Company Case Analysis Of The Lincoln Electric Company

The Lincoln Electric Company has been considered as one of the best companies to work for, for more than a century and for good reason. They put their customers first and employees second offering them incentives based on achievable performance and merit. Founder James F. Lincoln once said, "that the customer 's interests should be the first goal of industry." (Sharplin, 1989) Today they still stay true to the original vision stating that ¨…our technologies allows us to create complete solutions that make our customers more productive and successful. We will distinguish ourselves through an unwavering commitment to our employees and a relentless drive to maximize shareholder value.¨ (Lincoln Electric, Vision Statement, 2015) thus reenforcing that they value all collaborators involved from the customer to employees to investors. Lincoln made sure since the early days of the company that the employees had a voice, were heard and taken into consideration in all decisions of the company. This forward thinking idea around the time of union strikes and labor disputes has made it unnecessary for the …show more content…
The original annual December bonus amounted to 25% of an employee´s salary, a pension plan, 30% of stock option set aside for employees to buy in to and promotions only took place internally eliminating fear of outsiders taking away from loyal employees. All of this was not simply given to employees nor did it have a limit on their earning potential. Individual base wages and bonuses were based on a merit rating score meaning that if a person who received a score of 110 would receive 110 percent of the standard bonus based on his or her regular earnings. (Sharplin, 1989) In an employee interview in the early 1980´s, a woman was asked if the Lincoln Electric Company would ever enter the union to which she replied that she did not see why they would ever need