers propose that a focus on brain chemicals
like dopamine may lead, in time, to drugs that can boost IQ chemically.
Questions:
1. Do you believe people are getting smarter? Why or why not?
2. Which of the factors explaining the Flynn effect do you accept?
3. If the Flynn effect is true, does this undermine the theory that IQ is mostly inherited? Why or why
not?
Solution:
https://studymoose.com/flynn-effect-essay
https://studylib.net/doc/25699336/flynn-effect
 CASE INCIDENT 3 CRAFTING A BETTER JOB
Consider for a moment a midlevel manager at a multinational foods company, Fatima, who would seem
to be at the top of her career. She’s consistently making her required benchmarks and goals, she has
built successful relationships with colleagues, and senior management have identified her as “high
potential.” But she isn’t happy with her work. She’d be much more interested in understanding how her
organization can use social media in marketing efforts. Ideally, she’d like to quit and find something that
better suits her passions, but in the current economic environment this may not be an option. So she
has decided to proactively reconfigure her current job.
Fatima is part of a movement toward job “crafting,” which is the process of deliberately reorganizing
your job so that it better fits your motives, strengths, and passions. The core of job crafting is creating
diagrams of day-to-day activities with a coach. Then you and the coach collaboratively identify which
tasks fit with your personal passions, and which tend to drain motivation and satisfaction. Next the
client and coach work together to imagine ways to emphasize preferred activities and de-emphasize
those that are less interesting. Many people engaged in job crafting find that upon deeper
consideration, they have more control over their work than they thought.
So how did Fatima craft her job? She first noticed that she was spending too much of her time
monitoring her team’s performance and answering team questions, and not enough time working on
the creative projects that inspire her. She then considered how to modify her relationship with the team
so that these activities incorporated her passion for social media strategies, with team activities more
cantered around developing new marketing. She also identified members of her team who might be
able to help her implement these new strategies and directed her interactions with these individuals
toward her new goals. As a result, not only has her engagement in her work increased, but she has also
developed new ideas that are being recognized and advanced within the organization. In sum, she has
found that by actively and creatively examining her work, she has been able to craft her current job into
one that is truly satisfying.
Questions:
1. Why do you think many people are in jobs that are not satisfying? Do organizations help people craft
satisfying and motivating jobs, and if not, why not?
2. Think about how you might reorient yourself to your own job. Are the principles of job crafting
described above relevant to your work? Why or why not?
3. Some contend that job crafting sounds good in principle but is not necessarily available to everyone.
What types of jobs are probably not amenable to job crafting activities? 
4. Are there any potential drawbacks to the job crafting approach? How can these concerns be minimized?
Solutions:
https://www.allfreepapers.com/Miscellaneous/Why-Do-You-Think-Many-People-Are-in/79269.html
https://www.studymode.com/essays/Why-Do-You-Think-Many-People-67974088.html
https://pdfcoffee.com/naseeb-pdf-free.html
CASE 4: MULTICULTURAL MULTINATIONAL TEAMS AT IBM
When many people think of a traditional, established company, they think of IBM. IBM has been famous
for its written and unwritten rules—such as its no-layoff policy, its focus on individual promotions and
achievement, the expectation of lifetime service at the company, and its requirement of suits and white
shirts at work. The firm was one of the mainstays of the “man in a gray flannel suit” corporate culture in
the United States.
Times have certainly changed. IBM has clients in 170 countries and now does two-thirds of its business
outside the United States. As a result, it has overturned virtually all aspects of its old culture. One
relatively new focus is on teamwork. While IBM uses work teams extensively, like almost all large
organizations, the way it does so is unique. To foster appreciation of a variety of cultures and open up
emerging markets, IBM sends hundreds of its employees to month-long volunteer project teams in
regions of the world where most big companies don’t do business. Al Chakra, a software development
manager located in Raleigh, North Carolina, was sent to join GreenForest, a furniture manufacturing
team in Timisoara, Romania. With Chakra were IBM employees from five other countries. Together, the
team helped GreenForest become more computer-savvy to increase its business. In return for the IBM
team’s assistance, GreenForest was charged nothing.
This is hardly altruism at work. IBM firmly believes these multicultural, multinational teams are good
investments. First, they help lay the groundwork for uncovering business in emerging economies, many
of which might be expected to enjoy greater future growth than mature markets. Stanley Litow, the IBM
VP who oversees the program, also thinks it helps IBMers develop multicultural team skills and an
appreciation of local markets. He notes, “We want to build a leadership cadre that learns about these
places and also learns to exchange their diverse backgrounds and skills.” Among the countries where
IBM has sent its multicultural teams are Turkey, Tanzania, Vietnam, Ghana, and the Philippines.
