Mergers and acquisitions have become the most dramatic demonstration of vision and strategy in the corporate world. With a single move, managers can change the course of their companies, their careers, as well as create value for their shareholders. This explains why companies are combining today in record numbers. Executives pursue mergers and acquisitions as a way of creating value by acquiring technologies, products and markets access; creating economies of scale, as well as establishing global brand presence. However, the business milieu is littered with integrated companies that have lost value for shareholders. This paper examines culture as the major factor that has counteracted the value-creation energies of economies of scale and global market presence in mergers and acquisitions. Culture has emerged as one of the most dominant barriers to effective integrations. Therefore, there is a need for managers to effectively manage cultures during mergers and acquisitions.
2.0 Different Definitions of Culture
2.1 Different Constructs For Defining Culture
Culture has been defined from a number of constructs. Historical definitions refer to culture as a social heritage or tradition that is passed from generation to generation. Behavioral definitions view culture as shared and learned human behavior, usually implying a way of life (Naylor 3). Normative definitions of culture equate culture with ideas, values, or rules for living. Functional definitions see culture as the way human beings solve problems in adapting to the environments they live in (Naylor 3). Other definitions depict culture as a complex of ideas or learned habits that inhibit impulses and differentiate human beings from other animals. Structural definitions perce...
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Culture can be defined as the way of life of a particular people, shown in their behaviors and habits, their behaviors and habits toward each other, and their moral and/or religious beliefs. Many different aspects can be used when trying to define what makes up a culture of a particular group of people. The Center for Advance Research on Language Acquisition describes culture as shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and understanding that are learned by socialization. In many countries, the culture can be derived from many different groups of people in their country. A country can be comprised of the cultures of many different groups of people making the culture of an entire country very diverse. Culture is formed
fail (Cheng, 2012). Mergers and acquisitions are much common in these days and only a few of them are end up in successes. Even though mergers and acquisitions are not result much successes rate, many organizations are still preferring it because, it is used as a cooperative strategy but nowadays it is used for cooperative development. The cultural differences and merger integration can be considered as an important factor for the failure rate but this study mainly focused
Mergers and acquisitions transpire because in tough eras, firms yearn to benefit by buying new technologies, operatives reductions, grasping economies of scale quicker, and enhanced marketplace grasp and industry visibility. This is the immaculate scenario for a coalition, but many a times it’s the opposite case. Such synergy might just be in the minds of the heads of the two firms, and might or might not craft an enhanced value....
The idea of culture and society varies among every individual and groups of individuals that inhabit a specific location. The word culture can be defined as beliefs, languages, values, norms, and rituals shared by all members of a society. In addition, it can be material things, as well as rules and regulations that are considered the norms of that society. The definition of society goes hand and hand with culture. A society is a group of individuals and how they interact amongst each other and their shared values also known as their cultural norms.
Culture has been defined numerous ways throughout history. Throughout chapter three of, You May Ask Yourself, by Dalton Conley, the term “culture” is defined and supported numerous times by various groups of people. One may say that culture can be defined as a set of beliefs (excluding instinctual ones), traditions, and practices; however not all groups of people believe culture has the same set of values.
The soft factors can make or break a successful change process, since new structures and strategies are difficult to build upon inappropriate cultures and values. These problems often come up in the dissatisfying results of spectacular mega-mergers. The lack of success and synergies in such mergers is often based in a clash of completely different cultures, values, and styles, which make it difficult to establish effective common systems and structuresBased on the case study, extensive research and annual reports of AT&T the writer has mapped AT&T in the different domains. AT&T should strive to attain a perfect circle as close to the centre as possible, which indicates total synergy, order and equilibrium. Where the circle is skewed drastic change is needed as it moves closer to the outer ring of chaos:
Culture by definition is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices, as well as customary beliefs, social forms and material traits that characterize a racial, religious or ...
Culture can be defined as customary beliefs or ways of an origin. Characteristics that can define culture are that culture is learned, shared, based on symbols, integrated and is dynamic (EarthLink). Culture is something that can be passed down from generation to generation, it is not inherited or in our genes. We are taught culture from everyone around us and being taught culture means we will share it as well. Starting from young ages, elders of family and friends share their experiences and knowledge of the culture. Symbols can be different from all other cultures. All symbols have meaning behind them such as their language, artistic pieces and in some cases, currency. Integration of culture is known as holism, or the various parts of culture being interconnected (EarthLink). Every aspect of culture must all be learned to understand the complete meaning within the culture. Not everything within a culture can stay the same, it can adapt to the new times and changes within the society.
Culture can be defined as “A pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore to be taught to the new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems”. Schein (1988)
What is meant by the word culture? Culture, according to Websters Dictionary, is the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. These patterns, traits, and products are considere...
As stated in Hayward (2002), acquiring companies could be following an incorrect strategy: choosing the wrong target, paying too much for it and then integrating it poorly (Gilson and Black 1995;Haspeslagh and Jemison 1991). According to Cartwright and Cooper (1993), “financial and strategic considerations dominate the selection of a suitable acquisition target or merger partner. Decisions are driven by issues of availability, price, potential economies of scale, and projected earning ratios. Consequently when the combination fails to realize financial expectations, the post-mortem analysis of merger failure or underperformance tends to focus on reexamination of the factors that prompted the initial selection decision. Typically, poor selection decisions are attributed to an over inflated purchase price, managerial incompetence in achieving projected economies of scale, or that the organizations are strategically mismatched.”
Anthropologists define the term culture in a variety of ways, but there are certain shared features of the definition that virtually all anthropologists agree on. Culture is a shared, socially transmitted knowledge and behavior. The key features of this definition of culture are as follows. 1) Culture is shared among the members of that particular society or group. Thus, people share a common cultural identity, meaning that they recognize themselves and their culture's traditions as distinct from other people and other traditions. 2) Culture is socially transmitted from others while growing up in a certain environment, group, or society. The transmission of cultural knowledge to the next generation by means of social learning is referred to as enculturation or socialization. 3) Culture profoundly affects the knowledge, actions, and feelings of the people in that particular society or group. This concept is often referred to as cultural knowledge that leads to behavior that is meaningful to others and adaptive to the natural and social environment of that particular culture.
Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects and behavior. It includes the ideas, value, customs and artifacts of a group of people (Schaefer, 2002). Culture is a pattern of human activities and the symbols that give these activities significance. It is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold and activities they engage in. It is the totality of the way of life evolved by a people in their attempts to meet the challenges of living in their environment, which gives order and meaning to their social, political, economic, aesthetic and religious norms and modes of organization thus distinguishing people from their neighbors.
What is culture? Culture is identity; it’s the indigenous or non-indigenous ideology, habits, customs, appearances and beliefs that people are either raised by or adapt to from different nations surrounding. It is a network of knowledge shared by a group of people. Culture consists of configurations, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior obtained and spread by symbols establishing the distinctive achievement of human groups including their embodiments in artifacts; the vital core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values. Culture systems may, on one hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other, as conditioning influences upon further action.
The term “culture” refers to the complex accumulation of knowledge, folklore, language, rules, rituals, habits, lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs, and customs that link and provide a general identity to a group of people. Cultures take a long time to develop. There are many things that establish identity give meaning to life, define what one becomes, and how one should behave.