| Mergers and acquisitions have become an increasingly common method of strategic growth in the post-modernistic economy. This study examined the 2000 merger between two companies involved in the graphic communications industry: Company A1 (a publicly traded printing company) and Company B (a publicly traded computing services firm) and why, like in the majority of mergers, the post-merger entity failed to achieve the stated pre-merger financial and strategic expectations.; The researcher's overarching goal was to study the organizational cultures of the companies as perceived by management employed at both pre- and post-merger Company A. The specific purposes were to investigate (1) the organizational cultures of pre/post-merger Company A as perceived by management, (2) differences in perceptions of the two cultures, (3) factors leading to these cultural differences, and, finally, (4) whether the perceived cultural differences were seen as playing a role in the merged entity's inability to meet its stated strategic and financial objectives.; A multi-perspective, multi-method descriptive case study research methodology was adopted. The quantitative segment used a written questionnaire with 58 managerial employees to assess pre/post-merger Company A's organizational cultures in terms of four cultural archetypes: adhocracy, market, hierarchy, and clan. The qualitative segment included an analysis of relevant artifacts and ethnographic style individual and group semi-structured interviews with 6 managerial employees.; The quantitative results indicated that pre-merger Company A's culture was perceived as dominated by the adhocracy archetype (dynamic, high flexibility/individuality, entrepreneurial, risk-taking); the post-merger culture by the hierarchy archetype (formalized, bureaucratic rules and procedures, control, high stability, predictability, efficiency). The metaphorical data indicated that the root metaphor which management saw as best depicting pre-merger Company A was that of an adaptive organism; for post-merger Company A it was that of a machine. It appears that these differences in cultural archetypes may have contributed to the post-merger company's failure to meet the pre-merger goals.; 1To maintain anonymity, the acquired company is referred to as Company A and the acquiring company as Company B. |