As for Chakra, he was thrilled to be selected for the team. “I felt like I won the lottery,” he said. He
advised GreenForest on how to become a paperless company in 3 years and recommended computer
systems to boost productivity and increase exports to Western Europe.
Another team member, Bronwyn Grantham, an Australian who works at IBM in London, advised
GreenForest about sales strategies. Describing her team experience, Grantham said, “I’ve never worked
so closely with a team of IBMers from such a wide range of competencies.
Questions:
1. If you calculate the person-hours devoted to IBM’s team projects, they amount to more than
180,000 hours of management time each year. Do you think this is a wise investment of IBM’s
human resources? Why or why not?
2. Why do you think IBM’s culture changed from formal, stable, and individualistic to informal,
impermanent, and team-oriented?
3. Would you like to work on one of IBM’s multicultural, multinational project teams? Why or why not?
4. Multicultural project teams often face problems with communication, expectations, and values.
How do you think some of these challenges can be overcome?
5. If you calculate the person-hours devoted to IBM’s team projects, they amount to more than
180,000 hours of management time each year. Do you think this is a wise investment of IBM’s
human resources? Why or why not?
Solution:
 https://pdfcoffee.com/analysis-of-the-case-study-multicultural-and-multinational-teams-at-ibm-pdf-
free.html
 https://prezi.com/qzjpho9dkexw/multicultural-multinational-teams-at-ibm/
 https://www.slideshare.net/Chhotelal11202102/multicultural-multinational-team-at-ibm (from slide
7)
 https://www.studymode.com/essays/Contemporary-Organization-Behavior-Ibm-s-Multicultural-
Multinational-74518708.html

CASE 5: HEALTHY EMPLOYEES ARE HAPPY EMPLOYEES
Teow Boon Ling is the general manager of Cargo Community Network (CCN), a market leader in the
logistics industry that believes that a company’s biggest asset is its workforce. In 2005, he initiated the
Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) Program for his 60 employees. He envisioned that employees who
possess a healthy mind and body will contribute to the overall growth and productivity of the
organization.
Strong management support and participation is pervasive throughout the implementation of the WHP
program. A senior manager heads the Company Recreation Committee (CRC), comprised of
representatives from different departments. CRC, with support and guidance from the WHP consultant,
designs activities that address employees’ physical and mental well-being and healthy eating. Annual
basic health screenings and health and activities surveys are conducted to collate information on
employees’ current lifestyles, health practices, and preferred types of activities. To promote healthy
eating habits and lifestyle among the staff, the company organized free distribution of fruits on “Friday
Fruit Day” as well as regular nutrition talks, healthy cooking demos, and fitness classes.
Despite the initial setback of low staff participation (only 10 percent) in the organized activities, Teow
persisted and remained convinced of the intended transformation of the company. He acknowledged,
“It was not easy for one to change the habits of the employees and begin an active lifestyle. It’s just like
training for a marathon—it might seem impossibly difficult at the beginning, but you just need to take
that first step. Set small achievable goals from the outset and once you start achieving them, you’ll find
that you eventually become stronger and faster with less effort.”
He leads by example by taking part in all the organized activities. He also continuously works on
improving the policies to better integrate workplace health promotion within the organization culture.
Innovatively, he has included WHP as a component in the performance appraisal that affects the
employees’ bonus payout. A points system, monetary tokens, and award recognitions were also given to
motivate employees who made the effort to lead healthier lifestyles. Flexible working hours are also
introduced for staff to take time off to participate in weekly jog and brisk walk sessions.
Four years down the WHP road, Teow proudly commented at the Health Promotion Silver Award
ceremony, “Productivity is pretty hard to measure but I see improved team spirit, the atmosphere is
more cheery, people are more happy—[they are] more open, engaging in discussions, with increased
communication across departments
Questions:
1. Describe Teow’s personality and leadership style. How does it foster or hinder his effort to
transform CCN into a healthy and productive organization?
2. Based on the description of Teow’s personality and leadership style, in your opinion, is he a
charismatic leader, a transformational leader, or both? Support your answer.
