Lincoln Electric Case Study
The Lincoln Electric Company is the world’s largest manufacturer of arc welding products and a leading producer of industrial electric motors. Their key competency is achieving higher worker productivity. Every year the company has seen high profits and bonuses. Employee morale and productivity remains very good and employees are very loyal to the company. The company also puts customers goals as top priority.
Organization Structure
This is a very organic organization. They do not have a formal organization chart in this company because they want to ensure maximum flexibility. They have an open-door policy in which employees take problems to the people that are most capable of solving them. Routine supervision is almost nonexistent. Lincoln has a fairly flat organization in which there are usually two or three levels of supervision between production workers and the president. Employees are evaluated on quality, dependability, ideas and cooperation, and output. They also have great job security, while also being able to participate in decision-making.
Problem identification
Lincoln Electric does not really seem to have any big problems in their current operations while working under an organic structure, but one problem seems to be the lack of attention that the stockholders get. At Lincoln, the stockholders are given last priority. The whole philosophy behind this is that they think that it will be more profitable than investing money in any other way.
Alternatives considered
Alternatives for this company is to work towards making some of their activities mechanistic while keeping some functions organic. The other alternative is to keep the company going as is with no change. If there is no problem to be fixed, than don’t try fixing it, since it will result in more problems. Once some Harvard Business School researchers made up an organization chart for the company and the management felt that it had a disruptive effect. One big item that they want to consider is to pay a little more attention to the stockholders, which are financing the company.
Alternatives selected and rationale
The alternative selected is to keep the company going like it is with the organic structure.
...ategic positioning is its incentive management system, which is what differentiated the company from its competitors. Lincoln Electric had excellent labor relations where an “open door policy” was implemented between executives and employees. Under Lincoln’s incentive system, the workers were rewarded for their productivity. The employees’ earnings and promotions were determined in direct proportion to their individual compensation towards the company’s success. This served as an effective system that motivated workers to be more efficient and increase the productivity of high quality products with reduction to costs. Lincoln Electric’s strength in being a player in the manufacturing industry is building high quality products at a lower cost than their competitors. The company follows a low-cost strategy that is supported through their incentive management system.
His two main goals in the process of cleaning up were shutting subsidiaries that could not be salvaged and also save the plants in Europe by increasing volume from improved sales (Lincoln, 2016). With Massano’s new approach in 1996, he ended up becoming CEO of Lincoln Electric. Some of his contributions were:
General Electric Corporation is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate founded in 1892. The company was founded in Schenectady, New York to capitalize on the patents of Thomas Edison and the use of electric power through generation and distribution. Now a blue chip publicly traded company that has branched out beyond its core into arenas such as aircraft engineering, television, and home appliances to name a few. Over the years the corporation has been through different management models that have brought innovation in many forms that have allowed them to be envied by companies around the world. Despite great success since its conception, like many companies who can withstand the test of times, it’s natural for them to become self-absorbed, which can have a negative impact on the company structure as a whole. Coming across someone like Jack Welch who can think out of the box and in a manner that doesn’t strain the resources of the company but expands the thinking of the company as a collective unit is needed to continue the legacy of innovation in all aspects of business.
The Lincoln Electric Company started in 1906 by James F. Lincoln in Cleveland, Ohio. His father was a minister and so in turn you can see many Christ like principals at the center of Lincolns Electric Company. James’s Golden Rule was taken from the Sermon on the Mount: Do unto others as you would have then do unto you. Through this philosophy stems many of Mr. Lincoln’s main ideas for his company such as: The Incentive Management plan, the way people communicate within the company, the bonus plan and even down to the management style.
need to improve its management team, set up succession plan, reduce dependence on Cadbury family-
The Ford Motors Company was, is, and will continue to be one of the greatest American enterprises.
The United States located electronic company Electrocorp faced the problem of declining profitability due to rising production costs, specifically high wages, costly worker's safety and environmental standards. In order to solve this problem Electrocorp is deciding whether to relocate some of their plants to South Africa, Mexico, or the Philippines.
...ible if Lincoln Electric stopped prioritizing its employees. By making sure to look out for its employees’’ well-being, the company can stay aggressive and stable without stagnation or lawsuits. Ultimately, the company sounds like it blends traditional management elements with an above-average attention to employee morale, training, and well-being. For a place that’s nearly two hundred years old, with thousands of satisfied employees, this is an impressive track record. Other companies should look at the management style present at Lincoln Electric for proof that companies can make profits and still put their employees above stakeholders.
Lincoln Electric Company is a great example of how a successful organization creates successful employee satisfaction. Company founders are the key stakeholders in making the organizational culture a success. They are the leaders with the vision of how they want to promote their company and they have to present the values to their employees so that the employees also do understand that the success of an organization is a success for themselves. It was not an easy task for Lincoln Electric Company to plant the foundation of organizational culture. There were many obstacles that Lincoln Electric Company had to overcome to succeed. Lincoln Electric Company strongly believed that the customer satisfaction should be their main goal. The value on the return of the happy customer was significant that it directly impacts the success of the business. Lincoln Electric Company was very much coined on the term of customer satisfaction and they strive their best to provide the
They are missing out on opportunities that exist externally. It is time for the mindset of the company to evolve and understand that not all great ideas will be developed internally. In order to jump back to being the leading pharmaceutical company, they will have to open their doors to external pharmaceutical innovation.
...the Second World War in an effort to maximize America’s mechanical output and help win the war, Lincoln gave away proprietary information to competing companies.. This cost the company competitive advantage, and in turn profits, for several years after the war, but based on their skills and adaptability, they were able to out stripe the competition soon after. We are also told that Lincoln Electric will not fire an employee, which allows the workers to embrace change and progress, even if it means they will incur a short-term downturn in productivity. Upon some further reading, we were able to see that Lincoln electric came upon hard times in the 1980s, and lost 40% of its sales. Even in this time of hardship, they stuck to their promise of not firing an employee, and today they have regained all of their lost ground and are extremely profitable and productive.
Mintzberg in his 1980 book referred to an organizational chart as an “Organigram” (p.36). It is an essential part of an associates’ induction FPDH as it provides a snapshot of the lines of authority, division of labor, the operating workflow, and the type of communication utilized by the hotel.
The company has a clear lack of vision. This is because since the loss of Mr. McFettridge, the vision and plans he had are not known to anyone. This exposes the lack of structured top management. Also, the top management is having a lot of young employees which are accustomed to doing a clerical job. Their decision making skills are not developed due to improper mentoring. The work processes are more individual driven then system driven.
...ic Company is a very good example of how a company can change their organizational strategies to better their company. By switched from a tall to a flat organization they are now able to work together to help the company become more successful.
Formed in 1895, The Lincoln Electric Company is a model of the Human Resource Management. James F. Lincoln the founder set out to organize the company. He had a strong believe that the customer came first, employees second, then the stockholders. Therefore, profits are to be last, it was preferable to give the customer the best product available at a reasonable price.