Title: Mergers and acquisitions and employees' level of anxiety: the role of HRM practices

Authors: Vathsala Wickramasinghe; Nadeesha Sajeewani

Addresses: Department of Management of Technology, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka ' Department of Management of Technology, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Abstract: Anxiety due to organisational change is an important issue in occupational health. The paper presents the findings of a study that investigated the level of anxiety experienced by employees due to an acquisition and the effect of human resource management practices in easing anxiety. The sample consisted of employees from both acquiring and target entities, who had experience spanning three phases of merger and acquisition, i.e., pre-, during, and post. The findings showed significant differences in the level of anxiety between the two entities as well as across the three phases. The results showed that human resource management practices play an important role in easing anxiety, which is a widely identified occupational health issue in mergers and acquisitions.

Keywords: acquisition; anxiety; merger; acquirer; target entity; human resource management; uncertainty.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHD.2022.127634

International Journal of Happiness and Development, 2022 Vol.7 No.3, pp.265 - 290

Received: 05 May 2021
Accepted: 11 Nov 2021

Published online: 13 Dec 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article