My Understanding Of The Lincoln Electric Company 's Culture 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.

Primary features of the Lincoln Electric business model and employment system are displayed through the company’s overall strategy, philosophy, compensations and benefits policy, leadership, and communication within and outside the organization.

The founder, James F. Lincoln used his Christian upbringing as the basis for his vision of how he defined entrepreneurial success. The customers ' needs are first priority, the employee second, and the stockholders are last. Quality and cost efficiency are the two most important factors considered in their product engineering and manufacturing. The hierarchy is stringent, however, the culture of the company is greatly people-oriented. This company has a strong culture that is instilled in new employees from the beginning and continuously practiced by every member of every facet in the organizational structure.

Lincoln serves their customers first, and stockholders last. Lincoln's goal is to evolve continually to offer better quality products at a lower price point. These views have not changed since the very humble beginnings of the company. The company's motto is the actual is limited, but the possible is immense. James Lincoln began managing this business by asking employees to elect members to weigh in decisions about company operations in a twice-monthly meeting. This practice still continues. The turnover is nearly nonexistent, with the exception of retirements and employee relocations. And the list of benefits available to employees is extensive, including job security for a guaranteed amount of hours and stock purchase option, bonuses, and

Though, in reading the Lincoln Electric Company Harvard Case Study by Arthur Sharplin, add up to what I learned from chapter eight this week, I can realize the that the organizational culture is the cornerstone for the growth of any organization. The success of Lincoln Electric Company is due to the environment that is previously established by the Lincoln’s family. If we look at in the introductory of the Harvard case study, Arthur Sharplin states that “The Lincoln incentive management plan has been well known for many years. Many college management texts refer to the Lincoln plan as a model for achieving high worker productivity.” (pp. 1). This is to say that they have already set some policies to make the company what it has always been since its creation.

3. Lincoln’s culture could not be imposed but must be nurtured. “Willis retained the existing managers of most of the acquired companies to take advantage of their local knowledge, but directed them to implement [underlined by author]Lincoln’s incentive and manufacturing systems [p 6].” While Willis appreciated the benefits of implementing Lincoln’s systems, he did not consider James Lincoln’s caveat that “All those involved must be satisfied that they are properly recognized or they will not cooperate – and

Before anyone can truly understand and respect Lincoln Electrics’ culture values (which has one of the finest corporate cultures), we must look at how the company has evolved to become what it is today. In the early 1900s, the company transitioned leadership from John Lincoln, the original founder, to his younger brother, James Lincoln. John turned management and leadership to James Lincoln in order to pursue his ingenuity through inventing for the company. One of the first orders as General Manger was to assemble and advisory group that would report to him. He did so by requesting the employees from various departments to elect a representative to be on the committee that would meet with management – to this day the advisory group meets two times per month.

While there are several contributing factors aiding the Lincoln Electric Company to excel in creating a wonderful business culture, there is a constant evolution of progress. During its startup in 1895; the founder (John C. Lincoln) was able to experience moderate success and growth through the standard business practices of the day.

In 1895, engineer, inventor, and businessman John C. Lincoln started Lincoln Electric Company. His brother James would join him shortly, in his business endeavor, starting in 1907 (Sharplin, A 1989). James managerial style would most closely be described as people-oriented. He once said “Labor and management are properly not warring camps; they are parts of one organization in which they must and should cooperate fully and happily.” (Sharplin, A 1989) Early on, he created the Advisory Board, a committee made up of both employees who were elected by their peers and upper management, including the chief executive officer. The Advisory Board continues still to this day, meeting bimonthly to discuss employee policies, working conditions, etc. Though these meetings, employees have gained such things as health benefits, life insurance, paid vacation time, retirement pension plans, stock incentives, continued on and off site education, and much more. (Sharplin, A 1989)

The framework in chapter eight of the textbook “Principles of Management” proposes a system of categorizing organizational cultures according to different profiles. These profiles are divided into 7 separate groups based on a model that is called Dimensions of Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) (Carpenter, Bauer and Erdogan, 2009). The 7 groups are: Innovative cultures, Aggressive cultures, Outcome-Oriented Cultures, Stable Cultures, People-oriented cultures, Team-Oriented Cultures, and Detail-oriented cultures. I will try to decide to which of these groups the organizational culture of the Lincoln Electric Company belongs.

Lincoln Electric Company was founded in 1895 by John C. Lincoln, who was joined by his brother younger brother James in 1907 (Lincoln Electric, Inc., n.d.). From the very beginning these no-nonsense brothers set about building a company that valued its customers first, prioritized frugality, focused on delivering ever increasing value and lower consumer costs. The company has a borderline fanatical commitment to achieving competitive advantage through an employee incentive system that drives productivity well beyond any norms for the industry, or manufacturers as a whole. To this day, the influence of the founders is clear in the entire structure of the company and its operating philosophies.

Lincoln Financial Group as a whole has built its reputation on being a customer centered company the way they do that is with the vision that each area has. The vision statement for Lincoln is the most important thing that each employee has to stand by. CAS vision statement is “Securing our Customers Future Through… Passionate Employees, Innovative and Simple Solutions, and Excellent Service.”. I live every day in this vision and our director pushes this

The principles and ideas in which James F. Lincoln believed and that brought him his success are still those that drive the current Board of Directors and employees every day.

The continued influence of founder James Lincoln’s values and belief system is visible throughout every aspect of the organizational culture at the Lincoln Electric Company. Although James Lincoln believed that businesses should follow Christian morality, he did not impose religion on any of the employees. Instead, his beliefs are reflected in the company’s policy of always placing the customer first, and its view that this practice is not only morally correct, but also beneficial to the company’s economic success -- which has been proven true.