Solutions:
 https://graduateway.com/healthy-employees-are-happy-employees/
 https://prezi.com/l6kh_dwujyaj/healthy-employees-are-happy-employees/
CASE 6
The great global recession has claimed many victims. In many countries, unemployment is at near-
historic highs, and even those who have managed to keep their jobs have often been asked to accept
reduced work hours or pay cuts. Another consequence of the current business and economic
environment is an increase in the number of individuals employed on a temporary or contingent basis.
The statistics on U.S. temporary workers are grim. Many, like single mother Tammy Smith, have no
health insurance, no retirement benefits, no vacation, no severance, and no access to unemployment
insurance. Increases in layoffs mean that many jobs formerly considered safe have become “temporary”
in the sense that they could disappear at any time with little warning. Forecasts suggest that the next 5
to 10 years will be similar, with small pay increases, worse working conditions, and low levels of job
security. As Peter Cappelli of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School notes, “Employers are
trying to get rid of all fixed costs. First they did it with employment benefits. Now they’re doing it with
the jobs themselves. Everything is variable.”
We might suppose these corporate actions are largely taking place in an era of diminishing profitability.
However, data from the financial sector is not consistent with this explanation. Among Fortune 500
companies, 2009 saw the second-largest jump in corporate earnings in the list’s 56-year history.
Moreover, many of these gains do not appear to be the result of increases in revenue. Rather, they
reflect dramatic decreases in labour costs. One equity market researcher noted, “The largest part of the
gain came from lower payrolls rather than the sluggish rise in sales . . .” Wages also rose only slightly
during this period of rapidly increasing corporate profitability.
Some observers suggest the very nature of corporate profit monitoring is to blame for the discrepancy
between corporate profitability and outcomes for workers. Some have noted that teachers whose
evaluations are based on standardized test scores tend to “teach to the test,” to the detriment of other
areas of learning. In the same way, when a company is judged primarily by the single metric of a stock
price, executives naturally try their best to increase this number, possibly to the detriment of other
concerns like employee well-being or corporate culture. On the other hand, others defend corporate
actions that increase the degree to which they can treat labour flexibly, noting that in an increasingly
competitive global marketplace, it might be necessary to sacrifice some jobs to save the organization as
a whole.
The issues of how executives make decisions about workforce allocation, how job security and corporate
loyalty influence employee behaviour, and how emotional reactions come to surround these issues are
all core components of organizational behaviour research.
Questions:
1. To what extent can individual business decisions (as opposed to economic forces) explain
the deterioration in working conditions for many workers?
2. Do business organizations have a responsibility to ensure that employees have secure jobs
with good working conditions, or is their primary responsibility to shareholders?
3. What alternative measures of organizational performance, besides share prices, do you think might
change the focus of business leaders?
Solutions:
 https://blablawriting.net/individual-business-decisions-essay
 https://www.studymode.com/essays/Unit-1-Assignment-63890935.html
 http://www.businessstudiesqa.com/2017/08/organization-behavior-and-
administration.html#:~:text=Q)%201%2D24%3A%20To,the%20deterioration%20in%20individual
%20businesses.
CASE 7: DIVERSITY AT WORK: NESTLÉ MALAYSIA
Nestlé, a Swiss company, was founded by Henri Nestlé in 1866 but today, the company operates in 86
countries worldwide, and employs more than 280,000 people. Nestlé’s commitment to providing
quality products to Malaysians dates back almost 100 years ago. Nestlé began in Malaysia in 1912 as the
Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in Penang and after its success moved to the capital Kuala
Lumpur in 1939. The most popular Nestlé brands in Malaysia include Nescafé coffee, Kit Kat chocolate
bar, and the drink MILO®.
Apart from the company’s popularity among consumers, Nestlé in Malaysia is viewed as an attractive
organization to work for which provides exciting new opportunities, benefits, and promising careers to
its employees. As Nestlé continues to expand, the company realizes that effective diversity
management increases the organization’s access to the widest possible pool of skills, abilities,
and ideas. Taking advantage of Malaysia’s multiethnic backgrounds and its employees’
demographic profiles, the company strives to create products to suit local tastes and cultural
flavors. Diversity is even incorporated in the company’s corporate values to ensure that the employees
understand how diversity is essential to the success of Nestlé in Malaysia. The fact that its top
management is comprised of people from various ethnic backgrounds and nationalities further
enhances the company’s ability to promote creativity in its practices and product developments.
