Organizational change : coping strategies in cultural minority and majority groups in New Zealand and Germany : research project undertaken as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Psychology, Massey University at Albany

This study sought to examine the influence of cultural identity on employees' adjustment to organizational mergers and acquisitions in New Zealand and Germany. To explore the role of employees' cultural identity in relation to their coping strategies to accommodate the changes at their working places, an exploratory, qualitative research methodology was used. Interviews were conducted with male and female employees aged from 20 to 60 years in two organizations in each country. The findings indicated that cultural identity did not play the most important role in these employees' adjustment to the changes at work. However, compared with their coworkers who expressed less interest in cultural exploration and traveling, individuals from all four organizations who expressed a great interest in traveling, exploring other cultures, and maintaining contact to members of other cultures also reported a larger variety of coping skills and perceived fewer difficulties generated by the organizational changes. The outcomes of this study were discussed with regard to theories derived from previous research