Abstract
Today, Lincoln Electric's line of manufactured arc welding products accounts for around 85% of the company's $1.2 billion in annual sales. Not with-standing the company's impressive success, it is best known for its outstanding productivity incentive program. Lincoln Electric's unique beliefs about the workplace are largely responsible for highly prized jobs, high wages, high productivity, a high level of trust between employees and management, and a very low turnover rate. Lincoln Electric's compensation package for factory workers consists of a piecework system for base wages and a year-end bonus. In Richard M. Hodgetts' interview, Donald Hastings, recently retired chairman of Lincoln Electric, discusses the company's compensation philosophy in depth. In order to maintain the company's foundation beliefs, he states that the "entire system is designed around the philosophy that if people are given the opportunity to succeed, they'll take it." In addition, he addresses Lincoln Electric's continual challenge to maintain its core beliefs while adapting to meet changing business needs.
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