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Implement and Sustain Cultural Integration Post-Merger or Acquisition

Move beyond the standard practice of unguided cultural evolution to strategic cultural integration.

  • Few M&As consider culture pre-transaction, and even fewer have comprehensive plans for integrating cultures post-transaction.
  • Traditional approaches to change and culture management cannot be comprehensively applied to M&A situations due to the confidential nature and legal requirements that delay communication with employees in most cases.

Executive Summary

Critical Insight

In mergers and acquisitions (M&As), cultural integration cannot be ignored. Organizations that leverage change management and communication around organizational values, cultural drivers, and leadership buy-in move beyond the standard practice of unguided cultural evolution and toward achieving their M&A objectives.

Impact & Result

  • Leverage the power of the employee voice to establish a future state of organizational culture based on shared values that provide the integrated organization a cultural vision to work toward.
  • Promote effective change management strategies, accounting for M&A considerations. This includes communicating effectively to drive organizational effectiveness, improve employee engagement, reinforce desired behaviors, and create value within the integrated organization.

Research & Tools

2. Implement culture change

Identify HR and leadership’s role in managing culture change after an M&A and prepare for the long-term process of culture change.

3. Sustain cultural integration

Establish metrics and boundaries to monitor cultural integration and identify areas of opportunity to sustain cultural integration.

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