Title: On the counterintuitive consequences of high-performance work practices in cross-border post-merger human integration

Authors: Athina Vasilaki; Pernille Smith; Antonio Giangreco; Andrea Carugati

Addresses: IESEG School of Management, 3 rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille, France ' Department of Business Administration, Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, Haslegaardsvej 10, 8210 Aarhus, Denmark ' IESEG School of Management (LEM-CNRS), 3 rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille, France ' Department of Business Administration, Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, Haslegaardsvej 10, 8210 Aarhus, Denmark

Abstract: Human integration in cross-border mergers poses challenges to the successful implementation of post-merger processes. Executives often rely on human resource practices to achieve human integration in newly formed organisations. Using an ethnographic study of a merger of four banks in four countries, this article investigates the impact of systemic and integrated human resource practices [i.e., high-performance work practices (HPWPs)] on human integration and how their implementation affects employees' behaviours and attitudes towards post-merger human integration. We find that the implementation of HPWPs, such as communication, employee involvement, and team building, may not always produce the expected effects on human integration; rather, it can have the opposite effects if top management does not closely monitor the immediate results of deploying such practices. Implications for managers dealing with post-mergers suggest that human integration is contingent on four dimensions: origin, content, form, and history of the HPWPs.

Keywords: human resource management; HRM; high-performance work practices; HPWP; human integration; post-merger integration; employee behaviour; cross-border mergers; counterintuitive consequences; cross-border integration; newly formed organisations; ethnographic studies; systemic practices; integrated practices; banks; banking; employee attitudes; communication; employee involvement; team building; teams; top management; managers; cross-cultural competence; cross-cultural management; cross-cultural transformations; conflict.

DOI: 10.1504/EJCCM.2012.052592

European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management, 2012 Vol.2 No.3/4, pp.299 - 318

Received: 15 Feb 2011
Accepted: 16 Apr 2012
Published online: 29 Jul 2014 *

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