Management essay - Assignment Example

Honda Motor Scooters Causal Roots of this Fiasco The fiasco from Honda Motor Scooters was caused by the failure of the management to cover matters that were related to the employees of the company. According to Saini (n.d, p. 3), much of what was covered in the company’s Dream Team three monthly quarterly newsletters focused more on targets, announcement of and exhortations related to achievements that were concerned with quality, training and safety programs that were concerned with safe and defensive two wheelers driving, and finally safety.

One of the controversial issues was the issuance of Diwali gifts. The workers felt dissatisfied with the amount of gifts they were receiving based on the stature of the company in the globe (Saini n.d., p. 4). Additionally, matters of the employees were covered partially in this newsletter, and some of them were like marriage news, results of sports competition, and childbirth (Saini n.d., p. 5). HRM Strategy Failure After the production had begun, operations at the company were running smoothly for about 2 years.

Unpleasant events started occurring and in one of the circumstances that happened in November 2004, the workers showed a big resentment by refusing to accept a Diwali gift that was offered by the management. They felt that the gift belittled them considering the company had a great name because of its stature in the global market. They also had an unfairness perception when they heard from rumors that another company called Hero Honda gave refrigerator as Diwali gift. Other incidents that led to the failure by management-involved employees forced to sign the sheet of movement that restricted their movement to the toilets and drinking water.

Some employees who did not adhere to this rule were dismissed. In addition, most of the time the workers were stressed since they were made to attend simultaneously to more than one machine (Saini n.d., p.5). Leave was also a problem since the management was not ready to offer one even if the circumstances were serious. Not only were they not granted leave, but also, they were given unlikable sermons. Other problems like failure to meet expected goals called for the termination of the employment, temporal change of shifts by employees was not allowed, threats of termination every now and then, matters of posting were not taken seriously.

The authority of the management created fear among employees that no worker could give his or her opinion or redress grievances. Cross-cultural Issues Saini (n.d., p. 5) suggest that the senior managers who were mostly Indians did not allow the employees to meet the top management who were Japanese, to report the problems they were facing. This means that the top management knew nothing about these problems. To make matters worse, the workers were not happy with the vice president in charge of manufacturing which was a Japanese national.

Most of them described his attitude as idiosyncratic, and this created fear among employees who said that he was strict and harsh. His act of hitting an employee led to them asking for fifty demands. To him, a kick on the worker’s leg was somehow friendly but later the employees cooperated to raise a slogan against him. Another incident occurred when he pushed the cap of the Sikh officer, and it fell to the ground, making him feel insulted. He did this act because the officer was not wearing the usual cap of the company; instead, he was wearing a cap that contained a different color.

All these led to the workers push to form a union (Saini n.d., p. 6). As Globe dictates, it was the responsibility of the top management to predict and understand their Indian employee’s cultures, and the challenges they might encounter and how to cope in such situations. If this process was followed the vice president could not have used acts that he thought were culturally right, only to find out, that what he did deteriorate his employees’ dignity. References Saini, S, D, n.d, People Management Fiasco in Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India LTD, Asia Case Research Center, 1-17.