The Immigration issue was, during quite long period of time, a disputable concern within the European territory. European countries, as many others, require a certain degree of qualified immigration, due to developments of the labour market. Along with the issues of immigration and migration, the matter of immigrant’s integration is becoming the focus point of consideration for the European Union as a whole, its single Member States and various other international organizations. The matter of integration has been imbedded in immigration policies because of the discovery that migration of labour throughout Europe, which was considered to be an interim feature for EU’s Member States, has transformed to the permanent one. Another reason is the fear that badly integrated immigrants might become an extraordinary problem for the population’s majority.

Denna kandidatuppsats söker att förklara vilken typ av effekter en fusion kan ha på en organisationskultur. För att genomföra en analys av fusionens effekter krävs att organisationskulturen sonderas och därmed kan användas som grund. Vi har valt att arbeta med Fläkt Woods eftersom de genomgick en fusion 2002 då det svensk-brittiska företaget föd-des. Arbetet fullföljdes genom en kvalitativ vinkel i form av en fallstudie. Sex djupgående intervjuer genomfördes med chefer och chefsassistenter på Fläkt Woods enheter i Enköping, Jönköping och Växjö. För att kunna blottlägga paradigmen, och därigenom skapa en förståelse för de underliggande värderingar som utgör en kultur, användes Cultural Web. Vi valde sedan att applicera Results of Cultural Integration (RCI)-modellen för att vidare förklara effekterna av fusionen. Som stöd för dessa modeller har vi använt oss av teorier om den kulturella integrationsprocessen och hur man, genom tre instrument, stödjer denna process. Resultatet av vår undersökning av paradigmen, som är representativt för organisationskulturen, pekar mot en atmosfär som omfattar positiva attityder, demokratiska beslutsförfarande, framtidsfokus och trygghet. Fusionen påverkade organisationskulturen genom att starta en pågående transformationsprocess. Detta är synligt då Enköping, Jönköping och Växjö för tillfället befinner sig i olika faser i denna process. Växjö utövar mycket samarbete med den brittiska delen av företaget och upplever därför kulturen som mer enhetlig än vad Enköping gör, där samverkan med Colchester är närmast obefintlig. Enheten i Jönköping har nått ett mellanliggande stadium eftersom de dels håller kvar sin egen kultur, men genom den ökande interaktionen med Woods utsätts för nya aspekter av organisationskulturen. Vi tror att Fläkt Woods organisationskultur kommer att fortsätta att förändras till de olika enheterna är mer synkroniserade. Förvandlingen mot en ny Fläkt Woods-kultur kommer inte att avstanna förrän Enköping och Jönköping har nått det stadium som Växjö befinner sig i för tillfället, och därmed börjar anamma den nya kulturen i en större utsträckning. Det ska dock noteras att eftersom ägarna till Fläkt Woods, Compass Holdings, inte har pressat högsta ledningen att medvetet arbeta med frågor som rör organisationskulturen så kommer integrationsprocessen att ta längre tid än om frågan hade varit av högre prioritet / This bachelor thesis aims to explain the area of how a merger can affect a corporate culture. In order to do this, the corporate culture needs to be explored to found a basis for the analysis of the merger effects. We have chosen to work with Fläkt Woodsas they took part of a merger in 2002 where the Swedish-British company was founded. The work was carried out with a qualitative approach, in the form of a case study. We performed six in depth interviews, with managers and managers’ assistants at Fläkt Woodssites in Enköping, Jönköping and Växjö. In order to uncover the paradigm, and thus understand the underlying assumptions of the culture, we used the Cultural Web. To further explain the effects of the merger, an application of the Results of Cultural Integration (RCI)-model was performed. To support the analysis we used theories on the cultural integration process as well as on how to support the integration process through three instruments. The results of our investigations of the cultural paradigm, which we hold as representative for the corporate culture, pointed toward an atmosphere which comprised positivism, democracy, focus on the future and safety. The merger affected the corporate culture by starting off an ongoing transformation process. This is visible as Växjö, Jönköping and Enköping are currently in different phases in the process. Växjö cooperate the most with the British unit situated in Colchester and thus experiences the culture as more unified than Enköping does where no interaction with England takes place. The site in Jönköping has reached an intermediate stage as they are partly clinging on to their own culture but at the same time, through the increasing interaction with Woods, are exposed to new aspects of the corporate culture. We believe that the corporate culture of Fläkt Woodswill continually change until the sites are more in tune with each other. The transformation towards a new Fläkt Woodsculture will not stop until Enköping and Jönköping have reached the stage that Växjö is currently in, and thus start to embrace the new culture to a larger extent. However, as the owner of Fläkt Woods, Compass Holdings, has not put any pressure on the top management to consciously work with the issues of corporate culture, the integration process will take longer than if the matter was of higher priority.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate what cultural changes can be observed in an acquired company’s corporate culture in one unit that is integrated in the acquiring company’s routines - but not physically integrated. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of post-acquisition situations in the long-term. To fulfill this purpose, the following questions were to be answered: how do the employees at the acquired (but not physically integrated) company unit experience the corporate culture seven years after the acquisition, and how do they feel knowing their unit will be transferred to the same location as the acquirer company? Answering these questions, an exploratory qualitative case study of GEHC in Uppsala was implemented with fourteen employees interviewed at GEHC Boländerna and the unit in Fyrislund. The results revealed that the culture at the acquired unit today is partly changed and the core values are no longer prominent to the same extent, despite being deliberately maintained by the employees. There is also a partly negative attitude towards the physical integration, as the last parts of the acquired company´s culture will entirely disappear as the employees will be divided into different departments once they move to Boländerna.

