Organizational Mergers Research Articles

The different paths to post‐merger identification for employees from high and low status pre‐merger organizations

SummaryA well‐known downside of organizational mergers is that employees fail to identify with the newly formed organization. We argue that developing an understanding of factors that affect post‐merger identification requires taking the pre‐merger status of the merger partners relative to each other into account. This is because relative pre‐merger status determines employees' susceptibility to different aspects of the merger process. Specifically, for employees of a high status pre‐merger organization, we expected post‐merger identification to be strongly influenced by (i) pre‐merger identification and (ii) the perceived change in the status. In contrast, we expected post‐merger identification of employees of a low status pre‐merger organization to be strongly affected by the perceived justice of the merger event. Longitudinal data were obtained from a merger of two public sector organizations and the results supported our hypotheses. Our study shows that the extent to which pre‐merger identification, status change, and justice are important determinants of post‐merger identification depends on the relative pre‐merger status of the merger partners. Our discussion focuses on theoretical implications and managerial ramifications of these findings. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Whose culture?: Monolithic cultures and subcultures in early childhood settings

In Finland, day care centre directors have traditionally led only a single unit, but after the recent merging of many units, most directors simultaneously lead several, physically separate units. These organizations are called distributed organizations. This study was carried out in two distributed day care organizations. The findings are based on interviews with and observations of the staff members. When organizational mergers occur, they raise questions about culture. The findings show that part of the culture should have been shared by all members across the organization, but staff also emphasized the importance of subcultures. Two of Meyerson and Martin’s paradigms were found to exist in parallel: integration and differentiation.

Bi‐level Programing Merger Evaluation and Application to Banking Operations

The potential for operational efficiency improvement is a key consideration for firms contemplating the consolidation of both internal and external business units. This paper develops a leader–follower game model to assess such potential gains from the merger of different organizations with constrained resources. A profit‐sharing strategy and algorithm are proposed to solve the model while maintaining incentive compatibility within each unit's decision‐making process. This paper further demonstrates that in a framework, within the data envelopment analysis paradigm, a supply chain with an upstream leader and downstream followers is efficient if and only if both the leader and the followers are individually efficient. A case study of a banking operations merger shows how incentive compatible merger of operations can produce overall efficiency improvement.

Identity Management during Organizational Mergers: Empirical Insights and Practical Advice

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are increasingly undertaken in both the private and public sector, as organizations vie for competitiveness within challenging economic climates. Yet, the social costs of M&As are rarely considered in the planning and implementation of these impactful organizational change processes. In this review, we take a social identity approach to M&As, exploring the impact of M&A activities on employees and their local communities. Specifically, we outline the pivotal role played by identity reputation and continuity, intergroup structure and processes, leadership and justice in managing employee adjustment during M&As. Throughout our review, we pay close attention to the managerial implications of our findings for strategic planning and best practices within M&A contexts. We conclude by outlining the implications of our review for the development of official guidelines and social policies around M&A implementation.

An investigation of quality of organisational merger and employees emotions: evidence from academics in Sweden

The aim of this pioneer research is to present a new quality assurance model (5Qs) and to examine the major factors affecting employees' perception of set of rational and emotional outcomes of the merger partnership between academic institutions. A questionnaire contains a total of 41 items (attributes), five quality dimensions (5Qs) was the data collection tool. A total of 104 complete and usable questionnaires were received. Frequency analysis, factor analysis and reliability analysis is used for analysing the data collected. Inspection of screen plot and eigenvalues enabled the analysis to reduce the 41 quality attributes into four factors. The rational-related dimensions object (Q1) and infrastructure (Q2) are most significant to explain the most significant factors affecting employees overall satisfaction of the quality of the merger relationship followed by merger process (Q3) which is a mix of rational and emotional-related dimension. It was not expected that the more emotional-related factors such as interaction (Q4) and atmosphere (Q5) are much less important than Q1 and Q2.

Nurse Executive Leadership During Organizational Mergers.

The recent growth in hospital mergers and the resultant mergers of nursing service departments (NSDs) have produced a need for chief nursing officers (CNOs) to be aware of implications and anticipated dynamic changes. This article addresses the major issues raised by mergers for NSDs and presents an operational step-by-step checklist for CNOs.

