Mercedes-benz

MERCEDES-BENZ

Mercedes-Benz
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

Mercedes-Benz

1. 
   Organization structure
   

Mercedes-Benz is a world-known name among the luxury automobile brands in the world. It is a large automobile manufacturer and is a division of the German company Daimler AG. Daimler AG is one of the biggest producers of premium cars and the world's biggest manufacturer of commercial vehicles. Daimler AG sells its vehicles and services in nearly all the countries of the world and has production facilities on 5 continents. Daimler AG has 5 sub-units, including Mercedes-Benz Cars Group (Mercedes-Benz Cars at a Glance, 2017).
Figure 1. The structure of Daimer AG

Mercedes-Benz Cars Group is a vertically integrated company. Almost all operations related to the car’s production (production of component parts; operations to gather these components; sales of cars, spare parts and additional items) are provided on the separated divisions. It has more than 90 locations around the world, production facilities in 17 countries of Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa.
Figure 2. Organization structure of Mercedes-Benz Cars Group

2. 
   The six key elements of organization structure
   

Organizational structure determines the executive and managerial hierarchy and corporate communication. The six elements of organizational structure help to create the figure of interrelationship and determine how managerial staff goes about effecting change in the organization. These six elements include: work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization / decentralization, formalization.
Work specialization. The Mercedes-Benz Cars division consists of the Mercedes-Benz brand with the Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, and Mercedes me sub-brands as well as the smart brand and the new EQ brand for electric mobility. The company offers different types of cars: from the high-quality small cars of the smart brand to the premium automobiles of the Mercedes-Benz brand. Mercedes-Benz also offers drivers the most diverse lineup in the luxury segment with 15 model lines ranging from the sporty CLA-Class four-door coupe to the flagship S-Class and the Mercedes-AMG GT S (Mercedes-Benz Cars at a Glance, 2017).
Departmentalization. Mercedes-Benz Cars has 29 locations worldwide. The manufactures are located on four continents. Each unit has nearly 8-11 departments (finance, sales, marketing, distribution & logistics, public relations, human resources, information technology etc). The company tries to expand its production capacities by adding new locations and cooperating more extensively with partners.
Chain of command. In Mercedes-Benz each person within the organization has a clear reporting relationship to only one superior. There is a clear line of authority that extends from the lowest to the highest position in the organization (Daimler. 360 Facts. Sustainability Report 2009).
The span of control depends on the type of tasks. If the task is easy, managers try to minimize a span of control behind their individual subordinates and give them more independence. Managers try to enhance motivation and team-work within company. In the Mercedes-Benz company managers always praise workers for their initiative and for the difficult problem-solving.
Mercedes-Benz Cars Group uses decentralization as a method of management. It is very important for a parent company to delegate powers to the sub-units and increase their ability to make independent decisions, respond flexibly to changes in the surroundings.
Mercedes-Benz Cars Group tries to decrease the role of formalization in company’s work because a low degree of formalization increases innovativeness; employees are not used to behaving in a certain manner. The company formalizes only procedures, rules that related to mission and goals; tasks of basic posts and organizational units; basic organizational relationships between sub-units.

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