Stress and communication across job levels after an acquisition

Abstract

Mergers and acquisitions are frequently implemented as a strategy for organizational change, despite a fifty-fifty chance of success. One of the frequently cited reasons for the lack of success is that employee reactions receive inadequate attention. Using a sense-making framework, this research investigated the perceptions of employees at different organizational levels of the stressors that they experienced during an acquisition and their satisfaction with the organizational communication that occurred during the process. A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional design was used. The sample consisted of 102 employees from a recently acquired organization, all of whom attended the same communication ‘road show’ regarding the acquisition. Results indicated that there were no differences between managers, supervisors and lower-level employees in the quantity or type of stress and satisfaction with communication. Communication satisfaction had an inverse relationship with sources of stress. The results are discussed in terms of power, sense-making and shifting boundaries.