Innovation, Change and Motivation at Nucor Corporation Essay

Innovation, Change and Motivation at Nucor Corporation - Essay Example Apart from these cultural values, none of the company’s employees is unionized. Nucor does not approve of unions, as it believes the culture is counterproductive, especially where building of a strong workforce whose objective is to serve the steel company’s interests is concerned. Nonetheless, the employees remain committed to quality of service and lay-offs are minimal. (a) Devolved Management system Nucor is heavily devolved in its operations, a culture that enables the employees to be innovative in their work and develop a feeling that they are owner-operators. In light of this, the company encourages most of the decisions about the business operations to be made at the lower level. In addition, Nucor’s claim that only 65 employees work at the headquarters is quite telling about the company’s lean culture. (b) Performance-driven rewards Nucor has established general rules of compensation which apply to all employees. The policies provide for a uniform compensation for individual employees who meet particular incentive-specific objectives. Apart from these common bonus plans, Nucor Corporation has periodically awarded extraordinary rewards to all employees, in the financial years when the company has made the highest amounts of profits. For instance, the company’s record sales of $23.6 billion in 2008, which was up from $4.6 billion in 2000 trickled down to the employees’ pockets, with the Chief Executive earning a whopping $ 5.24 million (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2007). The uniform treatment of employees has tremendously reduced the gaps between the earnings of senior executives and lower ranking employees. (c) Egalitarian perks The company’s senior executives are not guaranteed traditional high bonuses such as company cars, executive parking slots or executive dining rooms (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2007). Additionally, the publication of all the names of the company’s employees at the back of Nucor’s annual reports is a clear indication of the company’s egalitarian culture and inclusiveness of the decision-making processes. This is also a sign that the company values all of the employees, irrespective of their position within the organization. (d) Effective customer service Although, the text rarely mentions sound customer service at Nucor, it can be inferred. Effective customer service and quality can be explained by the simplicity and courtesy, which the Chief Executive cultivates. The culture of inclusivity, teamwork and appreciation of every person’s effort is a clear indication that all the stakeholders in the company are assured of respect and recognition. (e) Technology-driven culture Nucor Corporation is undeniably banking on the technological edge in its production of steel products. The process of using electric arc furnaces to liquefy scrap metal is the first of its kind in the twenty-first century (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Mat teson, 2007). Currently, Nucor’s association with two multinational steel companies in the running of the Crawfordsville facility, which specializes in the manufacture of sheet of steel from liquefied steel without necessarily deploying heavy, costly, and energy-inefficient rollers, is in itself a technological breakthrough that many steel companies have not yet adopted. Question # 2 Nucor has maintained the gap between executive pay and that of lower-ranking employees to the bare minimum as compared to other American companies. Since 1980s, the level of growth recorded by companies has been growing at almost the same pace as that of executive compensation (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2007). Globalization makes highly performing executives more likely to