INTRODUCTION
The Mercedes – Benz Company began with the merger of Daimler Motor Company and Benz & Company in 1926. Since the merger, Mercedes – Benz has created and sustained a reputation for innovation and excellence by producing high-quality automobiles. An analysis of Mercedes – Benz would not be complete without an examination of the DaimlerChrysler Automotive Group, as the two industry leaders merged in 1998. The Mercedes – Benz Company is now owned and operated as part of the DaimlerChrysler Automotive Group. Throughout the paper, the guiding principles of DaimlerChrysler will be referred to, as their management decisions directly dictate those of their subsidiary, Mercedes – Benz.

PART A: KEY MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES
There are several key management activities that the DaimlerChrysler group executives take part in that contribute to the company being considered a leader in their industry. One such activity is when the CEO and other board members meet with the European Works Council (EWC) and with the World Employee Committee (WEC) each year (.eurofound.europa.eu). These two committees are dedicated to building and fostering strong relations between employees and management. During committee meetings, concerned employees are encouraged to present their thoughts, ideas and suggestions for change to the management board (.eurofound.europa.eu). Through this interaction, a direct link is created between management and employees.
DiamlerChrysler created the World Employee Committee in July of 2002 (.eurofound.europa.eu) with the goal of providing their 372,500 employees worldwide with a forum to “…serve as a formal representative body for all employees and trade unions within the group” (.eurofound.europa.eu). The committee also created a “…code of conduct concerning social responsibility and employee treatment” (ruhr-uni-bochum.de). This group has worked extremely well and has fostered great cooperation and relations between employees and Management. This type of relationship will create higher job satisfaction, performance, and organizational commitment because the workers believe that they are being listened to and have a role besides making cars (Colquitt, 136)
Since 2006, DiamlerChrysler has implemented another management model that is:
…Designed to enhance competitiveness and promote further profitable growth…integrate the company’s functions, focus the operations within DaimlerChrysler on core processes, and encourage internal collaboration…. reduce redundancies and remove management layers (Daimler.com).
The multifaceted endeavor by DaimlerChrysler is designed to make the company’s organizational structure more flexible, thus enabling it to increase efficiency and effectiveness. The overarching goal of increasing efficiency was to remove barriers that were costing the company 1.5 billion Euros annually (Daimler.com). To make this goal a reality, management began by unifying divisions such as HR and Finance so that each would report to a designated manager. By eliminating reporting confusion, the company was able to decrease redundancies, which leads to greater efficiency (inboundlogistics.com).
An additional management activity within the organization is shifting administration style to reflect a collaboration and unity between the Daimler and Chrysler employees (diamler.com). With the recent merger of the two companies, some cultural and teamwork problems arose. To correct this difficulty, the company sought to standardize important processes through creating “project houses” (diamler.com). The goal of the “project houses” was to have employees from diverse divisions come together to determine innovative solutions that would benefit the company as a whole (diamler.com). The “project houses” also assisted by reducing the time-to-market of new technologies by keeping the researchers focused on customer desires (diamler.com).
The goal of creating a single strong culture through a single company has many advantages, but also some disadvantages (Colquitt, 528). It will allow DiamlerChrysler to differentiate itself from its competitors and the employees to identify themselves within the company. A disadvantage is that it makes merging difficult with other companies, something they found out when Daimler merged with Chrysler (Colquitt, 529). According to Colquitt it is very good for any company to have a strong culture so that it will bond its employees together and set a standard for all new employees (Colquitt, 531).

