Mergers and Acquisitions: A Relational Investigation with Organizational

Culture and Employee Engagement

(Abstract of Research Proposal)

Mergers are commonly characterized as the consolidation of two organizations into a single
organization and acquisitions is the purchase of one organization from another where the
buyer or acquirer maintain the control. There are 2856 completed Mergers & Acquisitions
and 468 Joint Ventures in India from 1/1/2005 to 1/1/2018. The objectives of M&A includes
achieving synergy, overcoming competition, gaining economic power and reducing risk. The
problem of study arise as M&As are becoming an increasingly popular strategic option for
organizations and large number of organizations adopting this strategy but unfortunately the
failure rate of M&As are more than that of success. It is a fact that 50-60 percent of M&As
are subject to failure mainly due to diversified culture and employee problems. Employee
problems are responsible for between one third to one half of all merger failures even though
employees know the need of the M&A in the modern business world. From the literature
review it is understood that previous studies are concentrated on the effects of cultural
differences on M&A and less stress was given on employee engagement. So the research gap
identified is that the impact of M&A on the organizational culture and the impact of M&A
on employee engagement has to be studied in relational basis as both plays a vital role in
M&As but there were only few proper studies on the same had been conducted especially in
India. When it comes outside India there are 29 studies conducted and when it comes to
Indian perspective there are only 6 studies conducted that too were focused on either effects
of M&A on culture or effects of M&As on employees. The studies conducted on relational
investigation with organizational culture and employee engagement on M&A is hardly
found. Objective of the study includes understanding the impact of M&A on the
organizational culture, studying the impact of M&A and cultural changes on the employee
engagement and to undertake a comparative study of the impact of M&A on organizational
culture and employee engagement between different sectors. Descriptive research is the
suited research type for the study, stratified random sampling can be used as sampling
method as samples from different sectors are to be collected, the sample size is 600 which
consists of employees and executives of companies from different sectors which underwent
M&A. The study is highly relevant because M&A has high importance in the modern
business world, Organizational culture and employee engagements are the main factors for
the success of every organization, as India has diversified culture, cultural differences are
obvious. So, by the study it could be known what will happen to organizational culture and
employee engagement after M&A and its impacts which will be a valuable information to the
companies which may adopt M&A, the study can also provide valuable suggestions for the
success of M&A. Therefore, the study has utmost importance when it comes to M&A.