The Culture At Lincoln Electric Company

(2009) the definition of outcome-oriented culture, “emphasize achievement, results and action as important values” (p. 196 pdf). This kind of culture reflects in Lincoln Electric Company with a critical management practice of using incentive to elicit employee contribution and commitment to the job, by providing bonuses which is the benchmark of the management system and introducing other benefits like pension plan policy, promotion from within policy hence insuring flexibility in the benefits structure and retention mechanism. The artifacts of open door policy and flat hierarchical structure of management with empowered employees were employee’s plan and organise their own work whilst management do not pay much attention to the operations Carpenter et el (2009). For example according to the case study, the office of the president was located within the plant location and uncarpeted symbolising equal platform of the work environment and relationships. The company does not have worker turnover except for retirement and other natural wastage like

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.

The culture of a company develops over time through shared experience (Schein, 2004, p. 17) or management attempts to dictate the culture, but the employees must embrace the culture for it to be effective. Interestingly, when describing a culture there are many ways to define how things feel within the company, however, this is not an objective evaluation but instead subjective. “Culture is not primarily ‘inside’ people’s heads, but somewhere ‘between’ the heads of a group of people where symbols and meanings are publicly expressed (Alvesson, 2002, p. 4).” Some might describe the company’s climate, philosophy, values, or habits, although no hard and fast method of evaluation pins down a company’s culture by impartial means (Robbins & Judge, 2009, p. 554). Just as companies grow, so can their culture; what began, as an innovative, individualist, growth driven environment, may become a team based, highly skilled, ritualized environment as changes in the company dictate shifts in management and employees.

*  People Shape the Culture. Personalities and experiences of employees create the culture of an organization. For example, if most of the people in an organization are very outgoing, the culture is likely to be open and sociable. If many artifacts depicting the company’s history and values are in evidence throughout the company, people value their history and culture. If doors are open, and few closed door meetings are held, the culture is unguarded. If negativity about supervision and the company is widespread and complained about by employees, a culture of negativity, that is difficult to overcome, will take hold.

Organization culture which is a system of shared assumptions,values,and beliefs showing people what appropriate and inappropriate behavior can best be analysed in the Lincoln Electric Company from the P-O-L-C Framework as below.

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

The organizational culture can encourage or discourage effectiveness, depending on the nature of the values, beliefs, and norms” (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2011). Organizational culture can be very friendly, very task oriented, competitive or driven to be highly productive or it can be disorganized and unproductive. The culture is based on the history of the company and the atmosphere that is created and nurtured over time. This culture guides the language the employees use their loyalty and many more areas. Organizational culture is an important social characteristic that influences organizations, group, and individual behavior with in a company (Hartnell, Ou, & Kinicki, 2011). The Culture of an organization affects the way people behave, how they address customers, the atmosphere, perception, values, and beliefs. Employee’s performance and effectiveness can also be determined by an organization’s culture. Every organization has its own culture based on shared expectations, values and attitudes and its influence on individuals and groups (Ivancevich et al., 2011). People inside of an organization have a big effect on the culture because of their values, beliefs, and ideology. Companies try to hire people who have the same values as the company so that they will fit into the organization. People stay with organizations that have a

Every organization operates and functions in a different way. Rather it be the employees, the structure, or the products and services they provide, each organization will have their own unique way of performing tasks and reaching their goals. All organizations have a set of values and norms by which they go by, which sets them apart from other organizations. These values and norms are part of an organization’s culture. According to the textbook, organizational culture is “the set of shared values and norms that control organizational members’ interactions with each other and with suppliers, customers, and other people outside the organization” (pg. 179). Culture is one of the key ways an organization can increase its effectiveness. Organizational culture shapes and controls behavior within the organization. It influences how people respond to a situation and how they interpret the environment surrounding the organization. Therefore, an organization’s culture directly affects its performance and position within the competitive environment. With that being said, an organization with a well-established culture will tend to be more successful than an organization with a poor culture. Employees often spend 40 hours or more per week at their work place, which means organizational culture not only affects their work lives, but their personal lives as well. In attempt to better understand organizational culture, I will take a look at Chick-fil-A, a fast food restaurant

Organizational culture is defined as values, beliefs, and expectations that keep organizations together and also influence employees. Culture varies from organization to organization and that is what sets them apart from one another. As an employee, a company’s culture should play a major part when deciding if the organization is a good fit for you. If management is transparent with their employees and there is a clear understanding of what the company’s culture is, and what is expected of everyone, it will have a positive impact on employees. There can also be disadvantages in organizational culture and

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.”

order to provide health benefits and social activities to employees. This association is still active

The overall impression, after reading the Case Study, is that Lincoln Electric has a strong culture. In our textbook, Carpenter, Taylor, and Erdogan (2010, p. 197) define a strong culture as “one that is shared by organizational members… a culture in which most employees in the organization share a consensus regarding the values of the company”. This can be considered the foundation of all the successive subcultures that exist within the company, and it starts at the very beginning with the founders. John C. Lincoln started the company on next-to-nothing after he had been let go from his former venture. Despite being started during an economic recession and suffering a fire after barely one year, John Lincoln moved the company to a new location and grew his workforce, which correlated to higher sales and profits. John’s brother, James F. Lincoln, joined the company and took over as General Manager/Vice President while the company was still in its early stages. The first indicator that the company took on a people-oriented culture is with the creation of the “Advisory Board”, which served as a means to advise Lincoln of operations –

An organization’s culture governs day to day behavior. This type of power may be seen as a control mechanism, which businesses use to manipulate internal and external perception. Every organization has a set of assumed understandings that must be adopted and implemented by new employees in order for them to be accepted. Conformity to the culture becomes the primary basis for reward by the organization. “The role of culture in influencing employee behavior appears to be increasingly important in today’s workplace, as organizations have widened spans of control, flattened structures, introduced teams, reduced

The Lincoln Electric Company is the world’s largest manufacturer of welding machines and electrons. Lincoln employs 2,400 workers in two U.S. factories near Cleveland, OH and approximately 600 in three factories located in other countries. (The Lincoln Electric Company p. 1.)