...1. Introduction The discussion between promoters of best practice and best fit approaches has sparked widespread controversy in the human resource management (HRM) area. The topic has gained much scholarly attention because it not only addresses a theoretical controversy but also possesses a high degree of practical managerial significance. The essay has the aim to analyse best practice and best fit approaches in HRM of a multinational enterprise. The reader receives insight into Lincoln Electric's organization through a case-study analysis of practical HR approaches serving as a basis for developing practical managerial implications in the last part of the paper. 2. Critical evaluation of "best practice" and "best fit" practices in HRM 2.1 Best practice approach The best practice approach claims that certain bundles of HR activities exist which universally support companies in reaching a competitive advantage regardless of the organizational setting or industry (Redman and Wilkinson 2009). Best practice models imply a close connection between HR practices and organizational performance and are often associated with high commitment management (Paauwe & Boselie 2003). Empirical research in the best-practice field shows similar groups of HR polices which are especially suitable for maximizing performance irrespective of market and product strategies (Peffer 1998, Guest 2000). Best practice bundles of activities are characterized as mutually compatible HR activities...
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...The assigned case study explores the overwhelming success of Lincoln Electric, an American based company and major producer of welding equipment and associated consumables. Lincoln Electric has been in business for over 100 years and has been the subject of countless case studies for MBA students to analyze the reasons why the company is so successful (Lincoln Electric, 2012; Eisenberg, Sieger & Greenwald, 2001). Within this assessment, I will explore the primary reasons why I feel Lincoln Electric has been so successful and a high performing organization for so many years. Specifically, I will propose literature and research based reasons for these reasons as well as specific actions Lincoln Electric can take as a company to achieve even higher performance in the future. Lincoln Electrics Keys to Success From humble beginnings to worldwide example Lincoln Electric started off from very humble beginnings, being formed during a depression and hardly prospering during the first 25 years of its existence (Robbins, De Cenzo, & Coulter, 2013; Wiley, 1993). However, Lincoln Electric has since become a regular on the Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 Best Big Companies in America and the Fortune 1000 list as well (Koller, 2010). Additionally, Lincoln Electric serves as an example for other companies striving for high performance within their own organizations (Koller, 2010). So what has made Lincoln Electric such a successful company? I’d propose it’s directly related to the...
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...Lincoln Electric Case Analysis Situation: Through the year 1974, the Lincoln Electric Company experienced rapid growth in net income and overall sales. Though a small company, Lincoln Electric was able to dominate the welding market by focusing on reducing costs and raising quality. These goals were achieved by rewarding employees with an innovative financial incentive program. Lincoln Electric paid their employees a base salary that was slightly lower than market. However, all employees were included in a merit-based profit sharing program. This program rewarded hard-working, efficient, and quality-conscious employees with big bonuses that could potentially equal up to 100% of their full-time salary. After having gone through an initial work probation period, all employees were guaranteed employment. One of the founders of the company, James F. Lincoln, believed that competition was a fundamental foundation of employee development. He set up a system that would reward the hardest working and most efficient workers with large financial prizes. The workers were encouraged to skip smoking breaks, take short lunches, and work as quickly as possible, while still paying attention to quality standards. Though challenging, the work environment was viewed favorably by the employees who were interviewed for this case. All respondents admitted that there were serious deficiencies in the system, but that it was generally favorable. The employees accepted that...
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...Lincoln Electric: A Case Study Joe Attinello Cali Cook Alia Goss Kurt Oliver Mark Strom Mike Torbenson Business 305 Linda Gibson October 7, 2005 History and Background Lincoln Electric today is the worlds leading manufacturer of arc welding products, and also is one of the leading producers of electric motors, which was their very first product. John C. Lincoln is the founder of Lincoln Electric, which opened in 1895. He previously had been working for the Elliot-Lincoln Company who was a producer of Lincoln’s electric motors, but during the depression the company had lost so much he was forced to leave. Using the $200 he earned from redesigning an engine for Herbert Henry Dow, John opened his new business, with electric motors of his own design as the main product (Buller/Schuler, 2006). During that first few years the company grew but had some setbacks, which include a fire in the first year of operation. In 1906 John incorporated his business and moved it from a fourth floor room in a factory he was in, to a newly constructed three-story factory. He then expanded his work force and the sales grew to over $50,000 a year (Buller/Schuler, 2006). In 1907, John’s brother James joined him as a salesman and to help manage the company, as John preferred to be more involved in the inventing stage and less in the management of the products and company (www.lincolnelectric.com/corporate/about/history.asp). Over the next few years the product line was expanded...
