Individual weekly contribution to Seminar Topic 6 discussion and questions

Read the short case ''Lincoln Electric & Culture”.

It is located on p. 419 in your textbook or you can access it from the e-Library resources provided for this course on the learnonline site.   

Answer the questions below. Do NOT answer the questions at the end of case in the textbook.

Attach a word document for each post with the following format:

FAMILYname-Firstname-week#.doc

"Lincoln Electric competes in a business that is very competitive, where cost minimization is a key source of competitive advantage. Lincoln’s culture and incentive systems both encourage employees to strive for high levels of productivity, which translates into the low costs that are critical for Lincoln’s success. However, a culture that leads to high performance in the firm’s home nation may not be easily imposed on foreign subsidiaries. Lincoln’s culture has clearly helped the firm achieve superior performance in the US (home) market, but this same culture is very ‘American’ in essence and difficult to implement in other host (foreign) markets". 

In light of this statement discuss the following questions:

1. The managers and employees of several of Lincoln’s European subsidiaries found the culture to be alien to their own values and were reluctant to adopt it. The result was that Lincoln found it very difficult to replicate in foreign markets the success it has in the US. Lincoln compounded the problem by acquiring established enterprises that already had their own organizational culture. What other organizational structures could it have adopted in foreign markets? What are the advantages and disadvantages of other organizational structures that you could suggest, from the perspective of both the home and host markets?

2. In trying to impose its culture on foreign operating subsidiaries, Lincoln had to deal with two problems: how to change the established organizational culture of those units, and how to introduce an organizational culture whose key values might be alien to the values held my members in that society. Drawing on examples from the case and elsewhere, what would you suggest Lincoln do to address both problems? Why?

(300-600 words)