When the Anger Emanates: Exploring the aftermath of Mergers and Acquisitions with respective to Success, Growth and Cultural Perspectives

Abstract

Mergers and acquisitions have gained huge importance over the years. Despite huge investments, mergers and acquisitions have failed to achieve desired results. The sole purpose of this study is to explore the aftermath of mergers and acquisitions in Pakistan from the employee perspective. Existing literature suggests that there are more failures than successes in mergers and acquisitions, the reason being the poor implementation of such events. Mergers and acquisitions have consequences, and these consequences are subject to the nature and behavior of the individuals. This study was carried out to explore mergers and acquisitions from an employee perspective and what issues they come to face. With the interpretivist approach and qualitative strategy, the phenomenological methodology was implied to understand the issues of the employees from their lived experiences. Interviews were collected with snowball sampling from the employees who have experienced this transformation. For triangulation of the data, focus group discussions were also conducted among the participants. Moreover, the interview transcripts were validated with a member checking approach. After performing axial coding, constant comparison of the collected data was used, and themes and their relations were developed. Results unearthed several issues employees face, some are job-related, and others are personal life issues. In the former category, employees face the problem of job security, lost experience, communication gap, while in the latter they experience a disturbance in their social circles and personality issues such as stress and anxiety. These issues ultimately culminate into a negative influence on their growth.