"The Annoyance of Cultural Diversity Management" Narratives of middle managers on a post-merger integration
(2015) BUSN49 20151Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- Title: The Annoyance of Cultural Diversity Management
Authors: Gijs Appeldoorn & Max Leo Rodeck
Supervisor: Sverre Spoelstra
Date: 22nd May 2015
Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to contribute to the merger and acquisition, the post-merger integration and, in particular, the cultural diversity management literature with insights into how middle managers experience organizational cultural differences and cultural diversity management.
Relevance: In contemporary global business environment mergers and acquisitions have become increasingly popular. Even though organizational culture differences loom large within merging organizations, the impact of organizational culture differences is often underestimated and to... (More) - Title: The Annoyance of Cultural Diversity Management
Authors: Gijs Appeldoorn & Max Leo Rodeck
Supervisor: Sverre Spoelstra
Date: 22nd May 2015
Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to contribute to the merger and acquisition, the post-merger integration and, in particular, the cultural diversity management literature with insights into how middle managers experience organizational cultural differences and cultural diversity management.
Relevance: In contemporary global business environment mergers and acquisitions have become increasingly popular. Even though organizational culture differences loom large within merging organizations, the impact of organizational culture differences is often underestimated and to cope with those differences by cultural diversity management might result in opposite outcomes. In addition, within the literature on cultural diversity management, middle managers tend to be overlooked and are in need for more research considering their importance in organizations.
Methodology: Following a qualitative methodology, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 middle managers of a global insurance company in Turkey while using a storytelling method. We used an interpretive approach with a critical stance while interpreting our data.
Findings: Alongside other findings we discovered that middle managers experienced additional tensions due to organizational culture differences in a post-merger integration. Moreover, we detected that the strategies to cope with those cultural differences result in feelings of cultural dominance, purposefully exaggerating the differences, and purposefully attributing mistakes to the cultural differences.
Contributions: We contribute to the critical literature on cultural diversity management with an in-depth understanding of how middle managers experience cultural differences and cultural diversity management in a post-merger integration. In contrast to other critical studies, we argue that even with a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards the merger, cultural management tools can lead to a vicious circle ending up in managers losing their willingness to deal with cultural differences. Thereby we argue that, in contrast to top management and staff, the area of middle managers in cultural diversity management has been overlooked in critical studies and is in need for more research. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/7368777
- author
- Appeldoorn, Gijs LU and Rodeck, Max Leo LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- BUSN49 20151
- year
- 2015
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- merger and acquisition, Middle managers, post-merger integration, organizational culture, organizational culture differences, cultural diversity management
- language
- English
- id
- 7368777
- date added to LUP
- 2015-06-25 11:04:24
- date last changed
- 2015-06-25 11:04:24
@misc{7368777,
abstract = {{Title: The Annoyance of Cultural Diversity Management
Authors: Gijs Appeldoorn & Max Leo Rodeck
Supervisor: Sverre Spoelstra
Date: 22nd May 2015
Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to contribute to the merger and acquisition, the post-merger integration and, in particular, the cultural diversity management literature with insights into how middle managers experience organizational cultural differences and cultural diversity management.
Relevance: In contemporary global business environment mergers and acquisitions have become increasingly popular. Even though organizational culture differences loom large within merging organizations, the impact of organizational culture differences is often underestimated and to cope with those differences by cultural diversity management might result in opposite outcomes. In addition, within the literature on cultural diversity management, middle managers tend to be overlooked and are in need for more research considering their importance in organizations.
Methodology: Following a qualitative methodology, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 middle managers of a global insurance company in Turkey while using a storytelling method. We used an interpretive approach with a critical stance while interpreting our data.
Findings: Alongside other findings we discovered that middle managers experienced additional tensions due to organizational culture differences in a post-merger integration. Moreover, we detected that the strategies to cope with those cultural differences result in feelings of cultural dominance, purposefully exaggerating the differences, and purposefully attributing mistakes to the cultural differences.
Contributions: We contribute to the critical literature on cultural diversity management with an in-depth understanding of how middle managers experience cultural differences and cultural diversity management in a post-merger integration. In contrast to other critical studies, we argue that even with a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards the merger, cultural management tools can lead to a vicious circle ending up in managers losing their willingness to deal with cultural differences. Thereby we argue that, in contrast to top management and staff, the area of middle managers in cultural diversity management has been overlooked in critical studies and is in need for more research.}},
author = {{Appeldoorn, Gijs and Rodeck, Max Leo}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{"The Annoyance of Cultural Diversity Management" Narratives of middle managers on a post-merger integration}},
year = {{2015}},
}