Living apart together

Purpose – Against the backdrop of European eGovernment (eGov) and new public management strategies, public sector mergers are the ultimate transformation after collaboration and integration. The land administration domain is useful to evaluate how and why mergers occur or not. The domain usually comprises two types of organizations, cadastres and land registries. There are both national and international calls to merge these two types, yet some countries have opted to merge these, while others persist in maintaining two separate ones. How and why this occurs is the key question. Design/methodology/approach – This study applies a mixed-methods approach of data collection and a co-evolutionary perspective on organizational changes. Agencies change alongside perceptions of staff members and external stimuli of policies. These are exposed through narrated personal vignettes and international benchmarking surveys of land agencies. Findings – Decisions on mergers are primarily embedded in local organizational cultures, and follow non-linear paths and are historically path-dependent. Internal staff members tend to disfavour mergers. Contrastingly, external stimuli such as the benchmark surveys act as national and international stimuli which favour mergers. The common narrative of both perspectives is an increased relevance of “simplicity”, which does not however have an effect on merger decisions. Research limitations/implications – The land administration domain is perhaps idiosyncratic. It has a long history with discussions on merging collaborating organizations. Still, other domains affected by eGov strategies have so far only focused on operational interoperability and database integration, and less on the potential for institutional or organizational mergers. Therefore, experiences from land administration will be useful in the future. Practical implications – During the formulation of new eGov projects which foster further collaboration and integration in the public sector, it is necessary to take the merger experiences of land agencies into account. It is especially necessary to be aware of implicit norms which are fostered by positive feedback loops of social networks during mergers, which may influence discretionary decisions. In addition, international benchmarks and ranking need to reconsider their benchmarking criteria which currently only focus on efficiency measures. Originality/value – Mergers may not be a next logical step when collaborating and integrating. Instead, mergers need to be rooted in personal long-standing collaboration practices. Furthermore, individual staff members may only be willing to engage in the operational aspects of mergers if it significantly makes their own tasks simpler and the quality of their work better appreciated by external customers.

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPANY CULTURE IN A MERGED COMPANY

ABSTRACT The concept of company culture has gained added weight among scholars and managers during the last few decades. A myriad of theories have emerged about company culture, and the concept has taken center stage in the discussion on how organizations succeed. The aim of this study is to shed light on the culture of a company resulting from the merger of three established companies. Emphasis was placed on elucidating the strengths and weaknesses of its company culture, as well as to examine its employees attitudes and experiences of the merger. Company culture is one of the most difficult factors in the merger of organizations. The main challenges involve dealing with the differing ideologies, procedures, histories, customs, and traditions defining organizations, as these can be highly diverse. This quantitative study is based on the Denison Organizational Culture Survey and involves four cultural traits: Mission, involvement, consistency, and adaptability. The main conclusions are that company culture following a merger is defined by the level of cohesiveness and trust among employees, as well as by the level of agreement on important issues. The main strengths are to be found in the company's external envionment, where its policy is clear, and the emphasis is on customers and the business environment. The main weaknesses of company culture are to be found in the company's internal environment, where coordination between departments is lacking, as is consensus among employees as to company values. Keywords Corporate culture, Denison Organizational Culture Survey, merger.

The Mining Education Cluster

The isolated activity of the government authorities, business and education system in the modern rapidly developing world does not lead at least to the progress. The innovative forms of progressive interaction are required. Such forms include clusters and, in particular, the education clusters. The article presents the material on the creation of the mining education cluster in the case of the Zabaikalsky Krai. The cluster formation is based on the public-private partnership. The cluster activity will provide for the development of the innovative and entrepreneurial culture, and will contribute to the establishment of small innovative enterprises. The paper lists the basic prerequisites for the formation of the mining education cluster in the region, as well as the functions implemented within the framework of the new cluster. It proposes the results of modelling the structure and status of the mining education cluster by means of the mathematical apparatus of the theory of sets. The consideration is given to the indicators of the cluster operation obtained due to the merger of organizations. The presented formal description of the cluster allows us to predict the expected scope of the cluster, its optimized structure, the possibilities of its development, and the assessment of the efficiency of various mechanisms of coordination and decision-making of the cluster participants. The model of the mining education cluster reflects the basic regularities of its functioning, the process of changing its structure, and the cluster-generating ties. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s4p205

Individuals' Responses to Organizational Mergers

Mergers fail, in part, because of employees’ negative merger responses, including reduced organizational identification and organizational attachment (i.e., lower commitment, job satisfaction inten...

