Describe how leaders at Toyota have made major decisions. Which approach to decision making best reflects their approach?

Toyota often shows up on lists of the most admired businesses in the world. Its products generally earn top scores for quality and value, its financial base is among the strongest in its industry, and its leaders have often been respected for their integrity and strategic vision. But even the best companies can hit an occasional speed bump when their leaders falter. After overtaking General Motors to become the world’s largest automobile company in 2008, quality and safety problems with Toyota vehicles began to surface in 2010.
Specifically, word began to spread that certain Toyota vehicles were prone to uncontrolled acceleration that could lead to accidents—
sometimes fatal. To make matters worse, it also became public knowledge that Toyota had known about the problems for some time and had chosen to do nothing about them. Over the next year, the company recalled more than 8 million vehicles (5 million in the United States alone) to correct this and other safety problems. These recalls, in turn, cost the firm hundreds of millions of dollars and severely damaged its reputation for quality.
Toyota’s leadership also came under intense scrutiny—and criticism—in the wake of these problems. Moreover, this scrutiny revealed not one but two different sets of leadership shortcomings at the company. One set of shortcomings may have played a pivotal role leading up to the quality crisis and the other served to further tarnish Toyota’s reputation after the problems became public knowledge. One of a leader’s most important tasks is to thoroughly understand the organization culture at the company. It would follow logically, then, that if the culture is changed, the leader must understand the dynamics and potential outcomes of this change as well. And it is in this area that Toyota’s leaders may have first stumbled. For decades Toyota’s culture was centered on the principle of using “only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that services your people and processes.” This translated into high-quality products and lean production processes and was known internally as “The Toyota Way.”
But under the leadership of Fujio Cho and Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota’s chairperson and vice chairperson, respectively, the firm had begun to adjust its core operating principles. Cho was a strong advocate of environmentally friendly automotive technology, such as the hybridelectric Prius, and led the company’s effort to position Toyota as a market leader in this field. Watanabe, for his part, spearheaded Toyota’s efforts to increase capability for building large gas-guzzling cars and small trucks in pursuit of increased U.S. market share. Indeed, the firm’s strategic goal to become the world’s number-one automaker was based on using new knowledge, new technology, and new materials to improve, perfect, and create new innovations in auto design and manufacturing. However, the strategy also required that Toyota shift its focus from manufacturing engineering and continuous improvement more toward research and development and product design..........