Trajectories and antecedents of integration in mergers and acquisitions: A comparison of two longitudinal research studies

Despite existing research examining snapshots of employee reactions to organizational mergers and acquisitions (M&A), there is a complete absence of work theorizing or exploring rates of change in employees’ organizational identification with the merged entity. We address this gap using two 3-wave longitudinal panel samples from different M&A settings, tracking change in identification through a two-year period. Theorizing trajectories of change in identification across the organizations in both settings, we make predictions linked to expected antecedents of change in identification. Our research context (M&A-1) involves a merger of three Finish universities tracking 938 employees from each organization in three-waves (9 months pre-merger to 24 months post-merger). Our second context (M&A-2) involves a multinational acquisition tracking 346 employees from both the acquired and acquiring organization in three-waves (from 2-26 months post-acquisition). Using Latent Growth Modeling we confirm predicted trajectories of change in identification. Across both samples, a linear increase (across T1, T2 and T3) in justice and linear decrease in threat perceptions were found to significantly predict a linear increase in identification across the post-M&A period. We discuss organizational identification development trajectories and how change in these two antecedents account for changes in identification across M&A contexts.