Can Stories Breed Commitment? The Influence of Mergers and Acquisitions Narratives on Employees Regulatory Focus

Abstract

One determinant of merger and acquisition (M&A) success is the extent that an organization’s employees commit to the combination. However, employees often have low commitment to merger and acquisition activity. This paper examines the relationship between organizational commitment, regulatory focus, and M&A narratives. It is argued that employees with a promotion focus will have higher affective commitment during M&As than employees with a prevention focus. Further, it is hypothesized that organizations can use particular types of narratives to activate employees’ promotion focus, which will result in employees having higher affective commitment than employees in organizations using other narrative-types.