<p>Denna kandidatuppsats söker att förklara vilken typ av effekter en fusion kan ha på en organisationskultur. För att genomföra en analys av fusionens effekter krävs att organisationskulturen sonderas och därmed kan användas som grund. Vi har valt att arbeta med Fläkt Woods eftersom de genomgick en fusion 2002 då det svensk-brittiska företaget föd-des.</p><p>Arbetet fullföljdes genom en kvalitativ vinkel i form av en fallstudie. Sex djupgående intervjuer genomfördes med chefer och chefsassistenter på Fläkt Woods enheter i Enköping, Jönköping och Växjö.</p><p>För att kunna blottlägga paradigmen, och därigenom skapa en förståelse för de underliggande värderingar som utgör en kultur, användes Cultural Web. Vi valde sedan att applicera Results of Cultural Integration (RCI)-modellen för att vidare förklara effekterna av fusionen. Som stöd för dessa modeller har vi använt oss av teorier om den kulturella integrationsprocessen och hur man, genom tre instrument, stödjer denna process.</p><p>Resultatet av vår undersökning av paradigmen, som är representativt för organisationskulturen, pekar mot en atmosfär som omfattar positiva attityder, demokratiska beslutsförfarande, framtidsfokus och trygghet.</p><p>Fusionen påverkade organisationskulturen genom att starta en pågående transformationsprocess. Detta är synligt då Enköping, Jönköping och Växjö för tillfället befinner sig i olika faser i denna process. Växjö utövar mycket samarbete med den brittiska delen av företaget och upplever därför kulturen som mer enhetlig än vad Enköping gör, där samverkan med Colchester är närmast obefintlig. Enheten i Jönköping har nått ett mellanliggande stadium eftersom de dels håller kvar sin egen kultur, men genom den ökande interaktionen med Woods utsätts för nya aspekter av organisationskulturen.</p><p>Vi tror att Fläkt Woods organisationskultur kommer att fortsätta att förändras till de olika enheterna är mer synkroniserade. Förvandlingen mot en ny Fläkt Woods-kultur kommer inte att avstanna förrän Enköping och Jönköping har nått det stadium som Växjö befinner sig i för tillfället, och därmed börjar anamma den nya kulturen i en större utsträckning. Det ska dock noteras att eftersom ägarna till Fläkt Woods, Compass Holdings, inte har pressat högsta ledningen att medvetet arbeta med frågor som rör organisationskulturen så kommer integrationsprocessen att ta längre tid än om frågan hade varit av högre prioritet</p> / <p>This bachelor thesis aims to explain the area of how a merger can affect a corporate culture. In order to do this, the corporate culture needs to be explored to found a basis for the analysis of the merger effects. We have chosen to work with Fläkt Woodsas they took part of a merger in 2002 where the Swedish-British company was founded.</p><p>The work was carried out with a qualitative approach, in the form of a case study. We performed six in depth interviews, with managers and managers’ assistants at Fläkt Woodssites in Enköping, Jönköping and Växjö.</p><p>In order to uncover the paradigm, and thus understand the underlying assumptions of the culture, we used the Cultural Web. To further explain the effects of the merger, an application of the Results of Cultural Integration (RCI)-model was performed. To support the analysis we used theories on the cultural integration process as well as on how to support the integration process through three instruments.</p><p>The results of our investigations of the cultural paradigm, which we hold as representative for the corporate culture, pointed toward an atmosphere which comprised positivism, democracy, focus on the future and safety.</p><p>The merger affected the corporate culture by starting off an ongoing transformation process. This is visible as Växjö, Jönköping and Enköping are currently in different phases in the process. Växjö cooperate the most with the British unit situated in Colchester and thus experiences the culture as more unified than Enköping does where no interaction with England takes place. The site in Jönköping has reached an intermediate stage as they are partly clinging on to their own culture but at the same time, through the increasing interaction with Woods, are exposed to new aspects of the corporate culture.</p><p>We believe that the corporate culture of Fläkt Woodswill continually change until the sites are more in tune with each other. The transformation towards a new Fläkt Woodsculture will not stop until Enköping and Jönköping have reached the stage that Växjö is currently in, and thus start to embrace the new culture to a larger extent. However, as the owner of Fläkt Woods, Compass Holdings, has not put any pressure on the top management to consciously work with the issues of corporate culture, the integration process will take longer than if the matter was of higher priority.</p>

