How HR caused Toyota to crash

Toyota's current predicament is a result of poorly designed practices and weak execution on the part of the human resource department, writes Dr John Sullivan

Unless you have been living off the planet Earth, you have probably already read or heard about several mechanical failures in Toyota automobiles that led the automaker famous for quality to recall nearly nine million cars worldwide. In addition, poor handling of the issue in the public eye has damaged the automaker's brand reputation and caused sales to fall to their lowest point in more than a decade.

This think piece wasn't written to inform you further about the mechanical failures, but rather to determine if the human error could have been caused by factors beyond the employee's control.

Questions:

1. Based on the case study, identify the issues related with Toyata failure.

2. Explain the main issues to this failure. Identify each of the problems with a brief explanation.

3. How Toyota can control and improve their current and future issues?

4. Do you think, HR should play a major role in determine Toyota success? Why?