General Motors Company: Performance Issues

General Motors Company, often called General Motors (GM), represents an American-based multinational corporation with its headquarters in Detroit. William Durant initially established General Motors towards the end of 1908 to operate as a holding company before its recent restructuring, which happened in 2009. The corporation does business in more than 120 countries worldwide, and its four leading vehicle brands encompass Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, and Buick. GM is the biggest manufacturer of vehicles in the United States and is the fourth biggest internationally after its competitors Toyota, Hyundai, and Volkswagen.

At its optimum performance, GM enjoyed a 50% share of the US market and was the largest automobile company worldwide from 1931 to 2007 (Kaur & Sharma, 2017). This paper underscores performance issues at GM, which may be improved by an employee development program. The paper also presents opportunities that GM could exploit and avoid limitations of its capacity to surpass its mission, objectives, and aim. With enhanced development and exploitation of existing opportunities, GM could rise to become the leading automobile corporation internationally and uphold its reputable status.

Performance Issues

Apart from recalls attributable to defective ignition switches, the corporation has also suffered other problems associated with issues such as flawed airbags. In 2014, GM Sought to recall more than 2 million vehicles after ignition switches were established to be faulty in some of its models. Sadly, the faulty ignition switches were connected to around 120 deaths and more than 250 injuries, a major misfortune for the corporation. In the recent past, the automobile sector has become highly competitive, with corporations seeking to produce technologically sophisticated models of vehicles. A recall has the possibility of damaging a corporation’s reputation for good since clients and competitors might connect such an occurrence to the manufacture of substandard products (Tayfun, 2017).

The automobile sector holds countless challenges associated with market volatility and the continually rising expenses of developing advanced technologies. Consequently, variations in the automobile sector necessitate the flexibility of a corporation and the establishment of an employee performance development program.

The realization of a significant transformation approach is essential for any corporation that desires to uphold its future competitiveness. For GM, the concerns of sustainability, establishment of new markets, and the development of unique, effective expertise to attract prospective consumers and maintain the current ones seem challenging. Nevertheless, since recalls are common in the automobile sector, GM should focus on training and developing its staff through worker programs to ensure that the corporation retains a competitive benefit over its competitors when it comes to innovativeness.

After all, the effects of its recalls will soon be obscured by those of its competitors, for instance, the recent case at Toyota Motor Corporation. Employee performance development programs will help the corporation considerably since they will enhance innovativeness and make investors focus on a comparatively positive segment of GM (Zhou et al., 2019). The success of a corporation rests in the ability to overcome arising challenges and maintain a competitive edge.

Opportunities

The reduction of bureaucracy is a vital opportunity that GM’s organizational culture should seek to uphold. Increased bureaucracy is accountable for limitations in the corporation’s flexibility in reaction to problems in the external setting. Even though existing bureaucracy is anchored in GM’s organizational structure, executive directors should consider culture a fundamental approach to tackling the issue. Secondly, limited operations in developing nations is an issue that has been hindering GM’s potential expansion in such markets. This has resulted in GM offering only the Chevrolet model in the Indian market, in addition to the absence of Cadillac vehicles in Brazil and Argentina (Zhou et al., 2019).

Furthermore, GM has had restricted business diversification, which limits its operations and success. The corporation has only two primary functions- the automobile sector and GM Financial, a monetary services line of business. Restricted diversification exposes the corporation to extensive market-anchored risks. Such hindrances establish that the possible international growth of GM could be enhanced by its exploitation of existing opportunities.

GM could reduce bureaucracy in the organization to facilitate its flexibility. Exploiting such an opportunity is one way in which the corporation may improve its competencies. To increase its market share, GM should increase its operations in developing nations. For instance, the corporation could provide other models apart from Chevrolet in the Indian market and develop cheap automobiles, which can compete effectively in developing countries to expand its sales and profitability (Tayfun, 2017). To facilitate product diversification, GM could partner with local brands in different countries and incorporate computing expertise in its automobiles to ensure a strong global presence. Efforts for the corporation’s fast innovation will make it outweigh its competitors in all markets around the world.

Conclusion

GM designs, manufactures, sells, and distributes motor vehicles and automobile parts, over and above engaging in fiscal services. With improved development and exploitation of existing opportunities, GM could rise to become the best automobile corporation worldwide and maintain its reputable position. Besides recalls attributable to malfunctioning ignition switches, the corporation has also suffered other problems linked to issues such as defective airbags. Decrease of bureaucracy, enhancement of operations in developing nations, and business diversification are vital opportunities that GM’s organizational culture should seek to uphold.

References

Kaur, A., & Sharma, P. C. (2017). Sustainability as a strategy incorporated in decision making at supply chain management- Case study of General Motors. International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management, 5(3), 183-200. Web.

Tayfun, N. O. (2017). Analysis relationship between product recall and corporate reputation. International Journal of Marketing and Technology, 7(10), 11-23.

Zhou, C., Sridhar, S., Becerril-Arreola, R., Cui, T. H., & Dong, Y. (2019). Promotions as competitive reactions to recalls and their consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(4), 702-722. Web.