This thesis contends that a corporate merger, on the scale of a global order, is a
'catastrophic change' and depends on 'killing off' parts of the former organisations for its
success. The act of annihilating parts of the former organisations is experienced as disengaged
and murderous by organisational members. This arouses persecutory anxiety of an unbearable
intensity amongst members from which they defend themselves by emotionally disconnecting
from the psychic reality of the organisation.
Several contentions underpin the hypothesis:
1. that a merger involves a developmental process in the creation and growth of a new
organisation;
2. the event of a merger causes disruptions to roles and relationships that are
experienced as a loss of power, status and identity, and also as an emotional loss for
what had been cherished and valued in the former organisation/s;
3. the emotional loss evokes the symbolic experience of the loss of a 'loved object',
and an instinctual loss becomes attached thereby to the real losses; and thus,
4. the process of merger involves a symbolic destruction of the 'loved organisational
object' of the former organisations, as held in the minds of organisational members.
The thesis is based on case study research conducted on the topic of emotional
connectedness in a network organisation over a three year period. Fieldwork began at the time
when the participating firm had just formed from a global merger of two large global
enterprises. The Australia-New Zealand regional operations were the focus of the study.
The research discovered a significant degree of emotional disconnectedness due to:
1. the nature of the work that required staff to work on client sites, away from home
and often alone;
2. a multiplicity of organisational structures that engendered fragmentary connections;
3. valuing individuals' self-reliance over and above the interdependence of
organisational members;
4. the many external changes experienced by the firm from the effects of the merger
and from market economics, political and business turmoil, and for the Australia-
New Zealand operations, a shift in the location of their corporate head office from
North America to Europe;
5. increasing uncertainty within the industry, and a commensurate increase in
competitiveness;
6. a loss of profitability in the Asia-Pacific region in which the case study participants
were located;
7. the turnover in the regional director's role, with three appointments in less than
two years;
8. dramatic rises and falls in staff numbers, ranging from an initial 450, to a high of
750, and sudden decline to 120 people during the period of the study;
9. the reluctance of vice-presidents and directors to take up a corporate management
role, preferring to work as 'project managers' on client assignments; and
10. all these factors contributing to an anxiety about the future of the Australia-New
Zealand (A-NZ) operations which was expressed as a fear of survival.
In response to these many factors, staff and management felt vulnerable and insecure,
experiencing the merger as an annihilation of 'loved objects'. These included the loss of a
partner's autonomy and ownership in the firm, familiar work procedures, and the loss of
belonging to a partner's work group and associated long-term relationships. The emotional
aspects of dealing with these losses and feelings were placed upon individuals to manage for
themselves. The burden of ensuring the survival of the firm was displaced upon individuals,
such that consultants became not only the 'container for work', but also the 'container for the
organisation's survival'.
As the merger progressed and more changes to the business were implemented with
little to no containment of people's felt experiences, the psychic reality of the A-NZ
operations became saturated with persecutory anxiety. In some parts of these operations, the
anxiety became so great that group interactions (what there were of them) seemed psychotic.
Those in management roles displayed a level of anxiety that appeared to be unbearable for the
individuals concerned, and which resulted at times in manic responses to the human and
commercial needs of the business.
Bion's theories of catastrophic change and emotional links, and Klein's theories on
persecutory and depressive anxieties are applied to understanding the systems psychodynamics
of the effects of the merger upon the organisation. The case reveals the presence of
persecutory anxiety in the immediate aftermath of the merger, lasting for nearly three years.
Various social defence mechanisms are identified as being used by organisational members
against this anxiety. They are: the co-existence of multiple organisational structures; a sentient
sub-system of 'counselling families'; idealisation of autonomous individuals; plus, the
mechanisms of projection, denial and regression.
Four factors are identified as significant for containing destructive forces in a corporate
merger: a) the role of emotional links to understanding the internal reality of a newly merged
organisation; b) the containment of experiences of catastrophic change and projective
processes; c) managing the realistic and neurotic anxieties of organisational members; and,
d) identifying and managing the primary risk in a merger.
A model is presented on the systems psychodynamics of a corporate merger. It
identifies the change process that a merger entails, and the psychodynamics of this process
using Bion's concept of container'contained.
The thesis contributes to understanding the psychic reality of organisational mergers
and offers a perspective that being alert to staff members' felt experiences and their emotional
connectedness, as a normal part of business, provides 'leading data' on the health of the
enterprise. Managers who are more 'wholly' informed about organisational realities, both
external and psychic realities, can work more realistically on resolving problems, assessing
risks, or making strategic business decisions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/216620 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | De Gooijer, Jinette, n/a |
| Publisher | Swinburne University of Technology. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.swin.edu.au/), Copyright Jinette De Gooijer |
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