| dc.description.abstract | Mergers and acquisitions have become the principal tools for corporate restructuring.
There has been a sharp increase in both the number and size of the mergers and
acquisitions in the 90s. An extensive review of literature indicates that merger and
acquisition related studies are dominated by strategic, financial and operational concerns.
Organisational and human issues that influence the through merger and post merger
processes have received less than adequate attention. In the Indian context, most of the
research is confined to either the study of merger as an outcome of economic reforms or
is seen through the financial, strategic or industrial organisation perspectives
The review of studies points towards the need to examine the modalities of human
resource responses and also to identify the determinants of human resource response
modalities in the merger context. This study, therefore, makes an attempt to identify the
detenninants of human resource responses to mergers. The dependent variable, human
resources responses, as a construct, on the basis of previous research, has been
operationalised in terms of: merger induced stress; uncertainty as a response to merger;
interorganizational degree of distrust between merging organizations; job satisfaction
variations in the merged entity; commitment to the merged reality; interorganisational
attitudinal orientation in the merger process and cooperative orientation among the
merging constituencies: Existing literature on the subject of the study, has indicated that
the following factors are likely determinants (the independent variables) of human
resource responses : cultural differences between the merging entities; tolerance for
multiculturalism of the associating organizations; extent of integration between the
organizations; changes in the HR systems in the merged reality; acquiring - acquired
relationship dynamics; degree of strategic relatedness of the merging organizations and
degree of human resources management interventions in the merged entity
operationalised as intervention strategies, which seek to manage differences in culture,
systems and service conditions in the context of the merger.
The main research objective of this study, therefore, is to identify the determinants of
human responses in the merger context and to examine the effect of the determinants on
human resource responses. Based on the main research objective, specific hypotheses
were developed to examine the relationship for each dependent variable. Measures were
developed for each variable, pre-tested and checked for validity and reliability using
item-index correlation analysis, Cronbach Alpha and Split Half Reliability.
A multimethod approach to data collection was adopted. Respondents for the study were
drawn from fim~sth at have undergone merger1 acquisition during the period 1989-2000.
Exploratory interviews with key informants in order to get a perspective on the merger
process; a questionnaire survey of executives who were part of the firm at the time of
merger - either actively involved in or a participant observer or affected by the
mergerlacquisition process; an intensive case study of an organisation involved in merger
in order to enhance the interpretation of the prvcess and dynamics of human resource
responses in the merger process were the methods employed to generate data towards the
purposes of the study.
Regression analysis indicate that of the seven independent variables, the changes in the
human resource systems in the merged reality and the degree of human resources
management process interventions in the merged entity have a significant effect on
human resource responses in mergers. Case data also supports the regression results.
The insights which emerge from the study have implications for the world of practice and
the world of scholarship. From a practitioner point of view, the research brings out the
importance of functional and human resource management process interventions in the
context of merger. A fruitful line of research as a sequel to this study would be to
examine the relationship between planned pre merger human resource functional and
process interventions and the sustainability of merger outcomes. | en |
