Linking Merger and Acquisition Strategies to Postmerger Integration: A Configurational Perspective of Human Resource Management

This study explores how human resource management practices can link M&A strategies and PMI outcomes. A conceptual framework is developed using a configurational perspective and the ability-motivation-opportunity model. The study identifies three generic M&A strategies and matches them with three PMI outcomes. The article also elaborates on the theoretical and practical contributions and charts a course for future inquiry and research applications for the M&A-HRM-PMI triad and its processes.

Journal of Management
Vol. XX No. X, Month XXXX 1 –26
DOI: 10.1177/0149206315626270
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1
Linking Merger and Acquisition Strategies
to Postmerger Integration: A Configurational
Perspective of Human Resource Management
Nir N. Brueller
University of Haifa
Abraham Carmeli
Tel Aviv University
Gideon D. Markman
Colorado State University
The extant literature tends to frame mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and postmerger integra-
tion (PMI) as strategies and outcomes, but this framing often leaves their underlying processes
underexplored. We address this gap by redirecting attention to the view that M&As are largely
embedded in social and human practices. Our conceptual study identifies three generic M&A
strategies—annex & assimilate, harvest & protect, and link & promote—and matches them with
three well-known PMI outcomes (i.e., absorption, preservation, and symbiosis, respectively).
Using a configurational perspective and drawing upon the ability-motivation-opportunity
(AMO) model, we develop a conceptual framework that reveals why and how AMO-enhancing
human resource management (HRM) practices can link M&A strategies and PMI outcomes.
Finally, we elaborate on the theoretical and practical contributions and chart a course for
future inquiry and research applications for the M&A-HRM-PMI triad and its processes.
Keywords: merger and acquisition; postmerger integration; strategic human resource man-
agement; M&A-PMI relations; ability-, motivation-, and opportunity-enhancing
HRM practices
Acknowledgments: We wish to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive feed-
back, as well as Esther Singer for her editorial comments on earlier drafts of this paper. We acknowledge the
financial support of the Eli Hurvitz Institute of Strategic Management at Tel Aviv University. The authors are listed
in alphabetical order.
Corresponding author: Nir N. Brueller, Faculty of Management, University of Haifa, 119 Abba Khoushy Ave.,
Haifa 31805, Israel.
Email: [e-mail]
626270 JOMXXX10.1177/0149206315626270Journal of Management Brueller et al. / Human Resource Management Practices
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Firms use mergers and acquisitions (M&As) to accelerate their growth, seize and expand
on valuable capabilities, access assets (e.g., human capital) that are costly to imitate, and
even reduce competition—yet most M&A strategies fail to meet their objectives (Haleblian,
Devers, McNamara, Carpenter, & Davison, 2009). Acknowledging diverse factors that may
contribute to such failure (e.g., financial miscalculations, capability misalignment, and cross-
cultural mismatches), many studies and meta-analyses attribute the poor performance of
M&As to the intricate postmerger integration (PMI) phase (Datta, Pinches, & Narayanan,
1992; King, Dalton, Daily, & Covin, 2004). Indeed, the difficult-to-realize synergies and
destroyed value are among the reasons why M&A scholars are coupling their macrofocused
studies with microprocesses related to PMI (cf. Galpin & Herndon, 2014; Hitt, Harrison,
Ireland, & Best, 1998; Larsson & Finkelstein, 1999).
Research on PMI aims to explain the nature of acquirer-acquired relations as a means to
develop a normative theory that would guide future M&A scholarship and PMI practices
(Birkinshaw, Bresman, & Håkanson, 2000; Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991). Acknowledging
that workplace and personnel issues present a core challenge in M&A-PMI contexts (e.g.,
Aguilera & Dencker, 2004; Chang, Gong, & Peng, 2012), we take a human resource manage-
ment (HRM) perspective to further develop this area of research. Synthesizing research in
management, finance, and economics, we offer a normative framework to explain why and
how HRM practices can configure M&A strategies into PMI outcomes (see Fig. 1 for an
overview of our conceptual model). Thus, our research question concerns why and how
HRM practices that focus on personnel can help translate M&A strategies into more effective
PMIs at the firm level.
