Nucor Case Essay

Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling are four primary functions of project management principles generally known as the P-O-L-C framework. If an organization integrates its vision (goal) and mission (objectives) into the P-O-L-C framework, strategy formulation would be unconquerable. One of the best examples would be Nucor corporations, a steel manufacturer. Nucor Corporation is outperforming its competitors, but it is outperforming its previous year’s performance every time and becoming the most profitable in the steel industry (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan, 2010). This essay aims to analyze the integration of the goal and objectives of the Nucor Corporation into the P-O-L-C framework.

Planning is the essential component of successful management which primarily involves establishing goals and objectives to be achieved during a project. The project planner is well aware of the company environment, understands the process’s complexity, and is a good decision-maker. For example, in the Nucor Corporation, the company’s goal has been aligned with employees’ goals. Therefore, every employee works responsibly and acts as a business owner to achieve the company’s goal of “Taking care of our customer” (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan, 2010).

Organizing is the next step after the project planning, which primarily deals with managing available resources. Organizing aims to gain maximum returns from minimum expenses. Nucor corporation treats their employees as the primary resource, in addition, a sense of ownership amongst the employees increase awareness of the issues within the organization and encourage them to be a part of solving the issues as a volunteer and not overtime employee (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan, 2010). Therefore, all the employees are working together as a team and towards the benefit of the company, which is closely aligned to their own goal, making efficient use of resources with maximum output at minimum expense.

The organizational structure becomes complex with the organizational growth; therefore, effective leadership is essential to adjust and manage the processes wherever needed; also, influencing the team in a positive direction is required to achieve the company’s common goal. However, the employees of the Nucor Corporation are self-motivated and have an attitude of a leader; therefore, a line worker can find a solution to a problem on its line. Furthermore, the decentralized structure of Nucor has helped to transfer authority and responsibility to lower levels. The management also listens to lower-level workers and implements ideas suggested by them (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan, 2010). In addition, the reward system encourages employees to work harder to achieve the company goal.

The controlling is the last phase of the P-O-L-C framework that helps evaluate the organization’s performance and departments involved in the organization. Nucor employees are the highest paid amongst the steel industry; however, significant earning is based on their performance which is evaluated periodically. The rule is the same for all the employees, including the CEO. Therefore, all the employees try to perform better in the team to achieve Nucor’s vision and personal goals (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan, 2010).

Nucor Corporation exemplifies the P-O-L-C framework that illustrates how an organization can achieve success while other competitors are filing for bankruptcy. The formula of Nucor seems very simple to align an organization’s goal with an employee’s goal by providing real responsibility and power to the employee. This method has been working efficiently in favor of Nucor Corporation has the lowest employee turnover ratio in the steel industry (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan, 2010).

Work cited

Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2010). Principles of management 1.1. Irvington, NY: Flat World Knowledge.