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...Lincoln Electric: Case Study Lincoln Electric is one of the leading producers and manufacturers of Arc Welding Products and Electric Motors. Lincoln Electric’s success lies on the foundation of the various company policies introduced by James Lincoln. This case study analyzed the critical points on which the success of Lincoln Electric’s has its foundations. Company’s Basic Principle Lincoln Electric’s foundations are based on values of trust, overt nature to management, self reliance, righteousness, commitment, answerability and inter-collaboration. These beliefs and moral code formed a powerful base of Lincoln’s culture and management regularly providing the rewards to deserving employees. Pride of workmanship and feelings of involvement and contribution are intrinsic awards that flourish at Lincoln electrics. Company always update their employees about the company’s functioning and financial achievements which encourage the hard work in employees. James Lincoln firmly believed that customers are valuable assets of company. Company’s primary goal should be in the interests of customers. Researchers (Kanji 2010) have made theoretical models relating the Customer Satisfaction with growth in business. Kanji introduces customer satisfaction as critical factor for the model he presented. Other benefits which are included in Customer Satisfaction is Company’s Efficient Advertising and its Human Capital Performances (Luo 2007). Luo and Homburg (2007) findings indicate that...
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...CHAPTER IINTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Case Study Selection Compensation is the remuneration received by an employee in return for his/her contribution to the organization. It is an organized practice that involves balancing the work-employee relation by providing monetary and non-monetary benefits to employees.Researcher are interested in doing research on the company becauseresearcher wanted to learn more about control system especially managementcompensation, both theoretical and practical. Lincoln Electric Company one of companies has realize the method of control system especially managementcompensation in their company.In the Lincoln Electric Company, researcher get knowledge of control systemespecially management compensation, particularly its association with corporate profits. However, in its application is often the application of compensation hasexperienced various problems and constraints. So also happened in the LincolnElectric Company.Every company absolutely has a strategy to sustainable them company. The top priority of Lincoln is customer. Company always sensitive with consumer needs.Certainly, the firm’s customer wants to get the best price and the best quality. And, product of Lincoln fulfill it. Lincoln also concerns employee and stockholders needs.Management compensation always was determined by a wage survey of similar jobsin Cleveland area where the company do operational process. Lincoln ElectricCompany is a good example for other company which is concern...
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...Explain how the human resource (HR) policies at Lincoln Electric are linked to its overall corporate strategy. Jeffery Pfeffer, The Human Equation, (1998), explains the idea of alignment between employment practices and strategy. He states that an organisation should do specific things to manage the employment relationship and these practices need to be first internally consistent and aligned to each other, and secondly, externally consistent in the sense that the organisations procedures produce the behaviors and competencies required for it to compete successfully given its chosen market place and way of differentiating itself from the market place. Going by this definition we need to consider if there is evidence of internal consistency of the HR policies pursued by Lincoln Electric. In order to achieve this objective to first identify what the key human resource management policies were are Lincoln Electric and their alignment to each other. The incentive system and the climate and the culture of open transparent performance management and gain sharing that was fostered by management are a primary example of internal alignment. The incentive system carried out at Lincoln electric could only have been successfully implemented within this open culture. The methods of measuring performance, the method of setting performance benchmarks (through work studies) and the subsequent involvement of all process owners in determining an employee’s rating is another example of internal...
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...The Lincoln Electric Company An inventor by the name of John C. Lincoln designed and developed the electric motor in such a way that it could not be topped by any competitor; however, his passion for inventing kept him from wanting to manage the company he created. So in 1907 John hired his brother, James F. Lincoln, to manage the plant and this is when it all started, the success and growth of a billion dollar company. The Lincoln Electric Company, the world’s largest arc-welding manufacture and top producer of industrial electric motors, now employees over 4000 people and sales have topped $1 billion. But, how did they gain this overwhelming prosperity? Many have tried to figure it out, even studies have been conducted on Lincoln Electric’s organizational structure, James’ incentive management practices, and the keys to their success, and still no one has mastered it. They still operate today the same way they did year’s ago and it is working...for them. However, what does the future hold for Lincoln Electric? Will they be able to keep up with their high demand of productivity without lowering employee job satisfaction? We will examine different factors of Lincoln Electric such as the companies communication between employees, their problem solving techniques, and their conflicts, but the two most important factors we will analyze are: The incentive reward system - Its pro’s and con’s An effective organizational change process to position the firm’s incentives...