Using an HRM perspective, our thesis aims to make two main contributions to the M&A
and PMI literatures. First, HRM is a foundational human capital mechanism for executing
Figure 1
A Broad Conceptual Model of Merger and Acquisition–Postmerger
Integration–Human Resource Management Relationships
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Brueller et al. / Human Resource Management Practices 3
diverse tasks and strategies. As an organizational infrastructure, HRM harnesses employees’
engagement to perform their jobs, manage resources, and fulfill firm-level objectives. HRM
practices are instrumental in addressing diverse workplace issues (e.g., recruiting, perfor-
mance assessment, job design and rotation, layoffs, and restructuring, to name a few). We
therefore theorize that an organizational infrastructure that aims to compound and extend
human effort is pivotal in M&A-PMI relations. Second, because an HRM perspective pro-
vides a fine-grained context that infuses microlevel processes into macrolevel theoretical
lenses, it should help clarify and explain how firms can match or configure their M&A-PMI
relations.
Building on the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) model (Appelbaum, Bailey, Berg,
& Kalleberg, 2000; Blumberg & Pringle, 1982; Chang et al., 2012), we explain how HRM
practices mediate the M&A-PMI relations. We also elaborate on the reasons behind this phe-
nomenon and show how each M&A-HRM-PMI path takes on different functions, follows
distinct logics, and yields specific interdependencies between acquiring and acquired firms.
Interestingly, this configurational approach also clarifies why even well-crafted M&A strate-
gies and well-intended PMIs are unlikely to fully meet their objectives, unless they are
matched—or configured—by suitable AMO-enhancing HRM practices.
To the best of our knowledge, this is a first attempt to clarify why and how HRM practices
mediate the relations between M&A strategies and PMI outcomes. Indeed, past studies
tended to frame acquisitions as events (e.g., the increased use of event-study methodologies),
but the introduction of an HRM lens stresses that M&A-PMI relations are better viewed as
processes through which HRM practices play a critical role—starting with due diligence dur-
ing the predeal stages through the transition phases that bring M&A strategies into PMI
outcomes.
Background Research: M&As, PMI, and HRM
Research on the M&A-PMI interface and HRM studies are rather vast, and despite their
scope and diversity, they have evolved with relatively limited overlap. To establish a base-
line, we start by synthesizing the M&As, PMI, and HRM literatures into a reasonably con-
densed review (for a full overview see some excellent articles, such as Haleblian et al., 2009;
Shi, Sun, & Prescott, 2012; Wright & Boswell, 2002). We then offer a conceptual elaboration
on why and how variations in HRM practices (i.e., those that leverage on AMO-enhancing
processes) mediate the relationship between M&A strategies and PMI outcomes. For clarity
and ease, Table 1 summarizes key constructs and offers examples.
M&A Strategies
Despite numerous studies, it is difficult to classify M&A strategies into distinct types
because M&As are diverse, have different aims, and thus often call for context-specific con-
siderations, processes, and capabilities. Earlier studies classify M&As on the basis of indus-
try designation, appearance, and objectives, and recent work adopts a more dichotomizing
view (e.g., horizontal vs. vertical, friendly vs. hostile, related vs. unrelated, domestic vs.
global, and even structural—e.g., “platform” vs. “bolt-on” acquisitions; Chatterjee &
Brueller, 2015; Haleblian et al., 2009). Such classifications have certainly improved our
understanding of M&As but do not sufficiently clarify the nature of disruption imposed upon
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4 Journal of Management / Month XXXX
acquisition parties, nor do they elaborate on the changes M&As impress on processes, opera-
tion, and HRM practices.
Following more nascent work, we deviate from a dichotomous view and group M&A
strategies into three main types—annex & assimilate, harvest & protect, and link & promote
acquisitions—chiefly on the basis of operational complexity, implications for PMI, and
HRM needs (Brueller, Carmeli, & Drori, 2014; Galpin & Herndon, 2014; Haleblian et al.,
2009; Koller, Goedhart, & Wessels, 2010). We describe each of the three M&A strategies in
more detail and offer examples shortly. As a preview, the annex & assimilate acquisitions
focus on absorbing targets’ assets, the harvest & protect acquisitions aim to capture and inte-
grate capabilities, and the link & promote acquisitions seek to cocreate boundary-spanning,
interfirm synergistic ties.
