"We've often heard that more than 50% of mergers and acquisitions fail to achieve their original goals and that obstacles to cultural integration are among the chief reasons for this failure. Why is it difficult to integrate two company cultures, and why does this have such an impact on the business?"
Post-acquisition cultural integration issues have many causes:
- The typical post-acquisition integration process is a landscape of procedural gaps and boundaries. Groups of people who are not accustomed to working together are suddenly required to develop common procedures by collaborating with new colleagues who have different value systems, rules, standards or work processes.
- A common reaction to the acquisition is heightened awareness of differences. "We-they" attitudes emerge.
- Power issues arise as each group tries to promote its values, systems and procedures.
- Developing the trust and respect required to form agreement is difficult because of value differences and how people manage these differences, and can become even more difficult over time.
These issues hamper efforts to create open information flows, transparent systems and joint goals. Management processes are less effective, sometimes for many years following the acquisition.
CCG specializes in the management of cultural-boundary issues that can obstruct efficient workforce integration. We work with management to anticipate and minimize barriers. We help to build common, transparent processes, and we provide workshops to build skills essential to successful integration.
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