CASE PRESENTATION: THE LINCOLN ELECTRIC COMPANY, 1985 (CASE 27)
The company's explicit mission is to serve three specified groups its customers, its employees, and its stockholders. The company designs, manufactures, and markets arc welding pro ducts, and integral horsepower industrial electric motors. Lincoln Electric explicitly limits its activities to this rela tively narrow product line, with an objective of serving the major needs of the users of welding equipment, and a goal of providing these users with the highest quality products at rea sonable prices. With respect to its employees, the company's goals are to provide stability of income, and an opportunity toshare in the profits earned by the company. Lincoln Electric's objective with respect to its stock holders is implicit. The objective is to provide a stable and fair return on investment. Strategy at Lincoln Electric is developed and implemented by company management, with the consent of the board of direc tors. While management is granted significant autonomy by the board of directors in the development and implementation of strategy, it should be noted that, with an approximately 50 percent equity stake in the company, Lincoln Electric's employees are well represented on the board, and are in a position to veto strategies unacceptable to them.
Environmental Analysis Lincoln Electric functions in a socioeconomic sector of American industry where management and labor are typically viewed as adversaries. This situation does not prevail at Lincoln Electric, where the corporate culture is one in which management and production personnel are viewed as equals, albeit with different organizational functions and responsi bilities. This corporate culture is one in which an indivi dual, to be happy as an employee, must be willing to accept a part of the responsibility for the company's success.
The values, beliefs, and attitudes which underlie the cor p...