Management and Organizational Behavior

Management and Organizational Behavior
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Management and Organizational Behavior
History establishes that mergers could result in positive or negative outcomes for the merging organizations depending on the transition of the merger. The term merger could be elucidated as a deliberate union of two or more firms into a single legal entity. According to Bouwman (2013), the best example of a failed merger is the merger between Chrysler and Daimler-Benz. On the contrary, the 2005 union between the Bank of America (BOA) and MBNA was successful. The merger between Chrysler and Daimler-Benz failed because of incompatible corporate cultures between the two organizations. However, MBNA and BOA had different corporate cultures, but the merger between the two organizations was successful. It follows that corporate culture is an important element to consider when merging two organizations. As a result, this paper uses the merger between Boa and MBNA to explain the role of corporate culture in mergers.
Bank of America’s corporate culture could be identified as an organization that focused on size and making smart decisions. Simply put, the organization hired the best talents it could afford. The Bank also had a culture of cutting down costs and no-nonsense operations. In comparison, MBNA’s paid it employees highly owing to the lavish lifestyles of its employees. As evidence, employees at MBNA enjoyed benefits such as access to a private golf course and private jets. Moreover, the organization had a freewheeling and secretive entrepreneurial spirit, which motivated their employees to produce results. It is evident that the culture between the Bank of America and MBNA was different. Nonetheless, the merger between the two organizations was successful, which opposes Bouwman (2013) argument that successful mergers should involve corporations with similar corporate cultures. It all boils down to the inquiry on how the two organizations were able to merge successfully.
Even though the two organizations under discussion had diverse corporate cultures, their cultures appeared to be a mesh rather than a clash. For instance, BOA encouraged their employees to dress casually while MBNA required their employees to dress officially. However, the two organizations created a hybrid dress code after the merger. Consequently, the hybrid dress code allowed employees from the credit card division to dress officially while employees from other departments could dress casually. Additionally, the two organizations required each other’s support to compete effectively in the market....