Table 1
Merger and Acquisition–Postmerger Integration–Human Resource Management
Relationships: Construct Labels, Functions, Definitions, and Examples
Merger and
Acquisition Strategies Annex & Assimilate Harvest & Protect Link & Promote
Merger and acquisition
goals
Absorbing assets
(primarily tangible) from
targets
Capturing and preserving
intangible assets
(e.g., capabilities,
partnerships) from
targets
Linking self-interest to shared
interest by cocreating
boundary-spanning
opportunities for both firms
as they operate independently
Strategic and
operational
leadership held by
. . .
Acquirer Target holds some
strategic and
operational power, but
acquirer sets the tone
Both targets and acquirers hold
ample strategic power and
operational leadership
PMI Outcomes Absorption Preservation Symbiosis
Examples The merger of United–
Continental Airlines
Cisco’s acquisition of
IronPort and Linksys
EMC’s acquisition of VMware
Autonomy of acquired
target
None (target is dissolved) Moderate and usually
operational and tactical
High and strategic
Relationship power Asymmetrical: All power
held by acquirer
Moderate: Most power
held by acquirer
Symmetrical and synergistic
Interfirm trust Minimal Moderate High
Human Resource
Management
Practices Ability Ability & Motivation
Ability, Motivation, &
Opportunity
Examples Recruitment, selection,
training
As in left cell, plus: As in left cells, plus:
Performance and
development
programs, competitive
pay systems, upward
career mobility
Flexible job designs, cross-
firm engagement programs,
transparent management
Practices designed
to . . .
Enhance personnel skills
and abilities of personnel
As in left cell, plus: As in left cells, plus:
Enhance motivation of
personnel
Empower employee to engage at
higher levels across both firms
Human capital focus Removal of redundancies
and integration of human
capital
As in left cell, plus: As in left cells, plus:
Personnel retention and
capability alignment
Reciprocal empowerment and
cause-based programs that
transcend firm boundaries
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Brueller et al. / Human Resource Management Practices 5
Annex & assimilate M&As. These acquisitions consume a target firm in its entirety or
reap core assets while dissolving redundant units, dated assets, and/or unneeded personnel
(Brueller et al., 2014). Acquirers aim to consolidate market power by annexing and digesting
targets’ core assets, and when merging parties are of equal size, their integration increases
in complexity (Chakravarthy & Lorange, 2007). When acquirers are exceptionally large and
targets are relatively small, both integration and digestion are reasonably simple, swift, and
fairly undisruptive. For instance, the global Danish cleaning company, Integrated Service
Solutions, has grown mostly by acquiring small local cleaning firms and quickly assimilat-
ing them (Horovitz, 2004). Integrated Service Solutions does not change itself substantively
but instead applies and enforces its own strategic planning, financial controls, culture, and
HRM systems throughout its absorbed targets (Chakravarthy & Lorange). When acquirers
and targets are large, even if their business models are quite similar—as is often seen in com-
modity industries, such as steel or oil and gas—the homogenization process is appreciably
more complex (e.g., BP’s merger with Arco and Amoco, Exxon with Mobil, and Chevron
with Texaco).
Under the “mergers of equals” scenario—especially where parties are quite sizable, have
a wide customer interface, and seek to combine most of their assets—complexity can quickly
become even more daunting. Consider, for instance, the 2010 merger of United and
Continental Airlines, which required the integration of two global networks, eight major
hubs, and 5,500 daily flights serving nearly 400 destinations. This complexity explains why
5 years later, United continued to grapple with myriad integration problems, including hob-
bled operations, angry passengers, and soured relations with employees. Another example is
the $30 billion merger between Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz that created pharmaceutical com-
pany Novartis. The combined firm opted to craft new strategies, processes, and capabilities
rather than adhere to those of either of its predecessors. The new strategy focused on life
sciences (i.e., nutrition, pharmaceuticals, and agriproducts), while the $7 billion Ciba
Specialty Chemicals business was spun off in 1997. The new processes included structuring
R&D by therapeutics (rather than geographic area) and shifting the firm’s compensation
policy from a system based on seniority to one based on performance across all departments
and managerial levels. These new capabilities entailed the creation of Novartis’ oncology
franchise (cf. Koller et al., 2010).
