What is Sustainable Organizational Performance: 

The term sustainable organizational performance has gained exceptional importance in

strategic management and Human Resource Management. Sustainable Organizational
Performance refers to achieving goals for the organization while keeping core values and
purpose of the company intact. Sustainable organizations also while keeping their values
intact, sustainable organizations pave their way in the business landscape to maintain their
positioning.  
In this research report, we shall be discussing Nissan Japan Motors. We shall discuss in detail
the organizational hierarchy of Nissan, certain incidents and reports that indicate the work
culture at Nissan, and how Nissan can improve its performance delivery within the
organization.  
 

(I) Introduction: 

Nissan Motor Company is one of the largest producers of the automotive industry
worldwide, with its vehicles in as many as 190 countries (Nissan News, n.d.). Nissan was
founded in 1933 in Yokohama, Japan. Nissan was a vision to enrich the lives of people
around the globe through its products and services, which it still follows. Currently, Nissan
has plants in 31 countries, which translates into Nissan having operations in countries with
cultures different than that of Japan. 
 
In the aspect of organizational structure and organizational hierarchy, Nissan Motors follows
a very strong hierarchy. The power disparity among individuals in Nissan Japan motors is
evident, which is directly correlational with the position of the employee in the organization’s
hierarchy. 
 
An important role in this hierarchical structure is an important event that took place in 1999,
as Nissan and Renault towards a Merger, to form synergies. Even though this merger has still
not been possible due to different HR issues involved. However, this event had an impact on
the hierarchy and the organizational performance of Nissan. The organizational structure, the
hierarchy, has been affected, as the topmost block in the pyramid of Nissan’s organizational
hierarchy belongs to The Alliance board- responsible for managing the alliance, and Alliance
Board consists of executive committee members of Nissan. Then the hierarchy continues to
go towards the bottom end.

The hierarchy is shown below,

Source: (Nissan Corporate Hierarchy Structure | Organizational Chart, n.d.)

As a part of the goal of a strong HR department, it is the utmost responsibility of HR

department and its workforce to work towards high employee engagement, employee
motivation, and employee satisfaction. And all of the factors above are linked with Employee
performance. The morale of employees can make or break an organization (Empxtrack,
2016). Now, for the achievement of these goals, there are many methods and techniques that
HR department can employ in order to attract and maintain talent in their companies.

Core issues associated with Nissan Japan motors is that the culture of the organization and
Japan does not provide employees at Nissan with much autonomy, power, and discretion. All
employees look forward to their seniors for approvals, appraisals, and sharing new ideas.
Most of these problems were identified after the merger between Nissan and Renault had
prolonged for 17 years and was still not able to reach a solid conclusion (Nissan and Renault
scrap plans for full merger: Report, 2020)
.
 (II) HR Techniques:

Organizational Alignment is of utmost importance. An organization needs to make its

values, goals, mission, and vision clear and transfer them to its employees. Employees must
not feel lost in an organization. HR managers must employ Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in
this regard to understand the situation of their employees, whether they are on the lowest
level of fulfillment of physiological needs or the highest level of self-actualization. HR
department and HR managers also need to instigate their values and vision to employees, so
they know where they are leading themselves and their respective departments, teams, and
task force. HR department shall involve in competitive assessment and move towards special
needs of the team. This step also involves the HR department accurately identifying the roles
of employees. As the conventional modernist approach suggests that jobs and roles must be
distributed according to skill level and specialization.

Another important strategy in this regard can be the process of Constant Feedback. One
shall not underestimate the problem-solving ability of feedback. In any situation of problem-
solving, the first step is ‘identification of the problem.’ A problem cannot be solved or
addressed, even by the HR department that is completely dedicated to such problems in
organizations, until a problem is identified. Through Feedback forms, HR managers can
know and be informed about how employees feel in the organization, what are their reviews,
remarks, and concerns regarding the job environment, or even their boss. 360 review modules
shall be implemented that can take and process input from various receiving ends. Similarly,
on the other side of the picture, feedback forms for employees shall also be shared by
supervisors, managers, and colleagues. These feedback forms will let employees be aware of
their shortcomings, reviews by other colleagues, and how they can improve their
performance. In the end, the goal is to improve employee performance- which subsequently
results in sustainable organizational performance.

We shall fully comprehend the fact that Sustainable Organizational Performance is not
achievable without the complete incorporation of employees.

(III) Role Model:

As we have discussed and highlighted some important techniques and mechanisms that boast
the ability of employees to work in an organization. There are also practical examples of
organizations, that have implemented not only these but other HR strategies to fully attract,
motivate, and instigate their employees. And These results have subsequently resulted in
organizations achieving sustainable performance.

If we take the example of Microsoft in this regard, Microsoft has completely revolutionized
its HR department and how it helps its employees. Microsoft has 144,000 employees, and it
constantly monitors its employees in various ways. For instance, Microsoft uses a social
networking platform by the name of: ‘Yammer,” whereby employees (senior, middle, and
lower management), and employees of Microsoft interact. At this platform, not only do
employees communicate amongst themselves, but employees can also connect with their
CEO. And the CEO, responds to queries and questions asked by their employees.
Furthermore, Microsoft’s HR department circulates a form by the name of, ‘Daily Pulse.’ A
feedback form is sent to all employees at Microsoft daily, where 20 core questions are asked:
“In what ways do you think Microsoft is different today than it was one year ago?” or in what
ways do you think Microsoft is different today than it was one year ago? (Hougaard et al.,
2019). Out of many strategies followed by the HR department at Microsoft, one of the
strategies is to release Growth Mindset in Action videos. Through these videos, the CEO of
Microsoft tends to transfer the idea of not “knowing it all,” but “learning it all.” Interestingly,
these videos are not released to all workforce at the same time. But released to certain teams
and groups first. These videos include high-performance individuals, influencers, and
executives to increase the reach of these videos. The company believes to empower its
employees; boost their morale; increasing their engagement and serving their needs. By
taking such steps, and other initiatives such as transparency, diversity, and inclusion,
Microsoft achieves its sustainable organizational performance.

(IV) Recommendations:

The following are the recommendations that the HR department at Nissan must follow to
attain sustained organizational performance.

 The HR department must provide role enrichment to employees at Nissan so that they
are more empowered and have more authority to conduct tasks.
 More power shall be delegated down the hierarchy in Nissan to empower the
organization as a whole.
 The information must be provided to employees at Nissan, as even the CFO of Nissan
was not aware of the financial situation of the company.
 Feedback forms must be circulated in the company to know about the views and
concerns of employees.
 Just as Microsoft has started Mindset Growth Action Videos, Nissan Japan had also
faced issues of employee growth and mindset improvement in the past, which
subsequently resulted in losses for the company in the 1990s. Through these Mindset
Growth Action Videos, Nissan can empower its employees, and provide them with
information about how other organizations around the world operate- provision of
exposure.
 Nissan must develop a transparent, predictable, and performance-based compensation
plan for its employees. As mostly in Nissan and other Japanese companies also,
compensation is based upon seniority and time spent in the organization. Although
these are crucial factors in determining compensation, however, they shall not be the
sole factors determining it.
 The HR department at Nissan must engage in talks to access the current level of needs
of its employees, their perception of the company, and how motivated they are to
work for

Summary:
Nissan Japan Motors has been struggling since the 1990s due to its poor performance, and
most of the reason for the losses is attributed to the workforce of Nissan. As they have not
been equipped with the best knowledge, autonomy, decision-making authority, and powers.
The HR department at Nissan must adopt strategies to become a sustainable performance
organization by firstly listening to the concerns of their employees, and perceptions,
delegating a growth-oriented mindset and adopting transparent and performance-based
compensation plans to encourage and motivate employees; as employee motivation is an
important task in achieving Sustainable Performance Organization.
 Work Cited

Aljazeera.com. 2020. Nissan and Renault scrap plans for full merger: Report. [online] Available at:
<https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/5/26/nissan-and-renault-scrap-plans-for-full-
merger-report> [Accessed 30 May 2022].

Nissan-global.com. n.d. [online] Available at:

<https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/DOCUMENT/PDF/SR/2008/SR2008_E_p01-10.pdf> [Accessed
30 May 2022].

Empxtrack. 2016. Empxtrack- Employee Performance. [online] Available at:

<https://empxtrack.com/blog/7-best-hr-practices-to-boost-employee-performance/> [Accessed
30 May 2022].

Hougaard, R. and Carter, J., 2019. How Microsoft Builds a Sense of Community Among 144,000
Employees. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: <https://hbr.org/2019/08/how-
microsoft-builds-a-sense-of-community-among-144000-employees> [Accessed 30 May 2022].

Hierarchy Structure. n.d. Nissan Corporate Hierarchy Structure | Organizational Chart. [online]

Available at: <https://www.hierarchystructure.com/nissan-corporate-hierarchy/> [Accessed 30
May 2022].