Managing Emotions in Mergers and Acquisitions

Book excerpt: Just as mergers and acquisitions begin to take off once again, this book reminds us that the emotional side of business is often at the heart of success and failure. With a terrific mix of case studies and in-depth conceptual thinking, Managing Emotions in Mergers and Acquisitions addresses the most fundamental of all issues in M&As how and why people sometimes disrupt the best merger plans, simply because they are, well, people. Sydney Finkelstein, Professor of Strategy and Leadership at the Tuck School at Dartmouth College, and author of Why Smart Executives Fail This is a very welcome addition to our knowledge on M&A process. This is an in-depth study on emotions, how these are effected due to M&A activity in two firms and how they influence the process itself. It helps us to understand, what emotions are? How we can deal with them? And, Why do M&As so often fail? It offers state-of-the-art knowledge on this complex phenomenon. The four cases present in depth and extremely rich insight into how emotions actually work and influence the success/failure in M&A process. In conclusion, it is a timely and innovative book which is a must read for anyone interested in mergers and acquisitions. Pervez Ghauri, University of Manchester, UK Research suggests that an increasing number of people experience organisational changes such as mergers and acquisitions as highly emotional life events. Indeed, given that, as the authors prove, 70% of all mergers and acquisitions fail to reach their initial goals largely because of neglected people issues, it is a must for every manager and M&A researcher to understand the emotional side of such change processes. This fascinating book explains how managerial behaviour and communication styles influence the emotions of employees and affect their readiness to contribute to a successful post-merger integration. It combines emotion theories from other disciplines with recent M&A findings, and offers practical implications through illustrative case studies. Academics and practitioners will find the combination of management literature with psychology and sociology literature of great interest.