The Fraud Act 2006 - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1814 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Did you like this example? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"The Fraud Act 2006 has as a central requirement the concept of Dishonesty. This simple legal concept has made the law clear.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Critically Discuss. The Fraud Act 2006 was brought in to replace the Theft Act 1978, as offences created under the act after caused difficulty proving in court. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Fraud Act 2006" essay for you Create order In 2002, the Law Commission produced a report on fraud, which led to the creation of the new act, which has been simplified, which allows the defendant to understand the offences with ease and for the Crown Court the changes made it easier to prosecute. Most of the previous act has now been repealed, excluding à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"making off without paymentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ under section 3, which has not been affected. Certain aspects of the previous Theft Act still remain; common law offences such as, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"conspiracy to defraudà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"conspiracy to cheat the revenueà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. The main change brought to the new act was section 1 of a single offence of fraud, as the act gives a statutory definition of the offence of fraud; separating it into three categories, subsequently meaning that it is a single offence which can be committed in three different ways: Fraud by false representation (section 2) An example of this offence would be Adams, R v (1993) CA; The individual went to hire a car and filled in a car hire form, he was asked if he had any previous motoring convictions and also whether he has been disqualified from driving, he said à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"noà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ to both, however he had been disqualified from driving 4 years previously. The indidual was found guilty as he should have only ticked the boxes if both answers were no, the indivual tried to argue that it was the correct answer to one of the questions, therefore he falsly represented himself. Fraud by failing to disclose information (section 3) An example of this would be for an individual not disclosing important information when applying for life insurance such as they have a life threatening illness. Fraud by abuse of position (section 4) An example of this would be a carer stealing money or goods from their patients, as the carer was in a position of trust, in which the system relies upon honesty on the part of caring for someone who canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t care for themselves. The main focus of the new legislation brought in was to ensure that newly developed technolgically focused crime was included within the provision as previously the complexity under fraud was prosecuted, enabled some defendants to be acquitted as the legilslation failed to keep up with technological advances. This change was brought in to overcome these technicalities, by capturing the elements of fraud, however doing so in a technique which doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t specify any specific activity. This broadness allows the reformed legislation to keep up to date with developing technologies, therefore meaning that technology cant out date the legislation like previously. A post legislative assessment of the newly reformed Fraud Act 20 06 was carried out and comments made were that the act simplified cases of fraud, that the simplicity of the law allows investigators to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"take prompt action and avoid further criminalityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. The broader range of offences which are now covered by the act, means that the prosecution no longer have to prove that a person was decieved and also allows the means to prosecute for a wider range of criminal activities including technology focused crime, investment fraud, data theft and charity scams. Offences are now based upon the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"intentionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢of the defendant, rather than the outcome, which has increased the amount of early guily pleas. The overall assessment suggested that the reformly reformed legislation has been successful in acheving its initial objectives, which were to modernisedeception offences, whilst also providing a clear statutory base for fraud offences, whilst also targetting complex and technology focused fraud . There are still offences being prosecuted under the previous legislation due to the implementation date of the Act and the long investigate periods that often occur in complex fraud cases. The principles that are carried out are the same although the legal tests may be differ. The common law offence of conspiracy to defraud must be mentioned, however, as it still exists despite the Fraud Act 2006. The Element of Dishonesty The changes brought in move the focus of the legislation from the concept of deception towards the concept of dishonesty, as defined in R v Ghosh (1982) when dishonesty is an element of the offence, the jury have to make a decision whether or not they feel that what was done dishonest by the ordinary standards of reasonable and honest people? And whether the defendant realised that