Thus annex & assimilate acquisitions—especially the mergers of equals—are monumen-
tal undertakings, with far-reaching and long-lingering operational complexities. The process
of homogenizing two firms (or more) into one often necessitates the development of new
strategies, retooled operations, restructured systems, and reorganized business models
(Brueller et al., 2014; Zott, Amit, & Massa, 2011).
Harvest & protect M&As. Acquirers use such M&As to seize new capabilities, processes,
and key personnel in order to expand their product offerings, enhance asset utilization, lever-
age on talent (e.g., improve R&D performance), and gain access to new markets (Puranam,
Singh, & Chaudhuri, 2009). For example, such acquisitions give firms flexibility to reallo-
cate personnel to more productive tasks across functions to fulfill new strategic direction
(Swaminathan, Groening, Mittal, & Thomaz, 2014). In these cases, preserving acquired
capabilities—which are often embedded in personnel—takes precedence over efforts to gain
scale advantage. Firms seeking these M&As can pursue either small or large targets. Small
targets are often startups with capabilities critical for product or technology extension, but
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6 Journal of Management / Month XXXX
their growth is hindered by insufficient capital infrastructure, scale expertise, or managerial
know-how (Brueller, Segev, Ellis, & Carmeli, 2015; King, Slotegraaf, & Kesner, 2008). For
example, small biotech companies typically lack the sales channels, marketing budget, and
ties with physicians, patients, and regulators needed to bring their products to markets (Mark-
man & Waldron, 2014). Larger firms often acquire smaller ventures for their innovation capa-
bilities, which would be more expensive or too slow to develop internally (Puranam et al.).
Because harvest & protect acquisitions focus on seizing, preserving, and realizing capa-
bilities, which are often embedded in personnel, we later explain why these acquisitions
require distinctly more specialized and involved HRM practices (and different human capital
focus) than those needed for the annex & assimilate M&As.
Link & promote M&As. These M&As are particularly unique because rather than focus-
ing on acquiring assets or capabilities, the primary aim is to cocreate boundary-spanning
and interfirm shared value creation that accelerate the growth and strength of both acquiring
and acquired firms (Chakravarthy & Lorange, 2007). Also, instead of grafting capabilities
of a target firm or force-fitting R&D units onto an acquirer’s asset base, the link & promote
acquisitions aim to accelerate interfirm learning and renewal. It is a regenerative, relational
effort where both firms coleverage complementary assets, capabilities, and know-how (Hale-
blian et al., 2009; Kanter, 2009). Thus, these acquisitions require discipline and foresight
to ensure that targets remain operationally and strategically autonomous, independent, and
self-sufficient. Indeed, the alignment of resources between two parties with complementary
competencies is a major operational challenge, but when executed well, it can bring synergis-
tic gains to both parties (Capron, Dussauge, & Mitchell, 1998; King et al., 2008).
When link & promote acquirers protect and promote their targets’ autonomy, both parties
improve knowledge exchange, mutual learning, innovation, and cross-operational agility
(Haleblian et al., 2009; Karim & Mitchell, 2000). For example, EMC’s $635 million acquisi-
tion of VMware, a computer-server software pioneer, allowed EMC to modularize two func-
tions—storage and server virtualization—that were previously incompatible. This loose
postacquisition governance resembles an alliance or a federation and was viewed by
VMware’s CEO as an optimal management structure (Butler, 2015). Naturally, the concepts
of complementarity, boundary spanning, and synergy are not new (Aldrich & Herker, 1977),
but their execution—particularly in M&A-PMI contexts—remains a challenge. As we show
below, however, it can be alleviated by suitable HRM practices.
To recap, annex & assimilate M&As focus on absorbing targets’ assets and dissolving
redundancies, while harvest & protect acquisitions seek to capture and preserve targets’ capa-
bilities—especially unique processes and key personnel. Link & promote M&As are distinct,
as the cogeneration of interfirm ties, regenerative learning, and synergies among business
units means that parties seek shared value creation by maintaining operational autonomy
while working synchronously on boundary-spanning projects and objectives.
