Case Analysis Honda Motorcycles

People Management Fiasco in Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Ltd.

Paul Zaentz-Lewis

Organizational Behavior

Prof. Angelo DeNisi

28 September 2015

Reading about the strike activity on behalf of the workers at Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Ltd. (HMSI) plant in Gurgaon, India is truly a case study in poor management and a lack of understanding of what the employees value. Although the workers enjoyed good salary levels, the supervisor to employee ratio was 1:3, representing an extremely top-heavy (or perhaps “middle-heavy” would be more appropriate) organization which failed to take into account the inevitable comparisons between companies, and thus the perception of inequality and poor treatment. A lack of honest communication and transparency with the Japanese headquarters exacerbated the situation.

The company adopted HR policies reflecting the culture of the Japanese owner, yet they were implemented mainly only on paper. As well, the policies did not reflect the fact that the company was actually in India – they were Japanese policies, unchanged from the original, being implemented in another country without attempting to adapt to the new culture. Even outside of written policies, there was little effort on behalf of the Japanese managers to integrate Indian culture, and this results in a great failure when it came time to show appreciation via holiday gifts.

Rather than a reward system, the employees operated in an atmosphere of fear, a situation that does little to allow them to develop respect for their supervisors and managers. Thus, HMSI lacked in true leadership. It appears as though they knew this, since the supervisors and managers effectively blocked visitors from the home office from meeting with lower-level workers when they visited the plant. Obstructing transparency is usually a good indicator that the local management knew that they were doing something wrong.