Extreme Toyota: Radical Contradictions That Drive Success at the World's Best Manufacturer

8.6. Conclusion

In this chapter, we described Toyota's up-and-in approach to human resource management as the third integrative force that binds the global organization together. As we have shown in previous chapters, Toyota's penchant for experimentation in pursuit of impossible goals and its embrace of a diversity of perspectives in pursuit of local customization undoubtedly raises the level of anxiety in the organization. But these expansive forces produce a healthy anxiety that does not result in dysfunction because employees know that their individual livelihoods are not on the line. This provides a stable environment that allows them to think for the benefit of the company and over the long term, while also helping to preserve the corporate memory that is so essential to advancement and innovation.

The policy of up-and-in human resource management is supported by the core values of "continuous improvement" or kaizen and "respect for people." These values are articulated in The Toyota Way 2001, which is informed by the founders' philosophies. There are five characteristics of up-and-in human resource management: long-term employment; on-the-job training for continuous improvement; the notion that everybody should win through teamwork; a preference for action; and learning-based evaluation criteria. We would argue that the up-and-in approach to human resource management is more suitable to industrial production in the knowledge age because it puts the human being, rather than ...