Ge Cultural Assessment Essay

Lincoln Electric Company has a very strong culture based on shared assumptions values and beliefs. This is evidenced by the attitudes of both the company management and employees towards the organization. The unchanged policies, practices and products point towards a very strong corporate culture. High employee performance and productivity over the many years of the company’s existence is also another indicator of a strong culture.

Every organization has values and beliefs that define what they do and how they do things in the organization. These values have significant influence on how the employees behaves and the general performance of the organization – it is these set of values and beliefs, rooted deep in the company’s organizational structure that depict the “dos”, “don’t” and the “hows”, of the organization and these unequivocally represents the culture of the organization. This concept became popular in the 1980s when Peters and Waterman in their book: “In search of Excellence” presented the profound argument that, the success of any organization is inextricable linked to the quality of its culture. (Carpenter, M., Taylor, B., Erdogan, B. 2009 p183). The purpose of this paper is an attempt to analyse the impact diverse cultures played in the success of the Lincoln Electric Company.

Jack Welch was the former CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001. During his time at General Electric, the value of the company grew 4000%, making it the most valuable company in the world at the time. In the movie, “Jack Welch: Icon of Leadership,” Jack discussed his experiences as CEO of General Electric and shared valuable insight into his management practices which he implemented throughout his career. While listening to Jack, I felt the most important aspects of his managing practices included being a proper leader, picking the right people for the job, and having integrity.

This report’s objective is to provide analysis of the leadership challenge that General Electric (GE) is currently facing, and to recommend solutions. The primary problem is determining what kind of candidate is required to replace retiring CEO Jack Welch. This has left GE to question how much does the company want to change policy over the previous era, and where does the company want to be in future?

The Lincoln Electric Company 's culture is a wonderful example of how to create an exceptional culture within your business. Lincoln Electric has been a leading manufacturer in welding machines and electrodes for over 100 years. During this impressive tenure, the Lincoln Electric Company has adhered to its founders’ philosophy that the customer always comes first, the employee always comes second, and stockholders come third. This philosophy is upheld throughout the entire organization, from the executive team down to its factory line workers and is evident in their daily business culture. Displayed through a plethora of initiatives; including employee compensations, a concentration on productivity, encouragement of management and supervisors to participate in active leadership and a general appreciation for its employees ' input and feedback; the working culture in this organization is the backbone of the company’s continued achievements. Through the demonstration of their philosophy, Lincoln 's founders and management team have created a culture that has become a timeless model of employee productivity for the world.

An organization’s culture “consists of unseen elements such as assumptions and values that affect organizational life,” it is the “personality” of the company. At Lincoln Electric, even though they “never had a formal organization chart,” the culture is an extremely significant aspect of everyday life and a powerful asset; its unique and “hard-to-imitate” conceptualization gives the firm an undeniable competitive advantage and “insures maximum flexibility.”

General Electric company (GE) is one of the world 's most admired, valuable, and largest companies in the world. GE is also one of the top five oldest industries in the United States, at a 130 years. This great American company has been stayed in business because of the many great leaders who have led the success for GE. Leader 's such as, Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt, have brought many changes at GE bringing the company into the 20th century. Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt have been very successful at changing GE and making it a more highly profitable company, due to their leadership styles and corporate culture.

Leaders must work with others in the organization to understand the organization’s culture. The core beliefs and values that are shared by the organization’s members, that guide their actions in its behalf and define their expectations about the actions of those around them (Beach, 2006). In analyzing the culture at my previous employment, I discovered a few different types of cultures existed within my organization. The organization I worked for was a manufacturer of foam components to the Automotive, Appliance, Medical and Military industries. We have provided engineered solutions to leading global manufacturers since 1992. The company consisted of approximately 50 employees, in which about 10 of those were office personnel and the

The Lincoln Electric Company has dominated the market of welding machine manufacturing since its infancy in the late 1900’s. Their continued success is due to companies’ ability to adapt different organizational cultures, into a beautiful melting pot of profitability. Management could be described as a mix of both outcome-oriented and stable styles, with a hefty dose of people-oriented cultures, all wrapped into one.

In this case analysis I will be analyzing and summarizing my understanding of the organizational culture of the Lincoln Electric Company, based on key pointers and a Harvard Case Study by Arthur Sharplin. In my analysis I will be using the framework from chapter eight of the textbook “Principles of Management” by Carpenter, Bauer and Erdogan to discern aspects of the company’s culture. The company is said to have a distinctive management culture and manufactures welding equipment. It is located near Cleveland, Ohio USA. Lincoln Electric Company is considered to be one of the best managed manufacturing companies in the world.

The purpose of this research paper is to perform an analysis of General Electric as it became one of the world’s leaders in global expansion in light of new leadership strategies. I will further discuss how since the establishment General Electric through the merger of two innovative companies, Edison Electric Light Company and Thomas-Houstan Electric Company. And how different leadership styles and management styles has made GE one of the most innovated company of our time. General Electric was incorporated on April 15, 1892, by Thomas Edison, is a diversified infrastructure and financial services company. The products and services of the Company range from aircraft engines, power generation, oil and gas production equipment, and household appliances to medical imaging, business and consumer financing and industrial products. The Company operates its segments through its eight businesses, based on the markets they serve: Power & Water, Oil & Gas, Energy Management, Aviation, Healthcare, Transportation, Appliances and Lighting, and GE Capital. The Company operates in approximately 175 countries. It was in 1878 where Thomas Edison founder the Edison Electric Light Company. It was at this time where Thomas Edison invented the incandescent electric lamp. Edison succeeded in developing an incandescent lamp able of staying lit for 40 hours. In 1880, Edison refined the filaments in his bulbs to the point that they lasted 600 hours. In 1892 Edison General Electric merged with The

Besides showing traits of a transformational leader, Welch undertook the management of General Electric with a somewhat “ruthless toughness” (Thompson, 2004:44-45) that was highly frowned upon, and deemed to be far from an ideal model of leadership. The organisation’s culture made leaders

When discussing the organizational culture within a company such as GE, we can break management concepts down into three categories. According to Argenti (2002), organizational behavior in organizations is usually broken down into three main areas:

Background Information- General Electric Company, known as GE the world over, is an American-based, multinational corporation headquartered in Connecticut. In 2010, the company reported in excess of $150 billion in revenues, net income of over $12 billion, and almost 300,000 employees. It operates through four basic segments: Energy, Technology Infrastructure, Capital Finance and Consumer and Industrial Production. In 2011, GE was ranked the 6th largest firm in the United States as well as the 14th most profitable. Since its founding by Thomas Edison in 1990, and becoming one of the original 12 companies listed on the Down Jones Industrial Average in 1986, GE has been iconic in its relationship as an American innovator. In fact, GE founded RCA in 1919 to further the use and disbursement of international radio, just one example of their early commitment to innovation (GE Fact Sheet, 2012).

I have learned many lessons from Jack Welch on leadership. Jack Welch has been with the General Electric Company (GE) since 1960. Having taken over GE with a market capitalization of about $12 billion, Jack Welch turned it into one of the largest and most admired companies in the world by the time he stepped down as its CEO 20 years later, in 2000. Jack Welch used his uncanny instincts and unique leadership strategies to run GE, the most complex organization in the world and increased its market value by more than $400 billion over two decades. He remains a highly regarded figure in business circles due to his innovative leadership style. Jack Welch demonstrated Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of modeling the way, inspiring a shared