One Organisation, One Great Feeling? A qualitative study on cultural integration and employee organisational identification in a cross-border post-acquired company
(2018) BUSN49 20181Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- This thesis aimed to develop a deeper understanding for the interplay between cultural integration and employees’ organisational identification in a cross-border post-acquired firm and how the employees account for their organisational identification five years after an acquisition.
A qualitative research method based on a hermeneutics epistemology and a constructionist ontological perspective was used. The thesis is based on a case study at a Dutch software- developer, former TechNL (pseudonym), which was acquired five years ago by Big-Software (pseudonym), a larger Swedish company from the same industry. The empirical material consisted of twelve semi-structured interviews with employees at former TechNL and a manager at Big-Software,... (More) - This thesis aimed to develop a deeper understanding for the interplay between cultural integration and employees’ organisational identification in a cross-border post-acquired firm and how the employees account for their organisational identification five years after an acquisition.
A qualitative research method based on a hermeneutics epistemology and a constructionist ontological perspective was used. The thesis is based on a case study at a Dutch software- developer, former TechNL (pseudonym), which was acquired five years ago by Big-Software (pseudonym), a larger Swedish company from the same industry. The empirical material consisted of twelve semi-structured interviews with employees at former TechNL and a manager at Big-Software, as well as secondary data in the form of annual reports. Previous research in the fields of acquisitions, cultural integration and organisational identification formed the theoretical foundation used to analyse and make sense of the collected empirical data.
From this thesis, it is possible to conclude that the perceived initial non-integration, top-down cultural integration efforts and multiple misalignments between the communicated culture, behaviours, and structures have impacted the employees’ ability to make sense of their new organisation and thus, hampered their identification processes. Furthermore, when taking both emotional and cognitive components into consideration, it is concluded that the employees still identify more with their pre-acquisition organisation and actively disidentify with the new organisation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8948064
- author
- Johannesson, Rebecka LU and Landberg, Jenny LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- BUSN49 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- cross-border acquisitions, cultural integration, organisational identification, post-acquisition identification
- language
- English
- id
- 8948064
- date added to LUP
- 2018-06-19 13:24:16
- date last changed
- 2018-06-19 13:24:16
@misc{8948064,
abstract = {{This thesis aimed to develop a deeper understanding for the interplay between cultural integration and employees’ organisational identification in a cross-border post-acquired firm and how the employees account for their organisational identification five years after an acquisition.
A qualitative research method based on a hermeneutics epistemology and a constructionist ontological perspective was used. The thesis is based on a case study at a Dutch software- developer, former TechNL (pseudonym), which was acquired five years ago by Big-Software (pseudonym), a larger Swedish company from the same industry. The empirical material consisted of twelve semi-structured interviews with employees at former TechNL and a manager at Big-Software, as well as secondary data in the form of annual reports. Previous research in the fields of acquisitions, cultural integration and organisational identification formed the theoretical foundation used to analyse and make sense of the collected empirical data.
From this thesis, it is possible to conclude that the perceived initial non-integration, top-down cultural integration efforts and multiple misalignments between the communicated culture, behaviours, and structures have impacted the employees’ ability to make sense of their new organisation and thus, hampered their identification processes. Furthermore, when taking both emotional and cognitive components into consideration, it is concluded that the employees still identify more with their pre-acquisition organisation and actively disidentify with the new organisation.}},
author = {{Johannesson, Rebecka and Landberg, Jenny}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{One Organisation, One Great Feeling? A qualitative study on cultural integration and employee organisational identification in a cross-border post-acquired company}},
year = {{2018}},
}