Behavioural responding to concealed information: Examining the role of relevance orienting

Bruno Verschuere,Peggy Van Baelen,Ernst H W Koster,Geert Crombez

doi:10.5334/pb-45-3-207

Abstract

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Highlights

Even though the number of organisational mergers and acquisitions has increased dramatically over the last decades, research has shown that about half of them fail to meet the initial targets (Cartwright & Cooper, 1992), and that most result in a financial failure (Devoge & Shiraki, 2000)
The present experiment was designed to establish the impact of merger status, in combination with the relative representation of the pre-merger ingroup, upon group members’ identification with the new merger group
Merger status did have a significant main effect upon post-merger identification: Participants who believed that the new merger group had a high status identified more strongly with this merger group than participants who believed that this merger group had a low status

Summary

Introduction

Even though the number of organisational mergers and acquisitions has increased dramatically over the last decades, research has shown that about half of them fail to meet the initial targets (Cartwright & Cooper, 1992), and that most result in a financial failure (Devoge & Shiraki, 2000). From a SIA-perspective, there are two motives why mergers constitute a threat for employees’ organisational identification. The first is related to the perceived status of the merger group. SIA assumes that individuals strive to belong to high status groups, i.e., groups that are positively differentiated from relevant comparison groups on relevant comparison dimensions. If this is the case, group membership would contribute to a positive social identity, and to a more positive self-concept. Smidts, Pruyn, and van Riel (2001) reported that the perceived external prestige (or status) of an organisation is positively related to employees’ organisational identification

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Conclusion