Executives rank the ability to manage culture as more important to M&A success than financial or strategic factors, but they also acknowledge that they tend to undermanage it (Cartwright & Cooper, 1996). The message to HR professionals is to be proactive in putting culture on the agenda. The ability to do this depends substantially on the way in which the HR function is regarded in the lead organization
in an acquisition or in both parties in a merger (Marks & Vansteenkiste, 2008).
Some organizations, especially those with past experience in M&A, give HR a “seat at
the table” in the earliest days as the combination is being planned. Others bring in HR to assist in implementation. (Still others limit HR’s involvement to integrating the two HR functions and handling staff appointments and layoffs.) Figure 1 presents a framework for the HR role in managing culture in M&A, aligned with the three phases of M&As that we have delineated in our writings (Marks & Mirvis, 2010):