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...permission policies, is available at http://journals.informs.org/. Labor Market Institutions and Global Strategic Adaptation: Evidence from Lincoln Electric Jordan I. Siegel, Barbara Zepp Larson Harvard Business School, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02163 {jsiegel@hbs.edu, blarson@hbs.edu} A lthough one of the central questions in the global strategy field is how multinational firms successfully navigate multiple and often conflicting institutional environments, we know relatively little about the effect of conflicting labor market institutions on multinational firms’ strategic choice and operating performance. With its decision to invest in manufacturing operations in nearly every one of the world’s largest welding markets, Lincoln Electric offers us a quasi-experiment. We leverage a unique data set covering 1996–2006 that combines data on each host country’s labor market institutions with data on each subsidiary’s strategic choices and historical operating performance. We find that Lincoln Electric performed significantly better in countries with labor laws and regulations supporting manufacturers’ interests and in countries that allowed the free use of both piecework and a discretionary bonus. Furthermore, we find that in countries with labor market institutions unfriendly to manufacturers, Lincoln Electric was still able to overcome most (although not all) of the institutional distance by what we term flexible intermediate adaptation. Key words:...
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...ACP IBOM International Business Strategy Case Study: Management focus Lincoln Electric Presented by Raphaël ROBIN Raphaël ROBIN Table of content Introduction………………………………………….page 2 … The beginning of Lincoln Electric………………..page 3 … From the motors to the welders production……..page 4 … Becoming International…………………………....page 4 … A new era…………………………………………...page 5 … Conclusion………………………………………….page 6 … References………………………………………....page 6 … page 1/6 Raphaël ROBIN Introduction A picture of John C. Lincoln "The Welding Experts" Created in 1895 by John C. Lincoln a capital investment of $200 Lincoln with , the Electric Company is today a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of welding products, archery, robotic systems, equipment oxyfuel and plasma cutting and occupies the first position in the global market for brazing and soldering alloys. Lincoln Electric continuously invests in the development of welding solutions to meet the specific needs of customers worldwide. Choose Lincoln Electric as welding partner is offer your company a wide range of equipment and consumables proven in industrial environments, and designed to meet the most stringent requirements...
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...The purpose of this case analysis is to analyze the culture of Lincoln Electric Company. According to Harvard Case Study by Arthur Sharplin, this company is the world’s largest manufacturer of welding machines and electrodes. Let’s look at the Continuing Influence of the Founders of the Company. John C. Lincoln business was incorporated but in 1906 and he expanded his workforce to 30 and sales grew to over $50,000 a year. James F. Lincoln joined the company still small and he became the General Manager and Vice –President of the company. Employee morale and productivity remained with higher profits and bonuses and Lincoln’s market share is stable. When the advisory Board came into power, between 1915 and 1917, a paid-up life insurance policy was given by the company to the employee and a welding school was begun. In 1918, an employee bonus was attempted. In 1919, the Lincoln Electric Employees’ association was formed. In addition, the Board of Directors voted to start a suggestion system in 1929. The legendary Lincoln bonus plan was proposed by the Advisory Board and accepted on a trial basis by James Lincoln in 1934. The golden rule emphasizes on James Lincoln’s Christian ethics which he says “Treat People as you would like to be Treated” “In his words, he says if the Christian ethics control our acts, the savings in the cost of distribution will be tremendous.” In his view, the customer should always come first. Lincoln’s Incentive Management Plan was defined by the company’s...