Resource Dependence Dynamics: Partner Reactions to Mergers

Research on resource dependence typically takes a static view in which actions and outcomes are determined structurally, but not as responses to the actions of the counterparty in an exchange relation. By contrast, this study addresses a question of power dynamics by examining whether mergers of organizations trigger responses from their common exchange partners. We predict that common exchange partners respond by withdrawing from the relationship and that their responses vary with the availability of alternatives, the value of the relationship, and the relationship history. Using data on advertising agencies, we show that mergers of agencies do trigger reactions from their common clients, and the reactions differ with agency and client characteristics. Extending existing theory and evidence, our results suggest that firms respond to the dynamics of exchange relationships and not only to their structure.

Do public sector mergers (re)shape reputation?

Purpose – The public sector worldwide is under pressure to downsize, which has led to mergers of public sector organisations. This paper seeks to bridge the unstudied gap of what happens to organisational reputation after a merger. The paper discusses change and reputation in the public sector, and reports findings of a longitudinal study on stakeholder assessments of four public sector organisations undergoing mergers recently. Design/methodology/approach – Following a theory-driven content analysis, this longitudinal study compares stakeholder assessments of four public sector organisations' reputations a year before an organisational merger with assessments of the two resulting organisations' reputations two years after the merger. Findings – The paper finds that the mergers did not really re-shape reputation, but the once established reputation persevered. Although the organisations faced greater expectations after the merger, only minor changes in reputation were detected post-merger: the reputation for expertise, heavy bureaucracy and trustworthiness remained strong after the merger, but certain traits, such as being international and esteemed, were lost. In both cases, one organisation's prior reputation slightly dominated the new reputation. Research limitations/implications – The findings may be limited to Finland and other Nordic countries, as well as those countries where trust in the public sector is high. Practical implications – Mergers may not change once-established reputations, and hence the improvements desired by mergers may go unnoticed by the different stakeholders. Organisations merging must prepare for increased stakeholder expectations, as the new organisations arise questions. Previous organisational traits may remain in stakeholders' assessments despite any achieved improvements. Originality/value – This paper addresses the gap in studying organisational reputation after public sector mergers, and contributes to both theory and practice by providing insight into the stability of once-established reputations.

Survey of Effect of Merger in Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organizations on Tourism destinations Competitiveness Development

Organization mergers, integration of activities in two or more organizations, have always attracted the attention of policy makers as well as decision makers. The merger of the three organizations of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts into one organization named the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts organization which took place in two stages between 2003 and 2005, is among the biggest mergers of the past few years in our country. This paper analyzes the effects of this merger on the competitiveness of tourism destinations. The model proposed by Ritchie and Crouch (2003), which is the most comprehensive model in this area is used. This model considers five main factors: core resources and attractors, destination management, destination policy, planning and development, qualifying and amplifying determinants, and supporting factors and resources. The effects of the merger on these factors were studied using two questionnaires verified by experts in the field. 47 of the total 62 questions were put in the first questionnaire and the other 15 were put in the second. Since the merger was completed in 2005, the statistical population is comprised of managers and staff at the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts organization in the province of Hamedan who had worked in one of the three separate organizations prior to the merger and tourists who had made a visit to the province then. 74 participants i.e. employees with over seven years of experience on the job responded to the first questionnaire and 219 responded to the second questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software package and single or multi-variant t-test. The results indicate that by considering 3 as the significance level all the hypotheses will be proven wrong. However, by considering 2 as the significance level all the hypotheses will be proven. This shows that not many changes may have taken place after the merger and it has only had a fair effect on competitiveness. Overall, we can conclude that the merger of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts organizations has not had a

Simplifying process model abstraction: Techniques for generating model names

The increased adoption of business process management approaches, tools, and practices has led organizations to accumulate large collections of business process models. These collections can easily include from a hundred to a thousand models, especially in the context of multinational corporations or as a result of organizational mergers and acquisitions. A concrete problem is thus how to maintain these large repositories in such a way that their complexity does not hamper their practical usefulness as a means to describe and communicate business operations. This paper proposes a technique to automatically infer suitable names for business process models and fragments thereof. This technique is useful for model abstraction scenarios, as for instance when user-specific views of a repository are required, or as part of a refactoring initiative aimed to simplify the repository's complexity. The technique is grounded in an adaptation of the theory of meaning to the realm of business process models. We implemented the technique in a prototype tool and conducted an extensive evaluation using three process model collections from practice and a case study involving process modelers with different experience.