PART B: ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
DaimlerChrysler is a large, multinational company and with it’s immense size comes the necessity to maintain a structure that fosters efficiency. DaimlerChrysler has a “Product and Functional Management Structure” (Colquitt, 501), which creates an organizational breakdown by different functional structures, such as HR or Finance (ruhr-uni-bochum.de). The breakdown continues by differentiating between each of the parent company’s brands. DaimlerChrysler is thus distributed into: Mercedes – Benz, Chrysler Group, Truck Group, and Financial Services (ruhr-uni-bochum.de). These different brand breakdown for the product structure of the management system (Colquitt, 501)
The management structure of Mercedes – Benz is directly driven by the decisions made by their parent company, DiamlerChrysler Automotive Group. At the top of Mercedes – Benz organizational structure is the Chairman of the Board, Dr. Dieter Zetsche. It then breaks down into six different areas which are each assigned specific board members: Finance & Controlling, Legal, HR, Daimler Trucks, Manufacturing and Research (jaybrownonline.com). This is the Functional structure as defined by Colquitt on page 501.
Within the management organization there are eleven different departments that collaborate to keep Mercedes – Benz functioning at a high level. Those departments are: Customer Service, Corporate Communication / Public Relations, Distribution & Logistics, Specialized Technical, Engineering Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal (General Counsel), Marketing, Sales, Finance, and Learning and Performance (sustainability.daimler.com). These departments handle the daily demands and operations of the company that are vital to its success. These different organizational structures form to create a very rigid and mechanistic organizational structure (Colquitt, 505).

PART C: PERFORMANCE
The Mercedes – Benz Company defines performance by how successful they are at meeting their customer’s needs (Autonews.com) They assess their success by carefully reviewing their customer satisfaction evaluation scores (Autonews.com). An example of the Mercedes – Benz commitment to customer satisfaction is their “Drive a Star Home” program. The program gives employees the chance to drive one of the company’s vehicles for a few days so that they could be well informed about the product. The program began after several customer evaluations stated that they did not feel as though the salespeople had personal experience with the product (Autonews.com).
Mercedes – Benz rewards it’s employees for exceptional customer service performance by having a strong foundation of promotion from within (Money.cnn.com). The company firmly believes in dedication to employees and expresses this by offering in-person and online training courses, as well as tuition reimbursement and job shadowing (Money.cnn.com). These different programs allow the company to strengthen the employee – employer bond and increase job satisfaction. This increase in job satisfaction will lead to better performance and greater company loyalty (Colquitt, 117-119)

PART D: TEAMS
Within such a large company as Mercedes – Benz it is crucial to have a strong network of teams in order to be efficient and effective with their business practices.
The company uses four main types of teams on a daily basis: work teams, parallel teams, management teams, and project teams (Colquitt, 348). Work teams collaborate together each day to produce the different car parts and complete assembly. Parallel teams such as the EWC or WEC meet throughout the year to advise and discuss specific issues. Management teams follow standard procedures to keep the large workforce organized and working each day. Project teams work together to develop new technology, such as the ABS breaking system, to remain at the leading edge of car technology.
Throughout each team structure, Mercedes-Benz encourages an open and honest working environment. To accomplish this goal, each division focuses on presenting an approachable and accessible nature – even the company president. Mercedes – Benz has found that this type of structure allows teams to feel comfortable communicating with their individual team and other teams throughout the company (prnewswire.com). Colquitt explains that trust and openness of teams leads to better performance and higher job satisfaction with in a company.
When conflicts arise for the company, Mercedes – Benz focuses on uniting all teams in pursuit of the common goal. An example of this is the Day X project, which is when the IT department was tasked with creating a new IT framework. While the task was far too time consuming and expensive for one team to accomplish, it became a success when employees from all teams rallied together. As a result, the project was completed in just eight months, rather than the predicted two to three years (prnewswire.com).

