Introduction
Ghosn understanding of emotion and change
One of the most important factors to the successful turnaround of Nissan was that Carlos Ghosn’s was Ghosn’s approach towards the job and he was also able to make decisions his way and through the best possible approach. His tactical approach was successful in every sense because he was able to manage the resistance to change and was able to adapt the strategy towards organizational culture and change. Carlos Ghosn had believed in the idea that people not resist to change. The appalling financial situation of Nissan had proved that it was in a desperate need for a swift change (NMC, 2012). He strongly believed that the overall resistance within Nissan had been obviously caused by some of the important consequences which the change may have brought and not only the change within the company itself. The underlying causes of the resistance to change are being afraid of the unknown, fear of adverse results and even the fear of facing responsibilities.
Ghosn knew that resistance was inevitable and there will always be some resistance which is caused by the unlikely and unforeseen fear of the unknown and fear of poor results. He asserted that it will be very difficult for everyone to fill out the basic human survival needs for themselves and for their family and losing their work is a crucial cause of resistance to change. Carlos Ghosn had implemented one extremely crucial change. He had determined that employee advancement system and promotion was extremely crucial to a job. He sorted the problem out by portraying a crucial factor age, experience or length of service and educational was not pivotal to organizational change. He believed that the ability and capacity of the employees to perform challenging and demanding tasks on a consistent basis was pivotal (Wendell, 1973).
Use of cross functional teams and employee buy-in
Carlos Ghosn utilization of his strongly built cross functional teams was the core reason behind his company’s success and in turning the financial position of Nissan around within a short space of time and it had also helped along with the right timing and a great execution of ideas and also a great amount of determination. Nissan’s financial position was catastrophic and it was unfortunately due to the sudden devaluation of the yen in the global financial market which was one of the main contributors to the Asian financial crisis. The combination of the financial crisis and the financial deterioration of Nissan had prompted them to go for a cross functional team approach and Ghosn was the main architect behind the implementation of this successful strategy. During 1999, Renault had been in search for a business partner and it could only strengthen its global position by keeping up with the increased global competition from car manufacturers around the world. The timing for the strategic alliance of Renault and Nissan was perfect and it may not have been any sooner or quicker. Organizational culture has always been directly link to the company’s performance and the strategic alliance between Renault and Nissan may have been initially been difficult to manage for Ghosn. But he didn’t let the cross functional approach becoming a hindrance in the organizational management. Ghosn’s unorthodox approach to various organizational tasks had obviously met with some unwillingness and resistance his approach was to get the best possible outcome of the overall situation. His positive and optimistic approach towards the cultural and organizational differences and his focus on being able to focus upon two different cultures had made culture and traditional diversity a massive strength and it was a helping factor in the changing process and successful implementation of cross functional team (Schultz, 2006).
Carlos Ghosn was quite lucky that whatever strategy he had made was executed according to plan. The financial crisis across Japan had made the local employees very concerned about their jobs as work was very limited and they had to abide by whatever strategic decisions the company had made. However, Ghosn’s approach was a great source of motivation for the workforce in Nissan and they had suddenly stopped to worry about the financial crisis which were surrounded them. Carlos Ghosn’s business strategy and his unconventional approach to form cross functional teams have been able to make some crucial changes the past few years although it could have easily been way more challenging. If Nissan had been able to make the same changes a few years earlier, it would have been successful in being able to find a strategic solution to its corporate issues. The cultural difference among Renault and Nissan was a big difference. However, Ghosn was able to analyze the key elements for employee buy-in and how to consistently maintain operational efficiency and effectiveness and how to maintain group harmony. Ghosn was a great admirer of individualism. Although he did encourage the risk-taking behavior of employees and their personal accountability towards their work, He never excluded the idea of a diverse and mutually co operative environment. Ghosn was able to use the idea of cross functional teams even though the teams never had any decision making power and were excluded from the principle of decision making process which was the core principle which previously had resulted in consistent delays. The best thing about Ghosn was that he was able to manage and take the best points from both cultures simultaneously by utilizing the principles of each concept (Kurt, 1958).
Conclusion
The importance of understanding emotions and the ability to communicate buy-in is quite a technical issue and I have personally experienced at my workplace. Senior executives and higher authorities at my workplace are unable to understand the importance of communication and they often think that it would not be possible to portray the organizational vision and mission on a large scale. I personally believe that employees are not result oriented machines but individuals who want regular motivation and appreciation for their work. The study was able to successfully elaborate the concept of employee buy-in and did not only help me in understanding the importance of emotion within an organization but also the value of organizational synergy.
References
Kurt, L (1958). Group Decision and Social Change, New York: Holt, Retrieved: 07-10-2013.
Schultz, P. (2006) Psychology and work today: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology (9th edition)
Wendell, L (1973). Organization development: behavioural science interventions for organization improvement. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Nissan Motor Company (2012) also available at http://www.nissan-global.com/GCC/Japan/History/history/index-e.html
BBC (2001) "Nissan and Renault cement ties", BBC News, Retrieved: 2001-10-30
