Harvard Case Study: Analysis Of Lincoln Electric Company

The Lincoln Electric company, under the leadership of James F. Lincoln saw a major shift in the way business was to be directed and operated with visionary mind-set emulating companies like Ford, Wal-Mart, Merck, 3M as focus was towards the customer’s needs and employee’s compensation. Philosophically customer needs become critical as the reason for being in business and the employees also being the vehicle in achieving the needs of the customers as the case study by Sharplin, A (1989, p.3) clearly positions the companies aspirations. James Lincoln places much importance on the relationship with employees that is guided by mutual respect and individual effort.

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.

The organization culture as a leadership concept has been identified as one of the many components that leaders can use to grow a dynamic organization. Leadership in organizations starts the culture formation process by imposing their assumptions and expectations on their followers. Once culture is established and accepted, they become a strong leadership tool to communicate the leader 's beliefs and values to organizational members, and especially new comers. When leaders promote ethical culture, they become successful in maintaining organizational growth, the good services demanded by the society, the ability to address problems before they become disasters and consequently are competitive against rivals. The leader 's success will depend to a large extent, on his knowledge and understanding of the organizational culture. The leader who understands his organizational culture and takes it seriously is capable of predicting the outcome of his decisions in preventing any anticipated consequences. What then is organizational culture? The concept of organizational culture has been defined from many perspectives in the literature. There is no one single definition for organizational culture. The topic of organizational culture has been studied from many perspectives and disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, organizational behavior, and organizational leadership to name a few. Deal defines organizational culture as values,

The Lincoln electric company was founded by John C. Lincoln in 1895 and has grown over

Organizational culture is not a new concept in the world of organizational behavior. Yet despite its age, it still has many varied definitions as well as philosophies on its importance and impact to the success of a company. One definition is that organizational culture is a cognitive framework consisting of attitudes, values, behavioral norms, and expectations shared by members of an organization (Greenberg, 2013, p. 368). Greenberg (2013) further explains organizational culture through an analogy of a tree. Organizational culture are similar to the roots of a tree.

The Lincoln Electric Company was a legacy company from which the families ' personal values were incorporated in the beginning and continue to be the fundamental beliefs compromising the company 's culture. By creating and implementing a culture of service, respect, and loyalty, the Lincoln Electric Company has become an institutional leader in American business standards. Lincoln 's culture cannot be summarized by a single dimension of cultural analytics because of its multifaceted culture that is innovative, outcome-oriented, people-oriented, and team-oriented

Organization culture is the matter that holds a company intact. This is what makes each

Organization culture is the matter that holds a company intact. This is what makes each

Lincoln Electric Company is a manufacturing company, which has been focusing on welding products for the recent 30 years. The company had outstanding brothers leading the company to success. John was a technical genius and he brought the best skills in production and James was good at management and he was working on the employees ' incentives. The company gained its reputation through the world war till present as the welding equipment supplier with higher quality and lower price at the same time. For the production aspect of welding equipment, it is an advanced production line with continuous flow with high flexibility and low idling time.

The Lincoln Electric was founded in 1895, and is the world leader in the design,

Lincoln Electric has been on top in relating to the country’s culture of the United States. James Lincoln realized that treating people fair and realized their needs will sustain the company for the long haul. For an example, in 2008 when the United States was in recession, many major corporations laid of its employees. The feeling of discontent was high in the United States. However, Lincoln Electric did not lay off one person. Instead, the company lower their hours until the recession is over. Not only this method saved the employees’ jobs and it also sustain their morals and spirits.

Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling are the four basic management functions. These four functions serves as a general guiding rule for every organization or company towards the attainment of desirable leadership style. Executives’ drive the company pursuant to its mission statement, employees should have mutual respect to one another, and the company should offer an acceptable compensation. Thereby working as one community for a crystal clear vision. Having read the Lincoln Electric Company Harvard Case Study by Arthur Sharplin, I would like to contextualize my evaluation into different perspectives. These perspective includes: Continuing influence of the founders, the golden rule, compensation schemes, open communication, and management style. Continuing influence of the founders of the company "The actual is limited, the possible is immense.” With this slogan that the company has, it actually reflects how profound the influence of the founders to the current people living in the company. It was very clear to my understanding that Lincoln treated everything and everyone as associates. Lincoln’s did not only focus on the profitability he could gain with his product nor the productivity that the employees could offer, the founders had an exquisite realization of building relationship with their product, customers, employees and business partners. The influence that Lincoln’s as founders created paved way through an inevitable inspiration that up until today, people

Every organization, whether being a construction agency, a retail store, a manufacturing plant or a government agency has its own unique culture. Organizational culture is the collection of shared values, beliefs, rituals, stories and myths that foster a feeling of community among organizational members. The culture of an organization is in most cases, the reflection if the deeply held values and behaviors of a small group of individuals. In a large organization the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and other executives will shape the culture. In a small company, the culture may flow from the values held by the founder.

The Lincoln Electric Company is a welding company that has been around since the late 1800’s. Not only are they known for their prospering business, but they also are known for their management plan. A company’s culture has so much to do with their success, and The Lincoln Electric Company is definitely a business to look up to in that regard. They are a company that succeeds through their sturdy history, their incentive plan for their employees, their management style, and much more.

The Lincoln Electrical Company is situated near Cleveland in U.S.A. and it is considered to be one of the oldest companies as it was founded in 1895. It started out making electric motors and then expanded its products to welding machines and welding rods or electrodes.