Due to an increased flow of refugees over the past few years, affairs of refugees have caught increased attention. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the integration process of an earlier group of quota refugees who came to rural Iceland in 1998, from former Yugoslavia. Eighteen years have passed and the refugees’ views of entering and living in Icelandic society will help to understand the process of integration and the role of migration in an ever-changing social context and in times of rapid globalization. The study aims to explore two questions: 1) How did the life events of the refugees affect their integration processes? 2) How did transnational practices impact the integration processes? In-depth interviews were carried out and a life course perspective was the method used for obtaining the refugees’ stories and life experiences, and to investigate their integration processes. The analysis draws on the theories of integration, life course perspective, transnationalism and social networks. This study indicates that transnational practices are beneficial for the lifetime project of integration. Access to an extended social network of relatives and co-ethnics also plays a crucial role. Another important element for integration is the feeling of normal life, supported by a feeling of security in the physical, economic and institutional sense.

<p>Among the challenges that companies may face during the post M&A phase, cultural integration can be seen as one of the trickiest tasks. Cultural differences which are inevitable in any deal are always there. The link between how people from autonomous groups live together and the deal result is an interesting topic that needs to be investigated. Since we have an interest in developing the understanding of cultural differences during integration process in cross-border M&As, the research question “How do cultural differences arise in cross-border M&As during the integration process and do they impact the deal result?” is formulated.</p><p>This thesis presents a model that demonstrates elements of cultural differences from three levels, national, organizational and personal. In this model, these levels can be seen as interrelated to each other in which the inner layer is impacted by the outer one. As a result, personal culture, as the most inner layer, is doubly impacted by the other two, national and organizational levels. Given that the scope of our thesis is for cross-border M&As, after investigating these three levels of culture, we found that organizational and personal differences are real in any M&As no matter domestic or cross-border deals. Differences at national level, on the contrary, are the first element that should be mentioned as a root of cultural differences in companies from different nationalities.</p><p>From the understanding about emergence of cultural differences, we further study to see if they leave any effect on the deal result. In the empirical section, from the cultural gap analysis of each case, it was surprising to see that the relationship between cultural gap and deal result of two of four cases, are opposite to Rankine´s theory. At this point, we can see that M&As between companies similar in culture is not always successful or that failure between organizations having significantly different cultures is not always true, and then the empirical study on the acculturation dynamics made the further explanation that cultural differences are not the critical factor leading to success or failure, but rather how participants in integration perceive and respond to the cultural differences will impact the deal result.</p>

Among the challenges that companies may face during the post M&amp;A phase, cultural integration can be seen as one of the trickiest tasks. Cultural differences which are inevitable in any deal are always there. The link between how people from autonomous groups live together and the deal result is an interesting topic that needs to be investigated. Since we have an interest in developing the understanding of cultural differences during integration process in cross-border M&amp;As, the research question “How do cultural differences arise in cross-border M&amp;As during the integration process and do they impact the deal result?” is formulated. This thesis presents a model that demonstrates elements of cultural differences from three levels, national, organizational and personal. In this model, these levels can be seen as interrelated to each other in which the inner layer is impacted by the outer one. As a result, personal culture, as the most inner layer, is doubly impacted by the other two, national and organizational levels. Given that the scope of our thesis is for cross-border M&amp;As, after investigating these three levels of culture, we found that organizational and personal differences are real in any M&amp;As no matter domestic or cross-border deals. Differences at national level, on the contrary, are the first element that should be mentioned as a root of cultural differences in companies from different nationalities. From the understanding about emergence of cultural differences, we further study to see if they leave any effect on the deal result. In the empirical section, from the cultural gap analysis of each case, it was surprising to see that the relationship between cultural gap and deal result of two of four cases, are opposite to Rankine´s theory. At this point, we can see that M&amp;As between companies similar in culture is not always successful or that failure between organizations having significantly different cultures is not always true, and then the empirical study on the acculturation dynamics made the further explanation that cultural differences are not the critical factor leading to success or failure, but rather how participants in integration perceive and respond to the cultural differences will impact the deal result.

