The role of HR managers in international mergers and acquisitions: a multiple case study

Abstract

In recent years human resource (HR) managers have been encouraged to play a more strategic role in their organizations, especially in the case of extensive organizational change processes such as international mergers and acquisitions (IM&As). Today this requirement is even more acute since the past decade has been characterized by enormous growth in IM&As. In addition, it has been argued that the challenge in making M&As work is the management of people. In a case of IM&As the role of HR managers is very demanding because they needs to integrate HR practices and, moreover, perform two other roles simultaneously: a strategic role for company-wide integration and a support role for business unit transaction. Considering the importance of human resource management (HRM) in IM&As, it is surprising how little is known about the role and activities of HR managers in these processes. This study addresses the existing research gap by investigating the role of HR managers in the IM&A process. Based on semi-structured theme interviews among corporate level managers in three Finnish international industrial organizations, the roles of corporate HR managers at different stages of the IM&A process are analysed. This study applies Ulrich's (1997) theory of the four HR roles in combination with the HR issues which are present at the different stages of the IM&A process. This paper demonstrates that HRM is an essential part of M&As and that HR issues are given a lot of emphasis throughout the process. In addition, HR managers play an important role in the IM&A process, although it is not self-evident in every case.

Keywords:

• HRM
• HR roles
• mergers and acquisitions

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the anonymous referee for his/her comments on my paper which helped me to improve the final text. In addition, I thank the Foundation for Economic Education, the Foundation of Helsingin Sanomat 100-years, and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation for their financial support for my research. Finally, I wish to thank Ms Kirsi Tirkkonen for her assistance on my research. An earlier version of this study was presented at the 20th Workshop on Strategic Human Resource Management.