Behavioral Resistance and a Smooth Merger

Michael Martin

Organizational Theory and Behavior BBA 3451-13L

Professor Flores

January 18, 2015

With this merger, and the total integration of the smaller insurance company into our company’s current organization structure, the focus naturally turns to continued revenue, operational synergies, and even new service concept. However, we must not lose sight of the most important element of a merger—the adjustment the employees must make to the new organization. It has been shown repeatedly that mergers of this type often have negative impacts on employee behavior, resulting in a loss of productivity, absenteeism, low morale, and low organizational …show more content…

I propose middle management recruit seasoned employees to act as change champions, promoting the merger transition throughout the company (Schraeder, 2001). This can be accomplished through the creation of work teams assigned with responsibilities during the merger process. This action should bring more acceptance and buy in for the merger. These actions will give the employees a sense of purpose, and a feeling that they are active in the merger process, bringing even more acceptance to the change. These teams should be developed on both sides of the merger, and with planning, can even be formed with intermingled employees from both companies.
Other Key Pieces
Training
Another key factor for a success merger is learning, and the development of the staff. A learning and development staff can be an integral partner, supporting management in leading change (Goddin, 2014). Programs should be developed to introduce and teach any new processes, procedures, and policies that come out of this merger. We should also focus on re-training programs so employees can take on new positions instead of being let go. The learning and development staff can also be a valuable asset when redeveloping and marketing a new corporate culture that may emerge from the merger. Though we are integrating the small company into our organizations there may be important aspects of their culture that we should consider adding to our own. The collective beliefs, practices, behaviors, and