PART E: LEADER-FOLLOWER RELATIONS
A leader-follower relationship is defined by the way in which the leader and follower interact with each other (Colquitt, 451). DiamlerChrysler has several policies and programs that are in place to form a very healthy and specific leader-follower relationship. These programs create a situation that limits the leader’s ability to take advantage of the follower, as well as providing the follower the chance to move through the organization to a leadership position (sustainability.daimler.com).
One program that DaimlerChrysler has in place that contributes to the leader-follower relationship is their extensive mentoring program. According to Colquitt there are many different benefits associated with mentoring and nearly 76% of companies now do it. All new employees are given a mentor that will help them adjust to the company and help to bring them into the group (Jaybrownonline.com). The mentor is expected to teach them the rules, parts of their job, expectations of the company, and how to interact with in the company (Jaybrownonline.com). The program establishes a strong connection between employees and leaders, which assists new hires in the integration process by providing an ally for advice or questions. It will also psychological support to the mentee throughout their time at the company (Colquitt, 538)
The policies and programs that have been put into place create a strong system which allows leader-follower relationships to flourish. The policies and programs “…create leaders and followers…a comradery and shared goal between employees through the mentoring program and the promotion policy” (jaybrownonline.com).

PART F: CULTURE
The Mercedes – Benz culture reflects the guiding principle of: “Das Beste oder nichts”, which translates in English to: “The best or nothing” (mbusa.com). The slogan is represented both through the products and employees that the company presents. In terms of products, Mercedes – Benz believes in only offering the highest quality automobiles to surpass any customer expectations. The guiding principle also applies to employees, as the company believes in investing in workers so that they will be able to deliver the best products.
The strong focus on worker development is a cornerstone of the Mercedes – Benz culture. The company has a policy of promoting within, which fosters an environment of hard work and dedication as even the lowest level employee could rise to a high position. Mercedes – Benz is devoted to the development of employees by offering multiple training sessions as well as tuition reimbursement and mentoring programs (Mbusa.com).
One factor that had a significant impact on the Mercedes – Benz culture was the new association with DiamlerChrysler. Before the merger Mercedes – Benz’s culture was extremely formal with a very structured management style. Chrysler on the other hand “…favored a more relaxed, freewheeling culture” (jaybrownonline.com). With two very different mentalities joining together, there was great necessity for a united approach that was a compromise of the two extremes.
The two different cultures created a very weak culture with in the company because employees no longer agreed how things were to be done (Colquitt, 526). It also created a subculture that was in the American style and an overall culture of the German style. According to Colquitt this could have led to a differentiated which is common after mergers if there was a companywide change in culture (p. 532).
The resulting change and unification of the two cultures of Daimler and Chrysler has created an entirely new culture. While is it still dominated by the original Daimler culture there has been growth and compromise that lends itself to the powerhouse that exists today. For example, the culture has grown less formal and there are new policies that promote the two companies working together to form a closer bond (jaybrownonline.com).

PART G: CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR ISSUES
In recent years there has been a growth in Internet based work technologies that have allowed employees to do things that they have never done before. They are able to work from home on a regular basis and communicate across the globe from the comfort of their own offices. DaimlerChrysler is no stranger to new technology and being on the cutting edge, so they are quick to embrace the technologies that revolutionize the daily lives of their workers (autonews.com).
This will give their employees a better work life balance and a way to lower stress within the organization by reducing the work-family conflict (Colquitt, 136). By reducing stress the company can save on paid time off, medical expenses, and reduce the number of burnouts. According to Colquitt there is a strong coloration between lower stress and higher organizational commitment (p. 145).
DaimlerChrysler is a multinational company and has offices and production facilities in over twenty - one countries worldwide (ruhr-uni-bochum.de). New virtual organizations and conference calls have allowed these different offices to stay in constant contact and eliminate the need for travel (diamler.com). This type of communication has really changed how DaimlerChrysler does business and enabled them to create virtual organizations. Factory workers and their floor supervisors cannot telecommute for obvious reasons, but they are able to take advantage of new technologies that revolutionize machinery and make their work more efficient (diamler.com).
Instead of only using human capital for labor, Mercedes – Benz is converting their factories to accommodate automated machinery. They now use many different types of robots to help with the production of their automobiles (mbusa.com). These new processes have eliminated different jobs from the assembly line, but have added new jobs in the form of maintenance (Daimler.com).

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