COMPANIES’ MERGERS AND AQUISITIONS AS A SOCIAL PROCESS: MODERN REALITIES

Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta: Seriâ 18, Sociologiâ i Politologiâ

S. A. Barkov¹  O. V. Dorokhina² 

[1] Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow;Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA);

关键词: merger;    acquisition;    post-industrial society;    project;    project structure;    bureaucratic organization;    adhocracy;    a democratic style of leadership;    organizational change;   

DOI  :  10.24290/1029-3736-2017-23-2-27-48

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Mergers and acquisitions have become one of the main business strategies in the past decades. However, as the international experience indicates, the impact of mergers and acquisitions is rather ambiguous. On the one hand, mergers accelerate the evolution of organizations, strengthen their market positions and competitive advantages, create opportunities for the future development. On the other hand, mergers and acquisitions often lead to severe system crises, caused by various confrontations and risks. From the social and administrative point of view, mergers and acquisitions are commonly perceived as troublesome transformation processes instilling distrust and fear in the workers. Fear of the upcoming mergers is typical not only for ordinary employees, but also for senior management, who remains the most vulnerable unit in the M&A process. Mergers are considered as a stress and challenge for all the categories of employees. The employees realize the instability and the vulnerability of their current statuses, the limited ability to influence the situation and job insecurity. The uncertainty and fear lead to the employees’ resistance of different kinds, which eventually destroys the corporate unity, exacerbates the contradictions between various groups of employees and destabilizes the operation of companies. The authors assume that in the post-industrial age the employees’ perceptions of the merger processes can change and study the trends and factors which determine employees’ attitude towards mergers and acquisitions. Nowadays management strategies and the logic of administrative processes change radically, the structure of companies and the relationships in organizations networks undergo crucial transformations. The tendency to the democratization of organizations has received widespread recognition; companies become more flexible and are more frequently perceived and operate as open systems. The companies start to use the project management structures and the adhocratic corporate culture is formed. All these chances allow to avoid various typical problems during the course of mergers and acquisitions and creating favorable starting conditions for the association. The authors stress the following features of modern organizations: contractual relations between employers and employees, minimization of the bureaucratic procedures and formal reports, the democratic governance, the authority and responsibility delegation and the profit sharing. The company staff, being organized into self-managing teams and possessing high level of competence, is not only better protected in the course of associations, but also has greater development opportunities. Due to these factors mergers and acquisitions are no longer associated with solely negative consequences and cause fear and active resistance of the staff; they start to be perceived as a change of the activity context which can lead to positive results.

【 授权许可】

Unknown