Article Abstract:
NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.), the joint venture between General Motors and Toyota (in Fremont, California), has for two years been managed primarily by Toyota executives. In that time labor relations have improved dramatically in comparison to the problems experienced by the plant when it was entirely a General Motors installation. The improvements are not attributable to new laborers, as 85 percent of the original United Auto Workers workforce was rehired. Toyota management with its vastly different labor relations approach is the key to the plant's industrial relations success. The Toyota approach is called Kaizen (which, loosely translated from the Japanese means "never-ending quest for perfection"). The seven goals of Kaizen personnel management are identified and discussed. Also discussed briefly are the Japanese management techniques known as just-in-time inventory control, total quality control (described as a company's sociotechnical system), the changing roles of factory workers, and job security as an employment goal.
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Article Abstract:
Few executive development programs exist because the programs are expensive and not widely available, and because executive training experts are expensive and in short supply. In 1984, the Rochester Methodist Hospital (in Minnesota) developed a training program called 'Management Forum' that invited non-hospital management experts from 30 Fortune 500 corporations to make presentations to hospital executives and executive-trainees. The executives spoke from personal experience and were reimbursed for travel expenses. Participating experts were also paid a $250 honorarium for each presentation. This innovative and cost-effective executive training seminar program is described, and the program's benefits (such as positive publicity for the hospital) are discussed. A list of 12 of the 21 Fortune 500 executives who participated in Rochester Methodist's seminars is provided.
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Article Abstract:
The Friendly Ice Cream Corp. (Wilbraham, Massachusetts), with 22,000 employees and 700 restaurants in 17 states, implemented a personnel management and planning program referred to as "The Management Process." This program is an integrated management system that addresses employee productivity objectives in two phases, one emphasizing the manager's role and the other focusing on performance-support process planning. In addition to the planning sessions and the calendar, eight steps are described as the components of The Management Process: (1) career counseling; (2) the human resource plan; (3) the human resource inventory; (4) the executive succession plan; (5) employment development; (6) the performance appraisal; (7) the performance plan; and (8) the position description. The program is described as "user-friendly."
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