Order Description

The dissertation is on the company that i work there i have access to all the needed data , and i have already wrote a draft.

Assignment Question:
The impact of Acquisition and Merging on Communication: A case study of W organization.
Name of Lecturer:
Date of Submission:

Contents Page

Introduction 2
Research Objective 3
Research Questions 3
Contribution of the Research 4
Limitation of the Research 4
Literature Review 4
Summary of the Literature Review 10
Research Methodology 11
Findings and Discussions 11
Conclusion 12
References 12

Introduction
With a rapid change of technology organizations faces many challenges that they need to overcome effectively in order to survive. Challenges can be due to internal or external factors but how effectively organizations overcome the challenges will have effect on the organization future in terms of productivity and growth. As employees are assets of any organization they are the first one who will be affected through implementing any change and the ability of them adapting to the change significantly affects the success any business transformation. In order to evaluate the success of the change and the impact that it made on the workplace employee’s feedback should be considered.
This research paper in on W organization that two major changes were introduced merging and restructuring between two companies that located in a different cities in Kurdistan. As the companies merged, the biggest challenge they are facing is communication and interpersonal relationship, the need of how to communicate clearly and effectively.

Research Objective
The purpose of this research is to investigate in organization change and the impact on the workforce.
• To find out how the change were implemented and what modules where used if any.
• To find out the challenges they faced through the change & how they overcome them.
• To evaluate overall change through some matrix.
• To know how communication can be affected through out merging and acquction.
• To know how the process/procedures of the transformation where taken place.
• Identify and assess the strategies/policies of the company after the M&A.
• Assess the qualitative impact of post M&A activities such as accounting reports,market valuations and key informant descriptions on the performance of the company after the M&A.
• To examine the implication of mergers and acquisitions on profitability & expantion of the company.
• to find out the major issues associated with pre and post merging situations with special emphasis on the employees moral.
• Why the companies decide to go with for merging at first place.
• To determine the level of communication within an organisation hirerechy.
• ii. To determine the impact of organizational communication on workers performance.
• iii. To examine how communication influences workers productivity.
• iv. To determine the extent to which communication affect the level of workers commitment & loyality.
Research Questions
In order to reach the objectives, the research needs to address the following questions through the conduct of the research study:
• What are strategic used in implementing the change?
• Did the employees and understand the change?
• Did the objective of the change was clear and communicated well?
• How was the level of the involvement of the employees?
• How was employee’s reaction while introducing and implementing the change? Was there any resistance to the change?
• What challenges were faced during the change?
• How is the interpersonal communication after the change?
• What is the top management overall feedback?
• What is the employees overall feedback?
• Did the message of megring were clear ?
• Did they faced any issues before and after M & A , if yes what was the issues ?
• Did the megring was benefcial for both the shareholders and the employees ?
RQ1. What is the impact of organizational communication on worker satisfaction?
RQ2. To what extent does leadership communication behavior affect employee work
behavior?

Contribution of the Research
The main contribution of the research is to provide insights into organization change that has impact on employment and the workplace. The study of change management in the W company will throw on how performance and productivity will be affected in the workplace after merging.

Limitations of the research
This research study focuses only on W company without comparing it to the other organizations in the Kurdistan region due to lack of information and data on the other firms.

Literature Review

Change has not ever been easy step, but the way the change is implemented it will affect on the success of the change, there are some change modules that guides the organization in introducing any change. There is no one perfect module that can be applied to all the change cases it depends on the organization. There are seven models for a change management implementation I will focus only on a few.
•Kurt Lewin Model of change
One of the most influencing perspective in organizational change management is “planned approach” that was proposed by Lewin (1952, in Elrod II and Tippett, 2002) Any change should follow three stages in sequence: Unfreezing stage (situation is prepared for change), changing or moving stage (actions are taken to create change), refreezing stage (change established and reinforced). Then it was dived into four more specific steps (exploration, planning, action and integration). Lewin’s module was criticized for being focusing only on small changes as not in every situation the change can be planned, the change condition can’t be considered as a constant variable. This model is not applicable for complicated cases. (Barron, 2014).

ADKAR Module
Developed by ‘Prosci’, the world leader in change management research and content creation is commonly used. It’s an effective tool for planning and managing change on the individual’s level, in order to make change successful an individual needs (Prosci Inc. (2012):
• Awareness of the need for change
• Desire to participate and support the change
• Knowledge on how to change
• Ability to implement required skills and behaviors
• Reinforcement to sustain the change

Kotter’s 8 Stages of Change Model
Emergent approach was introduced by (Kotter, 1996, Kanter et al., 1992, Luecke, 2003)it indicates that change cannot be managed from top-down, it should be implemented from down-top ,where the change can be due to external or internal factors that is unplanned. In order to increase the chance of a successful change suggested actions were introduced by . In 1996 in his book ‘Leading Change’ he introduced eight step change process for a successful transformation. He pointed out that in order a change to be successful 75% of management needs to be involved into the change. (Kotter, J. P. (1996)). This model has been criticized that there is no a fixed strategy that can be used for all situations, the strategy that we may need to use depends on the case and organization.