One of the initiatives made by Nestlé in Malaysia, demonstrating the organization’s commitment to
diversity, was to voluntarily obtain the Halal Certification, awarded by JAKIM (the Department of
Islamic Development Malaysia), for all of its food products manufactured in Malaysia. This has played a
significant role in charting Nestlé’s position in the Malaysian halal market. Moreover, Nestlé in
Malaysia has managed to tap into the local tastes through the development of products such as Maggi
2-Minute Noodles Curry, Asam Laksa, and Tom Yam flavors. Case Study Questions1. Identify the key
characteristics that Nestlé in Malaysia considered to be crucial in maintaining its leading position in
countries like Malaysia.2. Discuss other effective diversity programs that Nestlé in Malaysia can apply to
ensure the company’s continuous improvement.
Questions:
1. Identify the key characteristics that Nestlé in Malaysia considered to be crucial in maintaining its
leading position in countries like Malaysia.
2. Discuss other effective diversity programs that Nestlé in Malaysia can apply to ensure the company's
continuous improvement. 
Solutions:

CASE 8: IS IT OKAY TO CRY AT WORK?
As this emotions are an inevitable part of people’s behavior at work. At the same time, it’s not entirely
clear that we’ve reached a point where people feel comfortable expressing all emotions at work. The
reason might be that business culture and etiquette remain poorly suited to handling overt emotional
displays. The question is, can organizations become more intelligent about emotional management? Is it
ever appropriate to yell, laugh, or cry at work? Some people are skeptical about the virtues of more
emotional displays at the workplace. As the notes, emotions are automatic physiological responses to
the environment, and as such, they can be difficult to control appropriately. One 22-year-old customer
service representative named Laura who was the subject of a case study noted that fear and anger were
routinely used as methods to control employees, and employees deeply resented this use of emotions
to manipulate them.
In another case, the chairman of a major television network made a practice of screaming at employees
whenever anything went wrong, leading to badly hurt feelings and a lack of loyalty to the organization.
Like Laura, workers at this organization were hesitant to show their true reactions to these emotional
outbursts for fear of being branded as “weak” or “ineffectual.” It might seem like these individuals
worked in heavily emotional workplaces, but in fact, only a narrow range of emotions was deemed
acceptable. Anger appears to be more acceptable than sadness in many organizations, and anger can
have serious maladaptive consequences.
Others believe organizations that recognize and work with emotions effectively are more creative,
satisfying, and productive. For example, Laura noted that if she could express her hurt feelings without
fear, she would be much more satisfied with her work. In other words, the problem with Laura’s
organization is not that emotions are displayed, but that emotional displays are handled poorly.
Others note that use of emotional knowledge, like being able to read and understand the reactions of
others, is crucial for workers ranging from salespeople and customer service agents all the way to
managers and executives. One survey even found that 88 percent of workers feel being sensitive to the
emotions of others is an asset. Management consultant Erika Anderson notes, “Crying at work is
transformative and can open the door to change.” The question then is, can organizations take specific
steps to become better at allowing emotional displays without opening a Pandora’s Box of outbursts?
Questions:
1. What factors do you think make some organizations ineffective at managing emotions?
2. Have you ever observed a company where emotions were used as part of a management style?
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of this approach in your experience.
Solutions:
 https://phdessay.com/what-factors-do-you-think-make-some-organizations-ineffective-at-
managing-emotions/
 https://studymoose.com/is-it-ok-to-cry-at-work-case-study-essay
 https://www.studocu.com/row/document/university-of-bahrain/organizational-management/
chapter-6-is-it-ok-to-cry-at-work/10470505
 https://www.otherpapers.com/essay/Case-Incident-1-Is-It-Okay-to/36781.html
 https://jgustafson32.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/chapter-4/
CASE 9: THIRD CIRCLE ASSET MANAGEMENT
Third Circle is an asset management company that operates in the financial services industry in South
Africa. The company has a vast knowledge of psychometrics and is constantly refining its psychometric
models. It works on the premise that there are three main groups of individuals: dolphins, puffer fish,
and sharks.
According to Third Circle’s approach, “dolphins” are group players and extremely sociable. They will
always look out for the safety of the others in the group and their behavior is always focused to benefit
the group. Dolphin people like to strategize, focus on opportunities, and work together in harmony.
They operate mostly as a clan and understand the rules of interdependence. By working together they
know that they don’t have to know everything. Each of them has certain abilities and by working
together they can unlock more opportunities. The “puffer fish” operate on the sidelines; they don’t get
involved in the mainstream activities and will hardly ever air their opinions. If you get too close to them,
they will blow themselves up and have a very poisonous sting.
