Human resources management - Case Study Example

In higher developing countries like China, customers are facing late deliveries and bad services because of the dealers. Apart from few verified dealers, majority of others are inefficient and incapable of proper servicing. As a result, high end customers often get distraught due to these lazy and inefficient deals. Considering the current issues in China as the foundation, the case study will evaluate the establishment and milestones achieved by Benz in China. Then the case will move on to describe the incidences which led to the overall decrease of sales performance in China (Barchan, 1999).

The evaluation of experiences and evidences and analysis of the case will lead to various future strategies. These strategies as well as those selected for the long term growth and development of the automobile company will also be discussed. Behind the Scenes: The Firm Mercedes-Benz is a German brand known for its high quality motor vehicles for business and private customers. Their era started in the year 1886 when Karl Benz created the first petrol-powered car. Right now Mercedes-Benz is an international company with factories all around the globe and employs more than 100 000 people.

The company is also involved in providing associated primary services. It is currently headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. The company is famous for its sports and lifestyles vehicles. The organization provides a supportive work environment for its employees. In order to ensure that, employees consider the brand as best place to work, the company engages in various developmental programmes, performance appraisals, insurance and health care benefits programmes, outdoor activities tec. Being in automotive sector, the overall organizational structure of Benz is complex.

A separate team handles every region around the globe. Constant communication is required between the marketing and production team. Thus, overall structure of the organization can be considered as lateral and open. Section 2 The Story The year 2012 proved to be bad year for Mercedes Benz. The German carmaker slipped from numero uno to further to third position in the luxury car segment. The performance in China had deteriorated further. In spite of the sharp increase in sales of luxury cars, Benz posted a meagre growth of 4 percent.

Further research into the matter exposed two critical factors. First was the poor quality of the cars. After complaints from consumers regarding faulty vehicle parts and hazardous interior materials, the company had to recall many of its vehicles. Another issue which came into light was low quality of customer service. This was evident from the huge number of customer complaints posted over internet in the past two years. The after sales service of the German car maker did not meet its expected brand image.

Customer complaints were also found in case of imported Benz cars and the poor quality of the C and E class Benz cars. As a result, the overall rating of Mercedes-Benz in customer service fell way beyond industry average. This was more so in case of China, where it fell below local Chinese brands such as Geely, Roewe and Chery. As the company failed to