Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to indicate obvious aspects with regard to differences in national and organisational cultures in co-operations between two international companies and to give suggestions how to resolve them. Based on a series of qualitative and quantitative interviews, the following research presents an acquisition from a Bavarian, countryside medium-sized German automation company (PLC company with roughly EUR 30 million Sales and 250 employees) by an international Japanese machinery building corporation (acting in same field of business with a stronger focus on the machinery building, stock listed co-operation with roughly EUR 3 billion sales and 14.000 employees). The article outlines cultural and management integration strategies to ensure successful collaboration for the future to secure the strength of the German medium-sized company. The findings show that the personal readiness to understand, adapt and tolerate the cultural differences helps to facilitate negotiations and though, the process of cultural integration is a soft topic and takes several years, it can and should be planned systematically and precisely integrated by the top management to achieve effective change for the realisation of synergies. The elaborated suggestions are helpful for managers in general, because the often underestimated topic of cultural integration, is at least as important for the valuable outcome of the co-operation as strategic and organisational changes.
Highlights
The comparatively instable and fragmented Japanese economy has further inhibited the growth of the HCs operations in the market [16]. While such investments by German HCs have proven to be wildcards that can either lead to successful operations in the market or backfire altogether, there are little to no examples of Japanese Hidden Champions or other SMEs investing in or acquiring German firms, even though they exhibit similar characteristics and ideals [7]
X associates appeared to be keen on learning more about the following integration process in the course of the merger and look generally optimistically into the future
The comments indicated that several people have some specific ideas how to design the integration process efficiently and want to be heard and contribute actively to the merger
Summary
In an increasingly globalised world, international business co-operations with strategic investments, such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, foreign subsidiaries as well as mergers and acquisitions (M&A), become more and more frequent. The author has conducted a series of qualitative interviews with nearly 30% of the employees and middle management of the German company as well as with 100% of the top management from both organisations (= 1st senior management level of both companies, the German medium-sized company and the already existing German subsidiary of the Japanese company) in Germany These interviews served as a basis for the subsequent quantitative survey concerning the integration process among employees at X. The internal information helped to support the statements found in the literature review and demonstrate them by help of the case study
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