Toyota's Human Resource Management Practices in the UKAbstractThis report examines Toyota's human resource management practices in Japan and analyzes how changes have been made during the creation of the European factory in the United Kingdom. Toyota has been faced with pressure to remain internationally consistent with its human resource management practices, which include employee engagement, employee integration with the organization, flexibility and adaptability and, finally, quality. However there were also local cultural forces that had to be taken into account. Introduction Human resource management strategy in Japanese companies is supported by the six pillars of Japanese employment practice: lifetime employment, corporate welfare, quality awareness, corporate unions, consensus management and seniority-based management. reward systems. Toyota is the heart of global manufacturing, a company that has grown over 70 years to become the third-largest vehicle manufacturer in the world. (Toyota in the World 2006) Toyota is the world's seventh largest company and third-largest automobile manufacturer, with manufacturing plants in 26 nations around the world that employ more than a quarter of a million people. The decision to produce in Europe was based on the company's policy of building vehicles where customers are and the UK was chosen for many reasons, including its history of vehicle production, large domestic car market, its component supply and its excellent connections to the rest of Europe. The vehicle manufacturing plant is located in Burnaston in Derbyshire, the engine manufacturing plant is located in Deeside in North Wales. (Toyota Manufacturing UK 2006) Since production began in 1992, the company has grown to its current size with 5,500 members employed. As... halfway through the paper..., consensus management and seniority-based reward systems - all appropriately adapted to the local context, of course, this would force the adoption of Japanese practices such as Kanban (JIT) and Kaizen (improvement continuous), which require flexible use of resourceful human beings. Law, (2004) Toyota was forced to adapt its strategies to different markets and alter its management style. For example, in Toyota UK the organizational structure corresponds to the traditional Toyota system which encourages teamwork and communication between workers, this has been done through training, sharing information and knowledge between teams and team members. Toyota's dealings with unions demonstrate that the move away from traditional Japanese organizational behavior represented innovative adaptations by the company to operating in the UK.