he/she was doing, by those standards dishonest? After the removal of the concept of deception from the offence of fraud à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"dishonestly obtaining services by de ceptionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ (section 1 of the Theft Act 1968); with à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"obtaining services dishonestlyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢(section 11 of the Fraud Act 2006), this allows a larger scope of crime to be captured through the word à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"dishonestlyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, as it is a word which can easily be related to and understood by laymen. Section 11 of the Act make it a statutory offence to obtain services dishonestly; suggesting that if services which were to be paid for were obtained without payment, under the knowledge of the individual or with intention that no payment would be made, If found guilty the individual would be liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to twelve months on a summary conviction, or a fine or imprisonment for up to five years on conviction on indictment. The decision of whether an action is dishonest remains separate from any moral justifications the act has. For instance if an individual stole from someone wealthy, and he knew that he wa s acting dishonestly, however his argument was that he was morally justified in acting in that particular way, and could only be brought to court by the way of mitigation of sentencing, and would not have affected the inference of dishonesty. The new legislation means that dishonesty is looked at through omission rather than the act, for instance if a creditor were to use trickory to get a debtor to pay a debt which they owed, as the motive was dishonest even though the debtor owed the creditor and by means it was rightfully his money, the creditor could potentially be prosecuted under the new provisions of the act, however under the previous law this would have been lawfull. The broad nature of the statute and reformed language now allows a broader range of offences to be under the provisions of the reformed act; however as the legislation of the act is broad this could potentially lead to problems. As the more complex a system is the harder it is to prosecute under, however if it is broader this creates more room for loop holes to be created. The nature and definition of dishonesty under the Ghosh test, is left under the discretion of the jury to decide whether an act is dishonest and if the act fails to address whether something is dishonest it automatically becomes classified as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"fraudà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. However the argument with this issue falls upon whether or not the jury are à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"reasonableà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ with their estimations of dishonesty, different life backgrounds and job roles can influence what an individual sees as a dishonest act. Leister 1974 said, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"that it cannot be rational to trust, twelve strangers of unknown qualityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. The act does not in fact provide a definition of fraud, and is general in terms, which could potentially mean that criminal liability is extended. Section 2 of the reformed act is the most broadest in terms, suggesting that if a false representation wa s created within an email, and was intended to be sent, however was caught in the tracks, the individual would still have the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"intentionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, therefore would be guilty of the full offence. Another broadness issue would be for the provision of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"unintentional falsityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, section 2(2), states that a statement would be considered as false if it is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"untrueà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"misleadingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, however if an auction house where to sell an item as an original piece, however later on find out that it is a forged piece and the auction house believed at the time that it was the original, but in their industry was aware of the possibility of these types of happenings, they would be guilty under section 1 under the new legislation. However such cases should be let off due to diligence of the jury, allowing the fact that they believe the auction house were in fact unaware of the dishonesty, wit h the Ghosh test. The Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office have considered that the new changes to the legislation have been beneficial as they have reduced the scope for legal argument and appeals on technicalities. The legal concept of the fraud act being centred with the requirement of dishonest has is some cases made the law clear, in the sense that the term, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"dishonestà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ is easily relatable, and the term incriminates anyone who is to act upon dishonesty. However as there is no set in stone definition of dishonesty, it is left up to the discretion of the jury to decide what is and what is not dishonest. This assessment method suggests that the juryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s opinion will uphold higher in court over morality and the criminal law, which therefore destroys à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"the protection against laws which the ordinary man may regard as harsh and oppressiveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. In terms of making the law clear, it has allow ed the Fraud Act to be more concise and easily understandable; allowing individuals to be more accountable for their actions with language spoken within the law such as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"dishonestyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ however it also has its negatives as previously mentioned, the path of the case is in the juryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s hands, which may not always be decent. Bibliography The Law Commision, The Law Commision Fraud [July 2002] TLCF 1, 5,6,7,8,9 Fraud Act 2006 2006 s 1,2,3,4,5,6,7()() Serious Fraud Office, Abuse of Position (Serious Fraud Office 2014) https://www.sfo.gov.uk/fraud/fraud-in-your-organisation/abuse-of-position.aspx accessed 24th March 2014 CPS, The Fraud Act 2006 (CPS 2014) https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/fraud_act/ accessed 25th March 2014 Farlex, Dishonesty (The free dictionary 2014) https://www.thefreedictionary.com/dishonesty accessed 26th March 2014 M Johnson, The Fraud Act 2006; The E Crime Prosecutors champion or the creator of new in choate offence? [2007] TFA 1, 1.2.3.4.5.6. L. Shu, F. Gino, M. Bazerman, Dishonest Deed, Clear Conscience: Self Preservation through Moral Disengagement and Motivated Forgetting [2009] DDCD 2, 2,3,4,5,6,78 Willis and Bowring, Fraud and dishonesty offences (Willis and Bowring April 2012) https://www.willisbowring.com.au/newsletters/criminal-law-newsletter-archive/fraud-and-dishonesty-offences.aspx accessed 26th March 2014 University of Hertfordshire Higher Education Corporation, FRAUD AND CORRUPTION ANTI-FRAUD AND ANTI-CORRUPTION POLICY [February 2007] AFAC 1, 1,2 BBC News, What is the Ghosh test for dishonesty? (BBC News September 2009) news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8242050.stm accessed 27th March 2014 Ministry of Justice, Post legislative assessment of the Fraud ACt 2006 [June 2012] PLAFA2006 3, 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 1

Michael Lackey Beyond Good And Evil - 1784 Words

In Michael Lackey’s essay, Beyond Good and Evil: Huckleberry Finn on Human Intimacy, Lackey argues that Mark Twain s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn seeks to destroy and abolish morality and considers morality socially, psychology, and politically destructive. While I agree with Lackeys points that accepting morality means rejecting friendship and accepting friendship means rejecting morality, in the case of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I don’t believe such an argument adequately addresses the base of morality and human culture. In the course of this essay I will argue that morality isn’t a perfect pinnacle to base all thoughts and ideas off, but it is not a bad tool either. Lackey and Twain argue that morality is evil and as†¦show more content†¦I believe that Aunt Sally or another character, if they knew, would have stepped in and stopped Tom’s antics. I don’t think the way Tom acted reflects the morals per say, of a majority of people in this era, rather a â€Å"game† of a child. With that being said I do think that the view of morality that most people during this time had, allowed them to have and control slaves without feeling guilty. One of Lackeys major points in his essay is that Huck ultimately has to make the choice between friendship and morality. If Huck wants to be moral that means he can’t free Jim, and if Huck want’s to have a friendship with Jim then he will suffer a loss of morality. We witness Huck with this tough decision throughout the novel. When Jim is talking about his family and how he’s going to work his way to free them, and if that doesn’t work, steal them. We see Huck s inner turmoil. What had poor Mrs. Watson done to you, that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say a single word? What did that poor old woman do to you, that you could treat her so mean? 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Strategic Human Resource Management for Performance- MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theStrategic Human Resource Management for Performance. Answer: Introduction Employee performance is essential in determining organizations productivity level. Given the important role that organizational workers play in driving the various activities towards achieving the stipulated business goals, organizations are keen to monitor as well as evaluate the level of contributions that their employee makes in the firm(Micheli Manzoni, 2010). In the drive to optimize their performance and employee engagement, many organizations often use annual performance reviews which involve formal discussion on the workers' ongoing development as well as performance. The process entails planning the actions to be taken in the next period while reviewing the activities and achievement in the last period (Armstrong Taylor, 2014). However, in the recent past, the popularity of this performance management approach has declined as many business firms are ditching this method in preference to other strategies that are rather informal in nature. Many companies are abandoning annual reviews because they are complicated and expensive in terms of time and resource utilization yet with no significant improvement in performance. It is against this background that