An Exploratory Case Study of the Merger of Two Companies: Problems in Staff Adaptation Process

Abstract

The paper reports on the merger of two independent financial services institutions. It is explored how the employees of a financial services institution (FSI) experienced its recent merger through the analysis of different narratives circulating within the organization. An exploratory case-study research project was conducted framed by the key concepts of organizational culture, change, and narrative research. A narrative approach was adopted to analyze the research material focusing the main analysis, which concentrates on analyzing the structure of narratives following the five elements of agency, temporality, event, context and format. The findings show how employees at FSI created counter stories to the positive messages, leadership sent across, threatening not only their economic situation, working conditions and roles but also their sense of self and their personal identities. The results of the empirical study strengthen the suggestion that narratives represent a powerful means to explore the underlying individual and social processes involved in situations of organizational change that may foster resistance to change ultimately inhibiting successful post-merger integrations. The empirical findings represent the groundwork for further, more comprehensive and elaborate research drawing upon a more diverse set of partici-pants from various levels representing all organizational departments.