PMI
Recognizing that M&As often trigger substantial restructuring, research that traditionally
asked outcome-focused questions, such as “Which acquisition strategy is likely to succeed?”
(Chatterjee, 1986; Chatterjee & Lubatkin, 1990; Lubatkin, 1983, 1987; Porter, 1987; Seth,
1990), began to shift toward process-related questions, such as “What processes and internal
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Brueller et al. / Human Resource Management Practices 7
infrastructures might facilitate capability transfer, cross-firm learning, new value creation,
and synergistic gains?” (Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991; Larsson & Finkelstein, 1999; Pablo,
1994). The conceptualization of PMI as M&A-derived outcomes stimulated diverse studies
(e.g., Cording, Christman, & King, 2008; Haleblian et al., 2009; Zollo & Singh, 2004), many
of which build on Haspeslagh and Jemison’s popular framework.
Extending earlier studies, Haspeslagh and Jemison (1991) argued that PMIs are marked
by two dimensions: acquirer-target interdependence and target’s autonomy. Then, by plot-
ting the two dimensions into a two-by-two matrix, they identified four main PMI outcomes:
absorption, preservation, symbiosis, and holding (Galpin & Herndon, 2014). PMI absorption
is most suitable when interdependence is high and a target’s assets are insensitive to complete
digestion. Acquirers should seek the PMI preservation when interdependence is low but a
target autonomy is critical (e.g., to preserve capabilities) and seek PMI symbiosis when both
interdependence and target’s autonomy are high. The PMI holding entails no integration per
se, and it accounts for less than 10% of all deals. Therefore, following other M&A studies,
we henceforth focus on the first three PMIs: absorption, preservation, and symbiosis (cf.
Brueller et al., 2014; Ellis, 2004; Nahavandi & Malekzadeh, 1988; Schweiger, 2002).
An important takeaway from PMI research is its conceptual evolution. Initially, PMIs
were underdefined, but Haspeslagh and Jemison’s (1991) introduction of the acquirer-target
interdependence and target’s autonomy dimensions allowed scholars to define PMIs with
greater precision. Indeed, the integration processes associated with absorption, preservation,
and symbiosis differ quite profoundly.
HRM and Human Capital
Going beyond administrative tasks, such as labor relations, payroll, and compliance,
HRM focuses on diverse issues pertaining to workforce management (Lepak & Snell, 2002),
and we suggest that discussion of personnel and HRM should coincide with strategic choices.
Indeed, abundant research corroborates that HRM can improve organizational processes and
effectiveness (e.g., B. E. Becker & Gerhart, 1996; Combs, Liu, Hall, & Ketchen, 2006;
Huselid, 1995; Kehoe & Wright, 2013; Wright, Dunford, & Snell, 2001; Wright, Gardner,
Moynihan, & Allen, 2005). Furthermore, years of scholarly effort to unpack various employ-
ment architectures have led to the development of several HRM taxonomies depicting how
organizations convert human capital into organizational outcomes (cf. Delaney & Huselid,
1996; Guest, 1997; Huselid; Ichniowski, Shaw, & Prennushi, 1997; Jackson, Schuler, &
Jiang, 2014; Lepak & Snell).
This rich literature is summarized in numerous review articles (cf. B. E. Becker &
Huselid, 1998; Delery & Shaw, 2001; Jiang, Takeuchi, & Lepak, 2013). To remain within
reasonable bounds, we briefly elaborate on one area of HRM research that is especially
germane to the M&A-PMI interface—namely, the AMO (ability-motivation-opportunity)
model. As recapped by Jiang, Lepak, Hu, and Baer’s (2012) meta-analysis based on 116
articles (featuring 120 samples representing a total of 31,463 organizations), ability- or
skill-enhancing HRM practices include selection and hiring (Ahmad & Schroeder, 2003),
training (Akhtar, Ding, & Ge, 2008; Appleyard & Brown, 2001; Armstrong, Flood, Guthrie,
Liu, Mac-Gurtain, & Mkamwa, 2010), staffing and recruiting (Bartrajn, Stanton, Leggat,
Gasimir, & Fraser, 2007; Batt, Colvin, & Keefe, 2002), and development practices (Collins
& Smith, 2006). Motivation-enhancing HRM practices focus primarily on personnel
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8 Journal of Management / Month XXXX
retention and capability alignment through the aid of compensation systems (Bartrajn et al.;
Batt & Colvin, 2011), career-enhancing practices (Beltran-Martin, Roca-Puig, Escrig-Tena,
& Bou-Llusar, 2008), and performance and development programs (Yang & Lin, 2009).
