Ineffective Leadership

In the movie "Gung Ho", directed by Ron Howard, a car manufacturing plant in Hadleyville, PA is bought by the Japanese company Assan Motors. The plant has been closed for sometime and the town was desperate for it to reopen in order to bring revenue into this deteriorating city. The entire town was excited about the factory reopening. Once it did open, they were met with an extremely demanding executive team. Assan Motors expected the Americans to work like the Japanese; hard and diligent. They were expected to work as long as it took to get the job done perfectly. Stage 1 - Establish a Sense of Urgency

For the town of Hadleyville, PA a sense of urgency existed from the beginning of the movie in the sense that the factory was closed, the town was deteriorating, and the people were desperate to continue their lives in this town. Stevenson was chosen by the employees to represent them to the Japanese, but when the Japanese came to Hadleyville Stevenson failed to help the employees understand the necessity of changing their work behaviors. For example, during the morning exercise he pokes fun at it by saying "just do it for a while and eventually they will forget about it." A better way to handle this situation would have been to involve himself, from the beginning, in the morning exercise routine and to explain the importance of doing them. He should also remind them why the Japanese came to Hadleyville in the first place.

Stage 2 - Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition

Assan Motors and Stevenson failed to form a powerful coalition. The two groups have different ideas of what makes a team and how best to run the factory. The Japanese believe that the employees should live, eat, and breathe the factory. They do not allow workers to visit family in the hospital and they expect the men to come in early, stay late, skip lunch and even work on Sundays if production is behind schedule. The Japanese want faster production with no defects and also no incentives. In their culture the team works for the success of the company. On the other hand, Stevenson and the employees believe that family and friends should be the most important factors in their lives.

In order to ensure that all parties are heard, I would put together a group to include a member of the Japanese management team, Stevenson, and a representative of the employees. Each member would bring thoughts, ideas, and concerns to be discussed.

Stage 3 - Develop a Compelling Vision and Strategy

Neither Stevenson nor Assan Motors developed a clear vision and strategy for the plant. Each side had their own vision of how the plant should be run. The Japanese have a set vision in place that works for them in Japan. They failed to develop a convincing vision and implementation strategy for working in the United States where work ethics and culture are extremely different. Stevenson on the other hand has a vision of the factory being run just as it was before it was closed.

The Japanese and Stevenson both shared the vision of having a productive factory but they differed in how best to achieve this goal. The Japanese and Stevenson should first talk with each other to establish a comprehensive strategy to inspire action. The discussion should include, work hours, rules on the factory floor, what to do in case of an emergency, and which workers should work on which machine.

Stage 4 - Communicate the Vision Widely

At first the Japanese and Stevenson did not effectively communicate their visions with each other or with the employees. The Japanese expected the employees to act just as factory workers in Japan but without making the American employees and Stevenson fully aware of these expectations. Stevenson also failed to communicate to the employees that unless they produced 15,000 cars there would be no raise.

With the aim of widely communicating the visions of the management team I would have the coalition hold frequent meetings with small groups of employees and send out newsletters of the changes to all employees to remind them of these changes.

Stage 5 - Empower Employees to Act on the Vision

The employees were not given the right to say how many cars they could produce in one month instead the decision was made for them. Also they did not have the option to pick which machinery they were best equipped to operate instead the Japanese management