The perceptions of human resource professionals in five Thai banks about the human resource development competencies and programs used during the merger and acquisition process

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of human resource professionals in five Thai banks about the HRD competencies and programs used during the merger and acquisition process. Twenty-six HR professionals who were currently working in five Thai banks that had undergone mergers and acquisitions in the past five years responded to this study.; Structured phone interviews were administered to obtain qualitative data on the potential contributions of HRD programs in the four stages of the merger and acquisition process, and a questionnaire was administered to obtain quantitative data regarding the level of importance of and the human resource professionals' ability to perform HRD competencies in the four stages of the merger and acquisition process. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, the hand coding technique, and the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient were used to analyze the relationships among the variables.; There were significant findings regarding the contributions of HRD programs in the four stages of the merger and acquisition process. The emerging two components found in factor analysis, the change management process and competence building encompass the four stages of the merger and acquisition process. Most of the contributions that HRD professionals perceive that they can make happened to be within the change management and competence building. The qualitative data revealed that cultural assessment and awareness training were the most important of the HRD programs used in the four stages of the merger and acquisition process. Human resource professionals placed important roles providing such as training and development and redesign in organization structure and work processes. The contributions of the HRD programs included reducing resistance to change and assisting employees to cope with change during the merger and acquisition process. Other contributions of HRD programs to the success of the mergers and acquisitions included redesign of organization structure and management practices and increased learning about the new cultural values and management practices of the new entity.; There was a significant finding regarding the relative importance of HRD competencies in the four stages of the merger and acquisition process. One significant finding was related to the human resource professionals' ability to perform HRD competencies during the integration and post merger and acquisition stages. A significant relationship was found between the level of importance of and human resource professionals' ability to perform HRD competencies in the four stages of the merger and acquisition process. The implication for human resource development theory is included, along with a recommendation for future research and practice.