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When Cultures Collide Essay

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Mergers and acquisitions has become an important part of the American commerce, which communication plays an important role in reducing the negative impacts. While Schweiger agrees that failure to communicate with employees during a merger will increase employee uncertainty and anxiety, he highlights that previous researchers (Napier et al., 1989) did not measure uncertainty nor any of the supposed dysfunctional outcomes said to follow uncertainty.
Communication is also suggested by others to be avoided, as it might alert competitors or cause employees to leave an organization rather than endure painful changes (Buono & Bowditch, 1989). It can also threaten management’s ability to respond flexibly to changes during a merger or acquisition …show more content…

The preview of the experiment was deemed effective that the vice president of the human resource immediately introduced it to the control plant at the end of the experiment. As opposed to Buono & Bowditch’s worry that employees will be unable to cope with the change and thus resign, only two employees resigned from both plants, out of the 126 employees employed in the experimental plant and 146 employees in the control plant.
Schweiger concluded that communications can help employees cope with the effects of mergers and acquisitions to reduce the negative impacts to the organizational effectives, as should it be left unchecked, it could become costly to an organization and undermine the initial aspects and objectives of the merger or takeover.
The case study talks about the proposed takeover of Bushwhacker Mining Pty. Ltd. by Coongan River Ltd. (CRL). With the decline in gold prices, CRL has considered the option as Bushwhacker’s success in the gold industry was due to its highly skilled management team. Majority of the Bushwhacker staffs were formerly CRL staffs, which had left CRL because they did not like the way CRL was structured, in addition to its culture. The senior HR Manager of CRL, Bob Cowdrey, is aware of Bushwhacker’s management, and plans to use the takeover as a catalyst to make similar changes to other divisions within CRL. However, to achieve an effective takeover, Bob must resolve several issues that could affect the outcome of the

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