Psychological Contract Theory
One of the issues to be considered is psychological contract defined by Rousseau (1989). Employee and employer has different views when it comes to change , that is when managers face challenges as they can’t always guess what is the expectation of the employee toward the organization. The evidence has found if there is a balance between psychological contract and employee’s perception then we find employees commitment to the organization.
Expectation issues happen when employees have a different view of the change especially if it’s negative feeling, regarding to their salary or position in the new change, in a study by Coyle-Shapiro and Kessler (2000) was found that this issue can be solved through; creating an open working environment and effective channels of communication, as the manager can ensure that the expectations of both employees and the employer are clear and well communicated.
The psychological contract is useful as it forces managers to make balance with their employees considering their perception and expectation.

Behavioral Change Theory
It’s difficult to make people to change their behavior as it reflects their beliefs and attitudes, even if there are some good reasons that this change is fair, but employees may steel not feel in the same way that managers would address.
Comprehensive behavioral change models such as Bagozzi et al’s (2002), indicate that there
are a range of factors that influence the ability of an individual to change ,those factors are unconscious desires ,fears and external factors, such as the degree of socially desirable ,someone believes in a particular action is possible, will both influence their intention to change, irrespective of their personal feeling.
When you want to change a system you need make change in all the parts in that system, if you make change in some parts, other parts may block the change and let to unsuccessful change. Even if managers overcome the obstacles that has been mentioned, but we still may face time and resource pressures challenges that may prevent a successful behavior change.

Resistance
“Resistance is a state of mind reflecting unwillingness or unreceptiveness to change in the ways we think and behave”( Hultman, K. E. (2003)). “Folger & Skarlicki (1999) claim that “organizational change can generate skepticism and resistance in employees, making it sometimes difficult or impossible to implement organizational improvements” (p. 25)”(Albert F. Bolognese 2002). The change can be successful when it’s accepted by the employees, according to Kubler-Ross (1973), human go through 5 stages of sorrow (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) when faced with a loss or a change. Wiggins (2009) uses the model to guide and support communication between managers and employees, she suggest that managers should communicate and deliver the information regarding the change to the employees so that they can accept the change , then vision can be shared to make their commitment.
There are three factors to be considered when it comes to state of mind; First facts that are realistic can be proven by evidence. Second beliefs that are subjective assumptions, conclusions, or predictions, and third one are values people conceptions about things that are important to themHultman, K. E. (2003). Believes are most important than facts, as facts are variable while believes are related to the factual information, the usefulness of believes is about if they are viableHultman, K. E. (2003). As when it comes to values, we depend on it when it comes to prioritizing and making decisions, “some common values in organizations today are quality, learning, customer satisfaction, mutual interests, integrity, collaboration, and teamwork. Any belief, value or behavior that has been previously successful in meeting our physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs will resist change.Hultman, K. E. (2003)
When people perceive that one of their established beliefs, values or behaviors is being threatened they experience fear and assume a defensive posture. The intensity of the fear can vary from mild to extreme, depending upon the degree of perceived threat.Hultman, K. E. (2003)
Positive and Negative Resistance
Change can be positive or negative; it can be evaluated by its result, we should ask ourselves how the change will impact on the organization if we make the change. Unfortunately when we see the word “resistance” we usually define it as a negative one, but sometimes when employee resisting the change can be positive, if they were not resisting for their personal interest but for the sake of the organization, in this case the change might be negative and the resistance can be positive.Hultman, K. E. (2003)
Causes of Employee Resistance

To find the causes of resistance, we need to understand people’s facts, beliefs and values as we have pointed out earlier, but since it’s difficult to address these factors (facts,beliefs,values) another way to find out is through observation, which is watching people what they do and say, to get relevant information regarding them, but it’s risky as people behavior can be misinterpretedHultman, K. E. (2003). As an example here are somethings people say indicating resistance; First facts such as “That isn’t my job description”, “Other companies that buy supplies from them they say that they never deliver on time” Hultman, K. E. (2003), as we can notice from the above expression some of the facts that employees say is stereotyping and they judge the supplier by another companies experienceSecond beliefs such as (“In this company, it’s not what you know but who you know that counts”, “That will never work here”),Hultman, K. E. (2003), we can notice that interpersonal relationship is very important in organization, especially with managers usually who you know is more important than what you know particularly in Middle East culture. Also if employees want to resist something by saying “it will never work here “without giving good reasons why it will not work, it indicates a self-interest resistanceThird values such as “Working with them is something I’d rather not do”, “Who cares what the goals are? I just do my job” Hultman, K. E. (2003), the first expression is usually happens in merging situations, this might indicate that they don’t like the merger organization or someone who they don’t like that works in that organization, in this case managers should find out the reasons so that to solve the issue. In second expression it indicates that employee’s belief in the organization, they are not convinced about why they do the job, they just want to do it, there might be no motivation or sense of belonging in the organization, this one is critical issue that may lead to organization failure, manager should encourage and empower there employees to do their jobs so that they can avoid turn overs.

