Reference no: EM132371100

1. Building Your Management Skills Portfolio

Your Management Skills Portfolio is a collection of activities specially designed to demonstrate your management knowledge and skill. Be sure to save your work. Taking your printed portfolio to an employment interview could be helpful in obtaining a job.

The portfolio activity for this chapter is Motivating Workers at Honda of America. Read the following about Honda of America and answer the questions that follow.

In 1977, Honda, a Japanese company, announced plans to build a motorcycle manufacturing plant in the United States near Marysville, Ohio, and in 1980 announced plans to build an automobile manufacturing facility in the same area. Ever since the company made these announcements, Honda's history has been nothing but impressive. To emphasize this success, the Marysville Auto Plant now produces the Accord Coupe for export to Japan. Honda of America has become a leading auto exporter in the United States, and the motorcycle plant has produced its one-millionth unit of the Gold Wing motorcycle. Many maintain that the following belief statement, which appears prominently on the Honda of America website, is a primary reason for the company's success: "Why do people want to work for Honda? How does Honda achieve industry-leading quality year after year, making extremely complex products such as cars, trucks, motorcycles, and engines? The answer is in Honda's foundation principle-the tenant upon which all the other Honda philosophies are based. It's called Respect for the Individual."

Founders Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa believed in creating a workforce in which each member's ideas received the full consideration and respect of the group. People are diverse and that's a good thing, Mr. Honda believed, because diversity of thought, skills, background, and experiences can enrich the workplace and the product, if the differences are allowed to generate ideas.
In order for the associates' best ideas to come forward, they must feel valued and comfortable speaking up and interacting with their work groups. That's where respect comes in. Only in an atmosphere of maximized respect and inclusion can a workforce reach its highest levels of achievement.

Activities

You have just been contacted to interview for the top management position at Honda of America. You would be responsible for both automobile and motorcycle manufacturing. Before you visit the Marysville facility for a series of face-to-face interviews, however, you have been asked to answer the following questions related to your own beliefs about how managers should handle people. Answer the following questions in preparation for your trip to Marysville.
(Assignment below must be at least 400 words total.)

1. What role do you think the individual needs of people play in building a successful company?

2. What insights do you have about creating employee commitment to the success of Honda of America?

3. Do you believe that maintaining fair pay in Honda's Marysville plant is important? Why?

4. What is your personal philosophy about using "job design" as a tool for motivating Honda of America employees?

5. What management style would you use at Honda of America? Discuss its short- and long-term implications for production levels.

2. Personal reflection case: Reflect on your own experience, either at work, in school, or in community organizations. Identify a time when you were a member of a dysfunctional or less than optimal team. Using the theories and concepts contained in this chapters 15 and 16, diagnose the root causes for this team dysfunction. Make sure you reflect on how cultural differences may have played a role in team conflict. Next, identify some of the consequences of this dysfunction. Lastly, if you were in a formal leadership position in this team, how could you have changed the culture of the team to raise its level of teamwork and performance. (500 words)

3. View the Ted.com Video TED Video: The Puzzle of Motivation with Dan Pink: Reflect on your work experiences within an organizational context (business, community, school). Then respond to this question: Do you think that the motivational principles discussed in the video have a potential to be applied in business? Where could this approach really pay off in the typical organization? What kinds of problems do you see in applying these approaches? (500 words)