Between merger and syndrome: The intermediary role of emotions in four cross-border M&As

Recent M&A studies on human issues frequently call upon the ‘merger syndrome’ as a typical post-merger phenomenon and a concept used to describe the – usually negative – effects on the attitudes and behaviour of employees in the affected organizations. Interestingly, although mergers and acquisitions are considered highly emotional events, research on the emotional dimension of these events is still rare, especially as far as cross-border activities are concerned. Combining theory-based reasoning and inductive data-interpretation, this paper explores, analyses and discusses the role of emotions in mergers and acquisitions. Drawing on elements provided by cognitive appraisal theory, affective events theory, the literature on the merger syndrome, and qualitative in-depth interviews with employees, this paper introduces an analytical framework for investigating the role of emotions in international mergers and acquisitions. The qualitative analysis of four cross-border M&A cases focuses on the impact of managerial communication and behaviour on employee emotions, behaviour, and performance. In the final section we discuss the implications of the findings for management.