Toyota’s supply chain: changing employee relations

Examines the extent to which a major purchaser can affect company behaviour within those firms supplying to it. Eleven major UK suppliers to Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK were compared with other non‐supply chain companies to examine the extent to which new forms of customer‐supplier relationships are spreading within supply chain firms into wider aspects of organizational behaviour, as a direct consequence of close involvement. Toyota appear to affect supply firms’ communication patterns, employee relations, and approaches to problem solving directly.