MGMT 591- Leadership

In current business news we hear about mergers and acquisitions every day. The reason for them may vary but the one eminent commonality is that they have the potential to devastate employee morale. For our course project we will be looking at AON Hewitt and how this merger affected human resources. Our criteria to assess the effect of the acquisition will come from looking at the Hewitt organization prior to and post-acquisition primarily focusing on employee morale, stress levels, communication, and retention.
We will be looking at the internal effects of changing the brand by comparing the corporate culture pre and post-merger. Prior to the merger, employee’s comments are as follows: • the environment was great • flat organization • three primary characteristic <smart, nice and entry level > • long term relationships outside of work • family environment • low turnover.
We acknowledge change after a corporate marriage is inevitable since two different cultures cannot coexist in one company. Experts say the acquiring company tends to impose their way of doing business; a recent Mercer survey found that “more than half of organizations report cultural integration issues hurt the overall success of many mergers and acquisitions” (Elisa Hukins). Post the merger employee comments are as follows: • employees assist with the training of outsourced workers • minimizing training of current staff short • change direct manager often • virtual manager / subordinate relationship • limited mobility and career development.
We will also research operational efficiencies prior to and post the 2010 acquisition, we are looking for financial information related to the following: • the effect of announcing 1800 layoffs 3 months after the merger • cost of losing intellectual capital • client relationships • effect of outsourcing operations • turnover