Communication
From the day we born till the die we die human needs to communicate with each other to share and get information through sending and receiving messages in verbally, written and body expression the way human acts and say things everything broadcast a different message that can be interpreted to the same or different meaning by the receiver. In organization communication is central to organizational effectiveness and survival because the essence of organizations is cooperation, and no cooperation is possible without effective communication.(Barnard (1938). While communicating effectively has never been easy to do in organizations, there are some special challenges to communication in today’s organizations.( William Q. Judge Jr).
Communication Levels

Internal communication can be; first interpersonal (face to face) communication which is between individuals in organization.Second group-level between team and department. The focus on group level is information sharing, issue discussion, task coordination, problem solving and consensus building. Third one is organizational-level that is related to vision, mission and policies. These are the formal communication that occurs in organization where manager’scommunicate with their employees according to the hierarchylevels through social media.(Bruce Berger).

Communication function
Its main function is to inform, persuade and motivate. The flow of communication could be either formal or informal. Organization need to utilize all functions of communication in order to be successful.
First function is informing, is to provide data and information so that employees can effectively complete their job. Information is to make employee aware of rules and procedures.Humans act rationally. Some people do not behave in rational ways, they generally have no access to all of the information needed to make rational decisions they could articulate, and therefore will make un-rational decisions, unless there is some breakdown in the communication process—which is common. Irrational people rationalize how they will rationalize their communication measures whether or not it is rational(Helbert Simon).

There are three ways that information can travel in organization:

• Downward-moving communication is information that moves from superiors to subordinates that usually contains direction or updates.
• Upward-moving communication is information that moves subordinates to superiors that usually contains feedback or report. A culture that embraces upward communication is required so that information shared with management is not ignored or used to place blame. (Dr. Greg Halpern)
• Horizontal-moving communication (peer to peer) is information that flows from worker to worker or manager to manager that contains reports or data.
The Johari Window is an information-processing model, which characterizes different types and qualities of relationships based on self, others, data known to oneself, and data unknown to oneself. This model is helpful to understand your interpersonal styles and the styles of others, which are critical to resolving most organizational communication issues such as: failure to communicate, emotional situations, relationship quality, and managerial practices. (Dr. Greg Halpern)

Summary of the Literature Review
To make a change there are different strategies and theories organizations need to use according to the environment to assure a successful change. However those tools are not enough, organization should consider psychological and behavior contract that may obstacle the change through employee’s resistance. Communication is the key success of most of the changes that includes interpersonal relationship and employee’s involvement throughout the change, if communication barriers were removed productivity will be increased and needless discussion will removed.

Research Methodology
Research Design and Approach
This research investigates organization change through merging in W company in Kurdistan, It evaluates the change implementation and overall employee/employees feedback and the affect on the workplace. For this purpose, I will collect the data through interviewing managers and giving questioner forms to employees.
Research Methods
There are three general methods of collecting data: qualitative, quantitative and mixed method that employs both (Panneerselvam, 2014). In this research I will use quantitative data for reaching the objective of the research. I will use secondary data of the variables: Change Implementation, Understanding change, Change Impact Assessment, Level of Employee involvement in change Implementation, Level of personal interaction between managers and subordinates, Level of change resistance, effectiveness of communication channels.
Data Collection methods
The secondary data on organization change in W company will be collected through surveys and face-to-face interviews. This help in analyzing the overall change affect on the organization and particularly on the employees.
Data analysis
After all the needed data are collected, then it will be entered into an Excel or other applications in order to analyze it through converting it into graphs and other statistical methods.
Findings and Discussions
After analyzing the data and getting the results, then we can point out what I have found from the research followed by discussion.

Conclusion
In this research study I will conclude the major changes that were introduced in W organization, through the evaluation process that I will find out the effectiveness of the change on overall organization performance, the challenges they faced and procedures they followed. It’s very important that every individual within the organization understands the change as change doesn’t happen in isolation it has impact on the whole organization in order make an easy adaptation towards a successful change.

References
• Barron, P. (2014). Kurt Lewin 3 Phases Change Accepted Change Management. Retrieved from http://www.change-management-consultant.com/kurt-lewin.html
• Prosci Inc. (2012). Best Practices in Change Management. Colorado.
• Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business Press Review.
• Rousseau, D. M (1989) ‘ Psychological and implied contracts in organizations’, Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2, pp. 121-39.
• Coyle-Shapiro, K. and Kessler, I. (2000) ‘Consequences of the psychological contract for the employment relationship: A large scale survey’, Journal of Management Studies, 37, pp.903 – 930.
• Bagozzi, R., Gurnao-Canli, Z., and Priester, J. (2002) The Social Psychology of Consumer Behavior (Buckingham: Open University Press).
• Hultman, K. E. (2003). “Managing Resistance to Change”. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
• Albert F. Bolognese (2002) “Employee Resistance to Organizational Chang”.
• Kübler-Ross, E. (1973) On Death and Dying, Routledge.
• The Functions of the Executive” by Chester I. Barnard (1886–1961).
• “Focusing on Organizational Change” v. 1.0 by William Q. Judge Jr. Published date Feb 2012.
• Panneerselvam, R. (2014). Research methodology. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..