the present paper reviews the case study on Accenture and why it is ditching annual performance review to adopt regular feedback. The paper critically explores whether abandoning performance reviews was beneficial or costly to the organization in terms of operational expenses as well as employee performance. In the end, the paper provides some recommendations for other alternative approaches that Accenture could use to monitor and evaluate their workers' performance effectively. Accenture Abandoning the Formal Performance Reviews Noting from the case study, it is quite evident that it is a prudent move for Accenture to abandon the formal performance reviews totally. Formal performance review is regarded to have numerous drawbacks on the overall organization performance as it makes most employees uncomfortable operating under undue pressure. Carrying out a formal performance review is very crucial to the progress of every organization; however, this process is often challenging for many organizations. As noted by (Guest, 2011), a large percentage of employees are often concerned with how the management under which they work, perceive their level of competency. In most instances, workers try to resist and dislike the fact that they are being informed of the errors they have committed or that they are incompetent in certain aspects of the organization (Daley, 2012). This process of formal performance review thus results in mixed reactions in firms which make managers to highly disregard its use and adopt more fluid evaluation systems where workers get frequent reviews from their supervisors to their performance levels. Based on the case study, Accenture has decided to abandon the formal performance review since it did not manage to attain its primary objective which was to promote the performance of the firms staff. It is stated from the Accenture case study that only a minimal percentage (2%) of companies believes that conducting a formal performance review contributes positively to the general performance of the firms(Nankervis, Baird, Coffey, Shields, 2017). A greater percentage of companies thus have the perception that having formal performance reviews on their workers is very ineffective in enhancing performance. In most cases, as noted by Accenture, the process of annual appraisals consumes a lot of the organizations time, money, and effort which could be used to carry out other business operations to enhance profitability. (Wright McMahan, 2011) provide that the process of the annual performance review is highly flawed as an appraisal method and the author sites various possible outcomes of using such a process. This kind of review usually makes the workers in an organization to be nervous, and further, a single annual review meeting does not help build consistent feedback nor help coach the employees in the process so that they could enhance their skills and knowledge (Chuang Liao, 2010). Additionally, it is noted that this process often becomes a data dump in most cases for the inexperienced managers and is also regarded as a subjective act that does not provide an explicit explanation of organizations success, future anticipations and the available growth opportunities (Boselie, 2010). In essence, therefore, it was a good idea for Accenture to abandon the use of formal performance reviews totally. Based on its ineffectiveness in enhancing organization performance and employees, Accenture has decided to conduct a personal evaluation of its employees based on their individual responsibilities and performance levels and not a wholesome appraisal which is done annually. On this basis, therefore, it is recommended that the organization incorporate performance management in their appraisals having a more flexible system. This move is noted to result in limited employee disagreements, limited negative feelings from the workers and higher benefits (Guest, 2011). Possible Problems that could arise from abandoning Performance Management Reviews Emerging evidence suggest that while many business firms are in the run to ditch formal performance management procedures, employee ratings is essential for internal management of its pay and promotion systems. To (Dane Brummel, 2014) performance is simply the value of contribution that each employee brings to an organization over time and therefore, they are paid depending on their value to the business operations. Thus, without proper guidelines on how the workers value is measured against the stipulated standards, the firms overall performance and productivity might be compromised. (Bacal, 2011) observes that whereas informal performance tools such as regularly feedback conversations provide the organizational management the benefits of flexibility and sense of timeliness which enhances employee performance, they lack proper documentation or no paper trail to be referred to on a later date. Therefore, for Accenture which has 330,000 employees relying on personal conversations without having suitable structures and performance management systems, the company might lose track of its performance reviews. In agreement, (Aguinis, Joo, Gottfredson, 2011) notes that regular feedback option is often effective only in a small organization with a minimal number of employees to be managed and thus with a huge number of people like the case of Accenture, the adoption of this performance management methods might lead to a massive financial loss. Besides, without appraisal data which is often useful in determining the progress of an organization especially when the present status or position is viewed vis--vis the previous evaluation, it would