And finally, opportunity-enhancing HRM practices form opportunity-spawning contexts
and infrastructures through commitment, empowerment, and cause-based programs where
personnel can further develop and accelerate organizational learning. Such practices might
entail decentralized structures and information-sharing protocols (Katou & Budhwar, 2006);
empowerment, engagement, and networking programs (Cabello-Medina, Lopez-Cabrales,
& Valle-Cabrera, 2011); grievance and voice mechanisms (Delaney & Huselid, 1996); and
rotational assignments, to name a few.
Evidence shows that AMO-enhancing HRM practices improve diverse firm-level out-
comes, such as processes, operations, and financial performance (cf. Appelbaum et al., 2000;
Bailey, Berg, & Sandy, 2001; Batt & Colvin, 2011; Batt et al., 2002; Boxall & Purcell, 2008;
Delery & Shaw, 2001; Gardner, Wright, & Moynihan, 2011; Gerhart, 2007; Huselid, 1995;
Jiang et al., 2012; Katz, Kochan, & Weber, 1985; Kehoe & Wright, 2013; Lepak, Liao,
Chung, & Harden, 2006; Liao, Toya, Lepak, & Hong, 2009; Subramony, 2009). Our assess-
ment of this scholarship is that AMO-enhancing HRM practices are a strong organizational
modality to address the economic, social, and operational complexities that M&As demand
and PMIs create.
Increasingly, several HRM studies focus on human capital—for example, personnel
knowledge, skills, ability, creativity, intelligence, judgment, and wisdom that produce indi-
vidual and/or organizational value (cf. B. E. Becker & Gerhart, 1996; Carmeli & Schaubroeck,
2005; Nyberg & Wright, 2015; Wright, Coff, & Moliterno, 2014). We view human capital as
a means to convert personnel-level capacity and effort into organizational-level outcomes.
For example, boundary-spanning effort and firm wealth creation are increased when different
human capital types are combined and matched by or configured with cospecialized organi-
zational resources and capabilities (Mahoney & Kor, 2015). Building on such scholarship
and the view that microprocesses and macro-outcomes create opportunities to address meso-
level processes (Cappelli & Scherer, 1991; Nyberg & Wright), we theorize that understand-
ing human capital at the individual level—and matching and configuring those with
organizational capabilities—can shed light on firm-level processes and outcomes.
Specifically, we blend micro- and macroviews and evince that HRM practices that tap into
and leverage on human capital can catapult M&A strategies into PMI outcomes (Nyberg,
Moliterno, Hale, & Lepak, 2014; Ployhart, Nyberg, Reilly, & Maltarich, 2014).
Having introduced (albeit briefly) the main parts of our conceptual model, the next section
elaborates on and integrates these points into a more detailed conceptual framework (see Figure
2). To recall, our thesis is that each distinct M&A-PMI path is mediated by suitable HRM prac-
tices. Figure 2 offers a configuration view that depicts how firms leverage their HRM practices
to align their M&A strategies with suitable PMIs (Fiss, 2007).
Conceptual Development
We should reemphasize that even the best-crafted M&A strategies and well-achieved PMIs
are rather disruptive and tend to produce substantial uncertainty, identity issues, and stress that
affect employees, suppliers, buyers, and even rivals. To clarify, M&A strategies and their
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Brueller et al. / Human Resource Management Practices 9
PMIs represent unusual threat-provoking contexts where personnel in both acquiring and
acquired firms experience daunting pressure and concerns about processes, consequences, and
employability. Indeed, before employees become excited about combined market share or
synergistic gains, they worry about personal consequences, such as job security, potential cuts
in pay or benefits, chain of command, or possible relocation, to name a few.
