Caretakers or HR Managers

James Baba Abugre

doi:10.1177/2158244014548166

Abstract

Do human resources (HR) managers in developing countries have the clout to make strategic decisions during mergers and acquisitions (M&As)? This study aims at establishing the major roles played by HR managers in M&As of public sector companies in Ghana. The research examined the M&As of 10 Ghanaian companies where 10 HR managers gave detailed narratives of their roles and the part they played in the M&A processes. The qualitative method used to solicit the narratives of the HR managers resulted in the following findings: that HR managers in Ghana have a limited role in the planning process of the M&A; that indigenous HR managers perform several tasks in the course of the M&A to get employees stable before and after the M&A processes; nevertheless, they are not part of the policy formulators. The article makes a modest input of the significance of indigenous HR role in international M&As as a panacea to solving the global crises by advocating the empowerment of HR managers in developing context to be partners in the initial commencement of M&As.

Highlights

Despite the numerous interest of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of most public sector organizations in developing countries, a significant body of literature suggests that the performance of these merged and acquired firms consistently fails to live up to expectations Panford (2001)
Our aim in this study was to find out the precise role human resources (HR) managers play during the merging and acquiring of public companies in Ghana
The results indicated that Ghanaian HR managers engage in various roles in making sure that the M&A is successful

Summary

Introduction

Despite the numerous interest of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of most public sector organizations in developing countries, a significant body of literature suggests that the performance of these merged and acquired firms consistently fails to live up to expectations Panford (2001). Numerous studies have suggested that human resources (HR) and employment relations issues are poorly handled in M&As (Buono & Bowditch, 1989; Cartwright & Cooper, 1996; Marks & Mirvis, 2001). Cartwright and Schoenberg (2006) suggest that inappropriate decision making, negotiation, and integration processes can lead to inferior outcomes of the M&A process and these can be traced to HR inefficiencies. Søderberg and Vaara (2003) argue that cross-border M&As “frequently fail to deliver the synergistic or other benefits strived for, lead to human resource and cultural problems, result in power plays, and often produce problematic consequences for various internal and external stakeholders” The context of this study looks at the influence of indigenous HR managers in the M&A process

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion