How is the firm dealing with the merger? : a study of employee satisfaction with the change process

The purpose of this study was to understand the degree to which employees’ satisfaction with merger-inducedorganizational changes impact on their productivity and the merged-firm performance. This is because, the introductionof market-driven business reforms in many developing economies has seen the emergence of growth-drivers that includesthe search for new markets, increasing competition in local markets, new investors’ interest in emerging markets, andhence the desire for firms to merge. The results showed that human resource issues are important aspects of mergerswhich, if it is not well handled, may impact negatively on employee satisfaction with consequent repercussions onproductivity and the success of the merger. It is concluded that employee satisfaction to a merger-induced organizationalchanges could be enhanced by instituting effective two way communication system and using participatory approachesin job redesign processes. By implication, merger-induced change has human factor challenges that merging firms needto understand.<p>Validerad; 2011; 20110629 (mohami)