The Lincoln Electric Company is a welding manufacturing company that has been run by two brothers who led the company to success. John was more apt in the technical aspect and brought the best skills on the production side, whereas James was a people’s person who worked directly with employee incentives. The Lincoln Electric company experienced difficulties during the depression, but during WWII, the company gained a reputation as the best welding equipment supplier with the highest quality and lowest prices. Welding equipment was produced in a continuous flow with high flexibility and low worker idling time. The high production and quality was possible because of their piecework pay system, which allowed the workers to produce more in order to gain more money. There was also a high standard in quality because each finished piece was tracked back to the employee and noted on the employee’s report card if there were flaws to be found.
As a manager at Lincoln, I could not ask for anything more than to work in a successful place where there is a zero turnover rate, where work compensation is the highest of any other company, and, where employees’ production is at maximum at all times with minimal supervision required. However, I believe that there are flaws which may need to be looked over and further evaluated.
Employee motivation
One of the first problems that arise from the piecework pay system is the type of motivation for work that manifests in the workers. The positive aspect of this pay system is the fact that it allows workers to set their own income since the opportunity to theoretically earn an infinite amount of money can motivate anyone. However, the lure of earning more money will lead the employee to put monetary gain as the first priority and completely disregard other factors which make a work environment a good place to work in. When interviewing