Emloyee perceptions to mergers and acquisitions during the post acquisition phase of an acquired firm : the case of Babcock and Brown Capital LTD. (BCM) Acquisition of Eircom

Abstract

The modem corporate and business environment is characterized by the ever so increasing international units looking to take advantage of the global market place in order to expand and grow even bigger with each passing day. Most companies choose to take shortcuts in the form of mergers and acquisitions. Most of them do not realize that shortcuts might not be the easier way out as various researches have shown that almost 60% of the deals fail. The last three decades have witnessed a growing body of research to predict Mergers and Acquisition performance, despite this extensive research, the reasons for failure are poorly understood. A large group of authors assume mergers and acquisitions are synonymous, and refers to the firm's activity in this respect using the abbreviation M&A (mergers and acquisitions) (Janik, 2003). Plenty of attention is paid to the legal, financial and operational elements of mergers and acquisitions. But executives who have been through the merger process now recognize that in today's economy, the management of the human side of change is the real key to maximizing the value of a deal (Schuler, 2001). This research is based on a central feature in the M&A process which is to investigate the employees' perceptions of organizational concerns ranging from abrupt job and employment issues to long-term status and behavioral and cultural issues in the new organization. This study is a result of recent M&A activity in the Irish Telecommunications Sector involving the largest service provider, Eircom.