The “sharks” are big and strong and are known as the bullies of the ocean. They are seen as threatening
and predatory. Shark personality people are sharp and opportunistic. They see opportunities where
there are none. This is why we need these thick skinned bullies from time to time to shake up our world.
The natural reaction is to always only want dolphins on your team. However, that isn’t healthy because
the group’s approach could be narrow and the business could ultimately lose out on many
opportunities.
Puffer fish are important in a team—they make life difficult for team members, forcing them to rethink
their strategies, which can lead to solutions that the team would never have come up with if not for the
persistent and painful “stings!” Sharks also play a critical role in challenging teams to consider all the
inherent risks of their approach or strategy because a shark will not hesitate to attack at the opportune
time to destroy an initiative.
Third Circle walks a fine balance by having all three of these behaviors found on its team. It understands
that by harnessing all three of these behaviors, the end business will be considerably stronger, although
the journey is not always a pleasant one!
Questions:
1. People have different roles to play—do you think they all can contribute?
2. What is the value in having different personalities as part of your team?
3. How do you ensure that you have a balanced team in your working environment ensuring true
harmony for effectiveness while allowing puffer and shark personalities to stimulate and challenge
the team?
4. What is your personal profile and would you deliberately invite other personality profiles into your
work group? Do you have the same view about inviting other personalities into your social groups?
CASE 10: DID TOYOTA’S CULTURE CAUSE ITS PROBLEMS?
You may be familiar with the problems that have recently plagued Toyota. However, you may not know
the whole story. First the facts. In 2010 Toyota issued a series of recalls for various models. The most
serious was for a defect called “unintended acceleration,” which occurs when a car accelerates with no
apparent input from the driver. Investigations revealed that unintended acceleration in Toyota cars has
been the cause of 37 deaths since 2000. When the problems first surfaced, however, Toyota denied it
was the cause. Eventually, Toyota apologized and recalled more than 9 million cars.
To many, the root cause of Toyota’s problems was its insular, arrogant culture. Fortune argued: “Like
GM before it, Toyota has gotten smug. It believes the Toyota Way is the only way.” Time reported “a
Toyota management team that had fallen in love with itself and become too insular to properly handle
something like the current crisis.” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood described Toyota’s culture as
“safety-deaf.” But is this the reality? Increasingly, evidence suggests that Toyota’s culture—or even the
cars it produces—is not with elderly drivers, and elderly drivers are known to be more prone to
confusing pedals. Many other independent investigations, including ones conducted by automobile
experts at Popular Mechanics and Car and Driver, reached the same conclusion: the main cause of
unintended acceleration was drivers mistaking the gas pedal for the brake pedal.
There’s a long history of misreporting on this issue. Audi was nearly driven into bankruptcy when 60
Minutes aired a report, “Out of Control,” purportedly proving that defects in the car were behind six
fatal sudden-acceleration accidents. As it turns out, 60 Minutes paid sometime to tamper with the car—
filling a canister of compressed air linked to the transmission—to cause the sudden acceleration shown
in the segment.
Further investigations never uncovered evidence that defects in Audi’s cars were behind the incidents.
Does Toyota have an insular and inbred corporate culture? Probably. But it’s been that way for a long
time, and it’s far from clear that the culture, or even the company’s cars, is responsible for the sudden
acceleration problems. The source of the problem.
A 2011 report released by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) concluded
that unintended acceleration was not caused by problems in the electronic circuitry. The Wall Street
Journal wrote that “safety regulators, human-error experts and auto makers say driver error is the
primary cause of sudden acceleration.” Forbes and The Atlantic commented that most of the incidents
of sudden acceleration in Toyota cars occurred.
Questions:
1. If Toyota is not the cause of unintended acceleration, why was it blamed for it?
2. Investigation have shown that after stories of unintended acceleration are publicized, report of
incidents increase for all automakers. Why is this the case?
3. Is it possible to have a strong – even arrogant – culture and still produce safe and high quality
vehicles?
4. If you were the CEO of Toyota when the story was first publicized, how would you have reacted?
Solutions:
https://prezi.com/yanijuapqk4x/case-incident-2-did-toyotas-culture-cause-its-problems/
https://www.slideshare.net/PathmarajPathmanatha1/toyata-case-study (from slide 7)