Employees of merging organizations often show resistance to the merger. The employees' support depends on the companies' premerger status and on the merger pattern. Based on an intergroup perspective, three studies were conducted to investigate the influence of premerger status (high, low) and merger pattern (assimilation, integration-equality, integration-proportionality, transformation) on participants' support for a pending organizational merger. Students (Study 1) and employees (Study 2) had to take the perspective of employees of a fictitious merging organization. Study 3 investigated students' perceptions of a potentially pending university merger using a 2 (status) 3 (merger pattern: assimilation, integration-equality, integrationproportionality) design. Across all studies, the low-status group favored integration-equality and transformation whereas the high-status group preferred integration-proportionality and assimilation. Perceived threat mediated the effects. Legitimacy was a stronger mediator for effects of the low-status group.
Bachman, B. (1993). An intergroup model of organizational mergers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Delaware, Newark.
2.
Blake, R. R., & Mouton, J. S. (1985). How to achieve integration on the human side of themerger. Organizational Dynamics, 13, 20-39.
3.
Buono, A. F., & Bowditch, J. L. (1989). The human side of mergers and acquisitions: Managing collisions between people, cultures, and organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
4.
Cartwright, S., & Cooper, C. L. (1996). Managing mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances: Integrating people and cultures. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann.
5.
Dackert, I., Jackson, P. R., Brenner, S.-O., & Johansson, C. R. (2003). Eliciting and analysing employees' expectations of a merger. Human Relations, 56, 705-725.
6.
de Cremer, D., & van Vugt, M. (1999). Social identification effects in social dilemmas: A transformation of motives. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 871-893.
7.
Ellemers, N., Doosje, B. J., van Knippenberg, A., & Wilke, H. (1992). Status protection in high-status minority groups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 123-140.
8.
Ellemers, N., Wilke, H., & van Knippenberg, A. (1993). Effects of legitimacy of low group or individual status on individual and collective status enhancement strategies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 766-778.
9.
Fugate, M., Kinicki, A. J.,& Scheck, C. L. (2002). Coping with an organizational merger over four stages. Personnel Psychology, 55, 905-928.
10.
Gaertner, S. L., Bachman, B. A., Dovidio, J., & Banker, B. S. (2001). Corporate mergers and stepfamily marriages: Identity, harmony, and commitment. In M. Hogg & D. Terry (Eds.), Social identity processes in organizational contexts(pp. 265-286). Brighton, UK: Psychology Press.
11.
Haslam, S. A. (2001). Psychology in organizations: The social identity approach. London: Sage.
12.
Haunschild, P. R., Moreland, R. L., & Murrell, A. J. (1994). Sources of resistance to mergers between groups. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 24, 1150-1178.
13.
Hogg, M. A., & Abrams, D. (1988). Social identifications: A social psychology of intergroup relations and group processes. London: Routledge.
14.
Hogg, M. A., & Terry, D. J. (2000). Social identity and self-categorization processes in organizational contexts. Academy of Management Review, 25, 121-140.
15.
Hull, J. G., Tedlie, J. C., & Lehn, D. A. (1992). Moderator variables in personality research: The problem of controlling for plausible alternatives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 115-117.
16.
Lipponen, J., Olkkonen, M.-E., & Moilanen, M. (2004). Perceived procedural justice and employee responses to an organizational merger. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 13, 391-413.
17.
Mottola, G. R., Bachman, B. A., Gaertner, S. L.,& Dovidio, J. F. (1997). How groupsmerge: The effects ofmerger integration patterns on anticipated commitment to the merger organization. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 27, 1335-1358.
18.
Nahavandi, A.,& Malekzadeh, A. R. (1988). Acculturation inmergers and acquisitions, Academy of Management Review, 13, 79-90.
19.
Rentsch, J. R., & Schneider, B. (1991). Expectations for postcombination organizational life: A study of responses to merger and acquisition scenarios. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21, 233-252.
20.
Schoennauer, A. W. (1967). Behavior patterns of executives in business acquisitions. Personnel Administration, 30, 27-31.
21.
Schweiger, D. M., & Weber, Y. (1989). Strategies for managing human resources during mergers and acquisitions: An empirical investigation. Human Resource Planning, 12, 69-86.
22.
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behaviour. In S. Worchel& W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations(pp. 7-24). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
23.
Terry, D. J. (2001). Intergroup relations and organizational mergers. In M. A. Hogg& D. J. Terry (Eds.), Social identity processes in organizational contexts(pp. 229-247). Brighton, UK: Psychology Press.
24.
Terry, D. J., & Callan, V. J. (1998). In-group bias in response to an organizational merger. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, Practice, 2, 67-81.
25.
Terry, D. J., Callan, V. J.,& Carey, C. J. (2001). Employee adjustment to an organizational merger: An intergroup perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 267-280.
26.
Terry, D. J., & O'Brien, A. (2001). Status, legitimacy, and ingroup bias in the context of an organizational merger. Group Processes& Intergroup Relations, 4, 271-289.
27.
van Knippenberg, D., van Knippenberg, B., Monden, L., & deLima, F. (2002). Organizational identification after a merger: A social identity perspective. British Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 233-252.
28.
van Knippenberg, D., & van Leeuwen, E. (2001). Organizational identity after a merger: Sense of continuity as the key to postmerger identification. In M. A. Hogg & D. J. Terry (Eds.), Social identity processes in organizational contexts(pp. 249-264). Brighton, UK: Psychology Press.
29.
van Leeuwen, E. (2001). Preserving identity when groups combine—A study of group-based reactions to mergers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University Leiden, the Netherlands.
30.
van Oudenhoven, J. P., & de Boer, T. (1995). Complementarity and similarity of partners in international mergers. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17, 343-356.
31.
Yzerbyt, V. Y., Muller, D., & Judd, C. M. (2004). Adjusting researchers' approach to adjustment: On the use of covariates when testing interactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 424-431.