be difficult for Accenture to measure its growth or even failure in meeting the business goals. In their paper, (Lengnick-Hall, Beck, Lengnick-Hall, 2011) observe that formal performance reviews offer an organizational management an excellent opportunity to take cognizance and agree upon some of the individuals training and development needs. The assessment of needs is always tied closely to the performance outcomes of the workers and therefore when done properly, the firm stands a chance of rekindling commitment of the staffs in their roles towards achieving the objectives of the company. According to (Boxall Purcell, 2011), formal performance appraisals offer the employees with social recognition of their input in the organization. The power of recognition by the organizational management has long been noted to act as a strong incentive that motivates the workers and even enhances their job satisfaction. Interestingly, (Aguinis, Joo, Gottfredson, 2011) observes that people would prefer to receive negative recognition in preference to getting no recognition at all. By ditch ing annual performance reviews, Accenture in the case study will lose its strongest avenue of motivating its employees, and this will result in a high turnover of the workers. Subsequently, the company will end up using considerably high operational cost in recruiting, training and retaining workers. In response, (Moynihan Lavertu, 2012) recommends that instead of Accenture abandoning the performance management reviews; it should integrate it with other informal approaches such as constant one-on-one feedback. Recommendations for how Accenture could effectively monitor, Assess, and Improve the Performance of their Employees The following are some of the recommended strategies that will see considerable improvement in the organizational performance. Regular goal setting: It is worth mentioning that contrary to the traditional annual performance review, effective assessment of performance may involve regularly setting the target goals. (Yuan Woodman, 2010) recommend that Accenture aligns its workers goals more often to ensure that it improves the employees commitment while at the same time drive the business outcomes. According to (Love Singh, 2011)effective setting of the employees goals and aligning them to match the firms overall strategy is a recipe for business performance. In agreement, (Boxall Purcell, 2011) maintains that proper goal alignment is essential in realizing business success. In his argument, the author contends that regular goals setting allows all the workers in an organization to have a proper glimpse of the general business direction as well as provide them the window of visualizing their specific roles and contributions to the organization in the big picture.' Continuous coaching and feedback: In his article, (Bacal, 2011) observed that providing the employees with constant coaching especially on how to handle specific tasks that are oriented towards achieving organizational goals is vital to improve their commitment and performance. In his view, the adoption of informal and yet regular feedback by Accenture would provide the supervisors the right moment to coach their employees in the right direction and thus strategically shoving them to the direction of organizational success. Besides, through continuous engagement and interaction with the workers, the companys management will be in a god position to closely monitor as well as assess the individual employees input in the organization. In this way, the supervisors will easily be able to identify some of the weakest spots that need training and development in the drive to enhance overall employee performance. Flexible System; Accenture decided to overhaul their formal performance reviews since it failed to fulfill its primary purpose. The flexible system will enable the employees to have frequent opportunities of interactions with their immediate supervisors (Chuang Liao, 2010). The close relationship built between employees and their supervisors will enable the employees to be open and discuss any possible problems they are facing with their supervisors and get feedbacks on arrears of improvement on a frequent basis rather than waiting to be evaluated after they have performed poorly. Open communication system; Accenture aims at continuously supporting their workers all throughout their working experience without having to evaluate them annually on how they have performed. Having an open system enables workers to easily and freely communicate with the management, giving them a feeling of interconnectedness with the organization becoming part of the organization thus making them provide high levels of performance (Daley, 2012). Since the firms always strive at employing the best, this process will give the workers the freedom and authority that they need to innovate and enhance the profitability of the firm without undue pressure. This open system will enable the organizations management to easily monitor and assess the performance of the employees identifying areas that they can improve to enhance their performance levels. Conclusion and Recommendations Research indicate that traditional annual performance review is considerably flawed and is ineffective for proper monitoring, assessment, and improvement of employee performance. Arguably, it a good idea for organizations such as Accenture in the given case study to abandon it in favor of informal performance management approaches. Thus, unlike the formal annual reviews, the informal methods entail close monitoring of the employees by their immediate supervisors, and this brings