Mergers and acquisitions are a phenomenon which can occur for a variety of reasons. It may for example be that the organizations want to gain larger market shares or to complement and learn from each other and thus become more competitive. After the completion of an acquisition or merger, a process is initiated to create an affiliation between the two companies' employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is something that management can do to make the integration process as efficient as possible. The empirical research in this paper consisted of interviews and surveys with respondents from two accounting firms that recently completed a merger. To maximize the chances of a successful acquisition, management should try to influence employees through active communication, where similarities between organizational culture are addressed and stressed and thus try to contribute to the sense of belonging between the companies. A delay in moving to a single, mutual location has affected the integration process negatively.

Software development is highly dependent on the use of tools. These tools support and automate activities performed in different sub-domains of software development. However, they don&lsquo / t adequately provide or support integration facilities, and act as &amp / #8213 / islands of automation&amp / #8214 / . This restricts their benefits to only specific parts of the process. To reap the benefits of integration, this thesis provides a process modeling based method named PLETIN to identify and implement software development tool integration-tuples. The method aims to present solutions for issues observed in tool integration for software development organizations by delivering an integrated tool set. The proposed solution approach is based on the idea that if there were no integrations between tools at all, users would perform the necessary actions to cooperate different tools. PLETIN is a method for the identification of the candidate integration situations (integration-tuples) from the interactions of users with the tools. These tuples constitute the requirements used to develop integration facilities. The software development process definitions are used as inputs to create process models and provide actual implementations. The research is supported with case-study work to identify the significance of the problems and the applicability of the method as a solution to issues in tool integration.

Vad innebär det att jobba med integration i ett fusionerat företag? Studien som denna avhandling bygger på syftade till att utforska, skildra och reflektera över hur en ledningsgrupp strävade efter att uppnå socio-kulturell integration. Resultatet illustreras genom påvisandet av hur nya referensramar skapades i den pågående kommunikationen på integrationsmöten i ett nordiskt konfektyrföretag. På dessa möten försökte ledningsgruppen, som bestod av medarbetare med olika nationell, funktionell och organisatorisk hemvist, att skapa en ny gemensam kultur. En paradox uppstod då företagsledningen hade för avsikt att bevara de gamla kulturerna, samtidigt som de ville skapa något nytt. Kultur har i denna studie betraktats som en social referensram vilket möjliggör att man kan tala om kultur i förhållande till andra föreställningar i integrationsprocessen. Genom analys av integrationsdiskursen med hjälp av begreppet föreställningsramar, framträdde ett flertal i integrationsprocessen aktiva föreställningsramar. Dessa visar hur ledningen rörde sig mot en gemensam föreställningsram under integrationsprocessen. Med tiden framträdde en gemensam föreställning: the one company frame. Denna föreställningsram drevs på ett djupare plan av människors vilja att tillhöra och skapa mening i det som hände, något som beskrivs i the faith frame. På mötet utmanades dock the faith frame av the game frame som betonar den konkurrensmässiga aspekten av affärsverksamhet. Avhandlingen avslutas med en diskussion om hur förståelsen för integrationsprocessen skulle kunna ökas genom att tydligare erkänna konkurrens som ett inslag i integration. / What does it mean to integrate an organization after a merger? The purpose of the study on which this thesis is based was to explore, depict and reflect on how a management group strived to achieve socio-cultural integration. The findings are illustrated by applying the idea of framing to the on-going communication at integration meetings in a Nordic confectionery company. At these meetings, the management group - with different national, functional and organizational backgrounds - worked with creating a new, shared culture. Paradoxically, the intention of the managers was to keep their old cultures at the same time as they wanted to create something new. In this text, culture has been regarded as a frame of reference. This makes it possible to talk about culture in relation to other constructs in the integration process. The use of the frame concept in the analysis of the integration discourse revealed different frames at work, and how people observed in the study moved towards a shared frame of reference during the integration process. Over time, there was frame alignment at the integration meetings towards a one company frame. On a deeper level, the one company frame seemed to be motivated by people’s desire to belong in the new company and to make sense of what was going on. This was expressed in the faith frame. At the integration meetings, the faith frame was challenged by the game frame. The game frame enhanced the competitive aspect of business. It is suggested that recognition of the competitive aspects of integration could increase our understanding of the integration process.