Integrating Behavioral and Physical Health Services and Organizational Merger

This article describes the process of the merger of two mental health agencies with a primary care physical health provider to establish within the merged structure an integrated behavioral and physical health delivery system. The purpose of this article is to share our experience with those administrators and staff of agencies planning an integration initiative of behavioral and physical health services.

Fear, Anxiety, and Loss of Control: Analyzing an Athletic Department Merger as a Gendered Political Process

This study examined organizational processes involved in a merger between two gender affiliated intercollegiate athletic departments. A conceptual framework incorporating the concepts of gendered social processes, and the transition and integration stages of organizational mergers framed the study. Organizational political activity is perceived as a gendered process in merging groups. Interviews with 57 stakeholders of a university athletic department were conducted. The data analysis showed that gender politics identified in the transition stage involved stakeholders’ emotional reactions. In the integration stage, gender politics were evident during the social processes of assessing trust and loyalties, and cultural reengineering. Practical implications for merger facilitation are noted in terms of considering the necessity of merging, the hiring of outside leadership, and implementing a communication plan. Overall, our study furthers our understanding of the gender politics involved in merging gender affiliated sport organizations.

Job Satisfaction and Supportive Leadership during Organizational Merger

A key component of leadership is leading change, and yet little research has looked at the dynamic role of leadership during organizational mergers. Because the integration of companies often decreases job satisfaction within the workforce, we argue that supportive leadership of line managers becomes especially important in reducing the negative impact of the change process. Importantly, we predict that changes in supportive leadership are key to employee adjustment. We test our prediction in the context of multiple National Health Service (NHS) primary care trust mergers, which took place in 2006. We analyzed the annual staff surveys of employees and compared merging organizations with non-merging organizations longitudinally (years 2005 and 2007). As expected, employees of organizations experiencing (vs. not experiencing) a merger showed lower job satisfaction in the period of the merger. Furthermore, increases in supportive leadership during the merger period were associated with less decrease in workforce job satisfaction. Thus, results indicate that dynamic changes in leadership rather than static levels of leadership buffer against decreases in job satisfaction.

The Rise and Fall of a Second-Generation CBNRM Project in Zambia: Insights from a Project Perspective

Since the advent of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) in the mid-1980s, scholars and practitioners have sought to explain the uneven performance of CBNRM programs. Most CBNRM assessments examine the underlying principles of community-based conservation, the local social and ecological contexts, and connections with larger political and historical patterns. In this article, I argue that analysis of the potential and pitfalls of CBNRM also requires an understanding of the institutional history and internal dynamics of projects that implement CBNRM reforms. Drawing upon theory and methods from development ethnography and public policy, I examine the rise and fall of CONASA, a second-generation CBNRM project in Zambia that operated from 2001 to 2004. CONASA was constituted from a merger of organizations and discourses to provide continuity with previous projects. Its ambitious suite of activities included support for household livelihoods, community-based resource management, policy analysis, advocacy, and conservation enterprises at local, national, and transboundary levels. While individual activities were largely successful, CONASA's hybrid origins and logframe-centric management created fissures between its holistic design and operational logics, and hindered its ability to develop a broader narrative and maintain key alliances. This case study illustrates the importance of understanding the interplay between project design and operational context to fully appreciate the possibilities and limitations of project-mode conservation.

Organizational Identity Change of the Target Firm after a Cross-Border Acquisition

By integrating the literature on organizational identity, mergers and acquisitions and international management, we develop a model of organizational identity change when an originally domestic firm is acquired by a multinational corporation (MNC). Our model highlights how the change of top management team (TMT) characteristics in the target firm affects a multi-foci organizational identity after a cross-border acquisition. Our model also focuses on the effect of communication intervention strategy used by the TMT that facilitates the process of organizational identity change. Theoretical and practical implications of our model and directions for future research are discussed.

Rights-Based Approaches to Development: Implications for NGOs

The rights-based approach to development has swept through the global development assistance sector during the last fifteen years. As a result, bilateral development donors, international organizations, and development-oriented nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly committed, in theory, to implementing human rights. This commitment has dramatically accelerated the discursive and organizational merger of the global human rights and development policy communities. What impact—if any—has the rights-based approach had on the structure, resources, and work styles of development NGOs? This article offers five empirically grounded hypotheses to guide future research.