The purpose of this dissertation is to increase our understanding of how employees make sense of a merger announcement. This dissertation addresses a gap in the literature by examining the relationship between deal characteristics and employee reactions. A theoretical model incorporating the cultural, psychological and social perspectives is developed and tested. This experimental study also examines how attitudes about the merger change following peer interaction. Quantitative and qualitative methods are combined to investigate the relationship between deal characteristics and employee reactions observed in mergers. Findings indicate that deal characteristics not only significantly affect initial employee reactions, but also affect how employee attitudes evolve over time as they discuss the event with peers. The study establishes an overall detrimental effect of social interaction on employee attitudes, described as collective rumination. Finally, the study sheds new light on power in mergers by establishing the relevance of one’s position in the deal structure with respect to sensemaking and attitudes following the discussion of the event with colleagues. / Ce projet de thèse concerne l'aspect humain des fusions et acquisitions. Je propose et teste un modèle intégrant les perspectives culturelles, sociales et psychologiques. Cette réplication expérimentale d’une annonce de fusion comble une lacune dans la littérature, à savoir le manque de recherche liant les niveaux micro et macro dans ce domaine. J’examine notamment comment les caractéristiques de la fusion affectent les réactions des employés. Les résultats de mon étude multiméthode basée sur un modèle longitudinal ont non seulement permis d’établir l'existence d'un effet des variables contextuelles sur les attitudes des employés, mais également de démontrer à quel point l’interaction avec un groupe de collègues peut être néfaste. En effet, une analyse complémentaire des données qualitatives permet de constater la présence d’un phénomène de “rumination collective” suite à l’annonce de la fusion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.40743 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Marmenout, Katty |
| Contributors | Alfred M Jaeger (Internal/Supervisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | French |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Desautels Faculty of Management) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | Electronically-submitted theses. |
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