onto the offing the possibility of improving organizational success. Through this approach, the employees are given regular feedbacks on how they perform their respective responsibilities. Evidently, such informal conversation provides organizational management a good opportunity to assess the personal training needs of each employee as well as ensure that the available skill sets are properly aligned to the organizational goals. However, for this to be successful, the organization must have an open and consi derably interactive communication system where the employees are always in access of their supervisors. Free interaction is vital to bring friendlier workplace environment where regular feedback is not feared but welcomed and considered useful in improving the organizational performance. References Aguinis, H., Joo, H., Gottfredson, R. K. (2011). Why we hate performance managementAnd why we should love it. . Business Horizons, 54(6), 503-507. Armstrong, M., Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Bacal, R. (2011). Performance Management 2/E. . McGraw Hill Professional. Boselie, P. (2010). Strategic human resource management: A balanced approach. . Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Boxall, P., Purcell, J. (2011). Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan. Chuang, C. H., Liao, H. U. (2010). Strategic human resource management in service context: Taking care of business by taking care of employees and customers. . Personnel Psychology, 63(1), 153-196. Daley, D. M. (2012). Strategic human resource management. Public Personnel Management,, 120-125. Dane, E., Brummel, B. J. (2014). Examining workplace mindfulness and its relations to job performance and turnover intention. . Human Relations, 67(1), 105-128. Guest, D. E. (2011). Human resource management and performance: still searching for some answers. Human resource management journal, 21(1), 3-13. Lengnick-Hall, C. A., Beck, T. E., Lengnick-Hall, M. L. (2011). Developing a capacity for organizational resilience through strategic human resource management. . Human Resource Management Review, 21(3), 243-255. Love, L. F., Singh, P. (2011). Workplace branding: Leveraging human resources management practices for competitive advantage through Best Employer surveys. . Journal of Business and Psychology, 26(2), 175-181. Micheli, P., Manzoni, J. F. (2010). Strategic performance measurement: Benefits, limitations and paradoxes. . Long Range Planning, 43(4), 465-476. Moynihan, D. P., Lavertu, S. (2012). Does involvement in performance management routines encourage performance information use? Evaluating GPRA and PART. . Public Administration Review, 72(4), 592-602. Nankervis, Baird, Coffey, Shields. (2017). Human Resource Management: Strategy and Practice (9th ed). South Melbourne, Australia: Cengage Learning Australia. Wright, P. M., McMahan, G. C. (2011). Exploring human capital: putting humanback into strategic human resource management. . Human resource management journal, 21(2), 93-104. Yuan, F., Woodman, R. W. (2010). Innovative behavior in the workplace: The role of performance and image outcome expectations. . Academy of Management Journal, 53(2), 323-342.

Strategic Profile and Case Analysis Purpose Essay Example For Students

Strategic Profile and Case Analysis Purpose Essay Lincoln Electric has been the worlds largest manufacturer of arc welding products for the past thirty years. In addition to its welding products, Lincoln also produces a line of three-phase alternating-current industrial electric motors. Their strategy is simple, reduce costs and pass the savings through to the customer by continuously lowering prices. Lincolns management believed its incentive system and the climate it fostered are responsible for the continual increase in productivity with which their strategy is based on. Under the incentive system, employees are handsomely rewarded for their productivity, high quality, cost reduction ideas, and individual contributions to the company. Lincolns strategy had remained virtually unchanged; it had achieved an enviable record in following this strategy faithfully and therefore felt no need to modify it in the future. Situation AnalysisInformation technology continues to become cheaper and have more practical applications for every type of business. Using databases a company can organize complex data distribution of information on demand at a rapid pace. Lincolns Order department had recently begun computerizing its operations. For the first time a computer will be used in the company with the exception of the engineering and research department. The computer was expected to replace 12 or 13 employees who would be moved to new jobs. Like anything new the computer was not fully endorsed by top management because people were not sure it could produce savings and allow a greater degree of control. The conversion process has gone well, although slower then anticipated because of order pressure being so high. We will write a custom essay on Strategic Profile and Case Analysis Purpose specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Lincolns strategy has encouraged the exit of several major companies (i.e. General Electric) from the industry and caused others to seek more specialized areas. Unlike other companies Lincoln has a compensation policy to reward employees for quick efficient work. Almost all production workers at Lincoln are paid on a straight piecework plan. They have no base salary or hourly wag but are paid a set amount for each item they produce. The second element of the compensation system is a year-end bonus. The bonus is not a gift, but it is the sharing of the results of efficient operation of the basis of contribution of each person to the success of the company for that year. In addition to Lincolns incentive program another important competitive edge for them is their sales force. The sales force is paid a salary plus a bonus. They pride themselves on working more hours than anyone else works. The sales force is known to be the highest paid and hardest working in the industry. Identification of Environmental Opportunities and Threats and Firm Strengths and Weaknesses. