Effective leadership behaviours to manage people issues of cross border mergers and aquisitions in China

The aim of this research is to identify the effective leadership behaviours in managing people issues of a British-Chinese cross border acquisition case study in China. There are three areas involved in this study: people issues in mergers and acquisitions (M&As), cross culture differences and cross culture leadership. The knowledge gap identified from past research is that there appears to be no in-depth empirical study to date on an integrated model of the three areas noted above to have a holistic understanding of their influence on the success or failure of M&As, especially in the context of cross border M&As in China. This is the focus of this research. The objectives of this research are to identify how leaders have managed cross culture issues, communications, employees’ resistance, stress and trust in a Western-Chinese cross border acquisition as well as the perceived effectiveness of these leadership behaviours both from the perspectives of Chinese employees and the western managers. The conceptual framework of this research adopted and built on the theoretical model of Project GLOBE. Findings from this study suggest a ‘multiplier’ effect with impact across all the people issues in this cross border acquisition, which means that when one people issue is not managed well by the leadership team, other people issues are triggered. The outcome of this acquisition was influenced by the integrated and holistic effect of all the people issues. In this study, management of people issues in a cross-culture environment was fundamental. There are seven culture dimensions proposed by this study to measure the organisational culture differences pre- and post-acquisition as influenced by both Chinese and British cultures. Specific cultural behaviours related to the proposed seven culture dimensions were also identified. Organisation culture clash was found with the post-acquisition organisation culture which influenced the leadership behaviours in managing the people issues and the perceived effectiveness of the leadership behaviours. This study contributes to existing knowledge by adding the integrated dimension of effective leadership behaviours in managing people issues in a cross culture context of M&As in China as well as extending the theoretical model of Project GLOBE. The practical learning from this study could help leaders in future M&As to take effective actions in managing people issues to improve the success rate of cross border M&As in China which can potentially contribute to the economic development of China and other developing countries.Doctor of Philosoph