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...BUSI 1317: Srategic management | Lincoln Electric | The Welding Industry’s Titan | | | | 1st December, 2014 ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to analyze Lincoln Electric’s overall strategy and business model and evaluate how generalizable is the company’s business model in other industries, specifically focusing on feasible strategies for one of the fastest developing country, India. | Contents Lincoln Electric’s Background 2 Recent Reporting 2 Main Features of the Lincoln Electric Business Model 2 Company Philosophy 2 Overall Strategy 3 Compensation, Leadership and Communication 3 How generalizable is Lincoln Business Model to other industries? 4 How generalizable is the Lincoln’s approach to India? 5 Employment System 5 Incentive System 6 Conclusion 6 Appendices 7 Exhibit 1: Hofstede's Dimensions Comparison - India & USA 7 Exhibit 2: India and U.S GDP Comparison 7 Bibliography 8 Lincoln Electric’s Background Lincoln Electric Company is the largest manufacturer of welding equipment in the world and has been in existence for over 100 years since 1895. The founder, John C. Lincoln started the business selling his own designed electric motors with the $200 he made from redesigning Herbert Henry Dow’s engine (Paul F. Buller, 2006). The company grew steadily, and in 1906 sales rise to $50,000 a year. John expanded his work force and in 1907, his brother, James F. Lincoln joined the company as a senior manager and introduced...
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...The Lincoln Electric Company The Lincoln electric, founded by John C. Lincoln is now an American multinational manufacturer of welding products. Over the course of decades, it has obtained outstanding growth in all fronts; target markets, market share, production quantity, firm size, production variety etc. It has become a well-known and widely worked on case study, especially due to the firms policies and incentive systems. Rewarding its employees handsomely for the productivity, high quality, cost reduction ideas etc. James F. Lincoln`s philosophy of “Incentive management” with tree policies employment guarantee, yearend bonus and piecework based wages became company`s core strategy. Lincoln electric is a firm with strong fundaments and healthy business values. Then after the death of John and James Lincoln came the hard times in 1980`s. Due to effects of inflation, higher costs, recession etc. Lincoln Electric (with George E. Wills as the firm president) faced a 40% drop in sales. Even through this management held its ground, no employees were laid off and no policies were altered. Nevertheless, sharing reward, equality for everyone, belief in the individual these shared values gave result and repaid over the next years, especially in 1993. When employees voluntarily postponed 614 weeks of vacation to meet customer demand In order to evaluate the exportability outside the US, of Lincoln`s approach to the organization and motivation of employees, we need to first understand...
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...ANALYSES OF LINCOLN ELECTRIC CASE STUDY Abstract Lincoln Electric is one of the leading producers and manufacturers of Arc Welding Products and Electric Motors. It is undeniable that the success of Lincoln Electric lies on the foundation of the various company policies introduced by James Lincoln. Organizational Strategy Lincoln Electric had a unique organizational strategy with numerous creative ideas. First, to keep and better motivate its employees, the company implemented a special incentive system which effectively distributed profits in the firm. These incentive “were expressions of mutual respect for each person’s importance to the job to be done” (Lincoln, 1961, p. 11). Then, the annual bonus element was also very important for the employees were awarded in accordance with their contribution to the company’s performance in terms of output, ideas, cooperation, dependability and quality. To prevent layoffs, Lincoln didn’t just give money to the employees, but opened a welding school to enable some of the employees add value to themselves. Even though Lincoln is very authoritarian, employees are given the opportunity to participate in management in several ways. The company tries to keep a family-like atmosphere where managers and employees respect each other. The hierarchical barriers are kept at a minimum and open communication is valued. This system results in a sharp sense of ownership in the company from top to bottom because if the company as a whole does...
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...Lincoln Electric expansion to India Name Institution Affiliation Date Market entry strategy involves the essential requirement for a company to get into international level. The need of involving other companies whereby two companies join together is referred to as joint venture entry. They get into a similar market and make the same production with the aim of sharing risk and at the same time they share the profit according to their terms of agreement (Kretzberg, 2007). Therefore, Lincoln Electric Company has a chance to join with other company to venture in the Indian market. Through the joint venture strategy in Indian market, Lincoln Electric has a chance of attracting wider market share in the region. The major consideration is done through extensive study of the market situation through various considerations. Market environment has a wide consideration depending on the factors such as political, social and economic integration. The basic considerations that Lincoln Company has to consider are directed in achievement in the market increase (Hastings, 1995). Concerning the Indian market structure, introduction of welding company is essential in reference to the technological improvement. The factors concerning the technology in the region, it covers the different aspects especially in developing market. While considering joint venture strategy in international market, the major considerations are made depending on business environment. This involves political...
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