Managing culture change within the context of mergers and acquisitions

The generic term “mergers & acquisitions (M&A)” appeared for the first time at the end of the 19th century in the United States. In times of increased global competition, M&A activities have reached all regions of the world and are not solely concerning large enterprises. However, with many M&A projects never reaching the synergy effects that were expected of them, the successful integration of one company into another remains a challenge.

Text by Chantal Bialek

Inhaltsübersicht

Managing culture change within the context of mergers and acquisitions
Managing culture change within the context of mergers and acquisitions

Thousands of research projects and surveys have been conducted in order to analyze the M&A phenomenon. Many experiences have been reported, recommendations have been made. Still, one question remains: Why is only a small minority of companies able to make it work and to receive the results that they had hoped for?

M&A, particularly those that involve different national cultures, belong to the most complex organizational change processes in a global environment. Before we see what contributes to the success, I will shortly present a way of understanding M&A and introduce an approach for how to integrate combined entities. We will then focus on the impact of communication in managing the merger syndrome and conclude answering the above question.

From a legal point of view there are many different forms of M&A transactions. Basically a merger means that two companies join their forces to ...