Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Leading Change: A Third Edition

THE MERGER SYNDROME

Many factors account for the dismal M&A track record: buying the wrong company, paying the wrong price, making the deal at the wrong time, and so on. However, research findings repeatedly reveal that the factor that matters most in eventual merger or acquisition success is the process through which the partner companies are integrated (Schweiger & Goulet, 2000).

Through an action research program that has spanned thirty years, we have identified the “merger syndrome” as a primary cause of the disappointing outcomes of otherwise well-conceived mergers and acquisitions (Marks & Mirvis, 1998). The syndrome is triggered by the often unavoidably unsettled conditions in the earliest days and months following the announcement ...