Managing Change in Merger or Acquisition

There are a lot of issues that the organization will be facing during an acquisition. To ensure the success of the acquisition, the human elements that will arise out of this acquisition must be addressed. Appelbaum, Belisle, Hoeven, Gandell, and Shapiro (2000) stated that these human elements can be categorized into four categories. They are communications, corporate culture, change, and stress. In this paper, we shall take a look at the change category and the strategy for dealing this issue.
Levinson (1976) points out that according to psychoanalytic theory, our identities stem from those people, places, and things that we feel are important in our lives. It follows, then, that the interactions and relationships we form with these people, places, and things are an integral part of our personal growth and development. When change occurs, and these ties are forcibly broken, the result is a sense of helplessness, loss of control over the situation, and a lowered self-image. Employees build expectations that the organization usually fulfills.…