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (S.W.O.T.) of Lincoln Electrics strategy can be shown to benefit their company and hinder it at other times. The greatest strength in Lincoln Electric is their ability to undercut competitors prices by means of cheaper production costs. Mentioned earlier, they are able to do this because of their incentive program, where they reward employees for speed, quality and innovative ideas. This strategy is the main reason why they are able to avert threat of outside competitors having a lower price with a high rate of quality. It is hard to compete when you cant beat the competitor prices of high quality products. The management at Lincoln learned many key factors about their employees and how they prefer to work. As long as the employees get their job done the management leave them alone. In a sense they are their own boss, they decide on their brakes and lunch times (most work through their brakes) and the harder the m!ore products they produce in a day the more money they make in the end. The employees like this, because they like being responsible for themselves and not depending on others, also they determine their paycheck by how hard they work during a given day. Lincoln Electric has a policy of filling all but entry-level positions by promoting from within the company. Any employee can apply for a position that has opened within the company. Because of the companys sustained growth and policy of hiring from within, anyone has a chance for advancement in the company. The only other way to get a job at Lincoln besides starting on the floor is to enter their training programs in sales or engineering. Lincoln does not provide tuition grants for educational purposes and they do not send its employees to outside management development programs. Strategy FormulationLincolns strategy has been very successful for them over the past thirty years, which constitutes them being the leader in production of arc welding equ ipment. Because of their conservative nature, Lincoln has not looked closely enough at what benefits they will receive by improving their technology through computers. They have been slow to implement their first system in the ordering department even though they project savings of $100,000. Continual education has been a buzzword of corporations for the last decade. Almost every major company around the world has spent large amounts of company profits and hours on workshops and training sessions to ensure their employees are up to date on every new development in their industry. Lincoln Electric has not spent dollar one on training. They do not give grants for educational purposes and has never sent someone to an outside management development program. They feel that hard work and persistence is more important then spending money on management training sessions. Lincoln Electrics employees work hard and very efficiently so they can improve their merit rating Day after day they migh t compromise brakes and cut corners wherever possible to increase their output. In other words working for Lincoln Electric sounds great because you have the possibility of earning a high paycheck, but the level of stress in an environment like that must be tremendous. An employee would fear calling in sick with the flu because that would mean missing a full days productivity and costing a lot of money. Many employees work through their brakes to increase out put; the only time they are away from the production line is thirty minutes for lunch during a full day. Having a big paycheck at the end of the week is always nice but in a high area of stress compromising your health or safety how important is it really? Strategic Alternative ImplementationLincoln Electric understands the basic drive of their employees, the harder you work the more money you make. This strategy has been working well for them and the employees themselves like it because the turnover rate of employees is the lo west in the industry. Their management policies may be different, but you cannot argue that they are not working because they are the industry leaders. Because of this I would not jump into spending lots of money on sending managers to conferences to improve their skills. If I were in an upper level position of management with Lincoln I would look to time and cost saving opportunities within the company. My first evaluation would be to improve Lincolns lack of technology. Since everyone at the company knows little about information technologies and how they can help the company, I would look to bring in an outside technical consulting company. This way the could come in, look at our operation and give a presentation to upper managem!ent about all the time and money we could save by joining the technological age. Another advantage of bringing in outside consultants would be we would have a choice, we could listen to a couple different firms and then decide on the best one to meet our needs. It is time for Lincoln electric to stop fearing change and to use computers outside of the Research and Design (Engineering) departments.