Managing People and Culture in Mergers and Acquisitions

This reading addresses international human resource management concerns when undertaking mergers and acquisitions (M&A) across borders. M&As are a particular type of inter-organizational encounter, thus they share features with joint ventures, alliances, or outsourcing arrangements. The distinguishing characteristic of M&As is that beyond connecting two organizations, they result in a change in ownership. It is this change of ownership that lies at the heart of many of the human resource-related concerns in M&As: indeed, for the employee, a change of ownership represents not only a change in employer, but also a change in the psychological contract with one’s employer.