While loss of job and income are a most salient threat, research shows that other risks—
even if they do not materialize—can be highly demoralizing as well. Examples include nega-
tive changes in incentive systems (Citera & Rentsch, 1993); undesirable transfers and
relocations, as well as changes in job responsibilities (Buunk & Janssen, 1992; Hubbard &
Purcell, 2001); and loss of opportunity, such as derailed career path (Larsson & Finkelstein,
1999). As employees consider the threat, disruption, and consequences of such changes, they
compare their situation to that of referent others—a natural reaction that often exacerbates a
sense of dissociation and hopelessness especially when they perceive themselves to be worse
off compared with others who were affected by the same merger. This leads to an even stron-
ger sense of hopelessness, rejection, demoralization, and even betrayal (Tyler, Boeckmann,
Smith, & Huo, 1997).
The complicated nature of M&A-PMI relations is not new. However, raising awareness
about the stress and anxiety they often induce—for instance, by noting how M&As can dis-
rupt labor relations and introduce new attraction-selection-attrition contexts (Chatman, 1991;
Ployhart, Weekley, & Baughman, 2006; Schneider, 1987)—can clarify and justify the
Figure 2
A Conceptual Model of Merger and Acquisition Strategies and
Goals, Human Resource Management Practices, Human
Capital Focus, and Postmerger Integrations
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10 Journal of Management / Month XXXX
decision to explore the M&A-PMI relations through the mediating lenses of HRM practices,
which is the next topic.
Annex & Assimilate—Ability-Enhancing HRM—PMI Absorption
As noted, annex & assimilate acquisitions aim to seize mostly tangible assets (e.g., real
estate, production facilities, intellectual property, and technology) while dissolving or selling
unneeded resources, including excess personnel. Under these M&As, acquired firms cease to
exist but acquirers frequently engage some of their personnel in order to better integrate and
utilize their tangible assets. Naturally, the absorption of personnel is a delicate and time-
consuming process requiring HRM managers to determine—often under time pressure and
budgetary constraints—which employees to retain, and how to integrate them, and which
ones to dismiss. Among the factors often considered are surplus or redundant corporate func-
tions involving management, marketing, information technology, legal, and, yes, even human
resource (HR) personnel. Moreover, acquirers rarely engage HRM executives in premerger
planning, which is a serious oversight given that most annex & assimilate M&As and PMI
absorption entail substantial downsizing (Siegel & Simons, 2007).
It is important to recognize, therefore, that ability-focused HRM practices entail a careful
screening of personnel in order to identify and retain those essential to asset integration while
decisively letting go of the rest. As further clarified below, ability-focused HRM practices
play a critical role in mediating the relationships between annex & assimilate acquisitions
and PMI absorption. Understanding that prescreening and early selection of personnel deter-
mine, to a large extent, the outcome of an acquisition sheds doubt on the common (and crude)
view that acquirers are merely applying indiscriminate cost-containment measures (Haleblian
et al., 2009; Schuler & Jackson, 2003). Our thesis, however, proposes that ability-focused
HRM practices are management tools that must be engaged early, during the due diligence
process prior to the merger, in order to carefully identify and select the skill sets needed to
lower the disruption and cost and to maximize the speed and efficacy of integration.
Many M&A studies and firms underestimate the critical role played by ability-focused
HRM in identifying, extracting, and retaining the right skills from acquired firms while
removing redundancies, curbing overcapacities, consolidating incongruent practices, and
eliminating excess assets (Galpin & Herndon, 2014). Returning to an earlier example, the
United–Continental merger eliminated not only redundant routs and hub services but also
600 front-office jobs and many back-office functions. Certainly, workforce morale is impor-
tant, especially during massive layoffs. Yet in the context of annex & assimilate strategies
and PMI absorption, the focus is on removing duplicate functions, addressing operational
integrations, and meeting payroll needs and contractual obligations. And because redundan-
cies increase costs, acquirers depend heavily on applying ability-focused HRM practices,
such as sorting for fit and mining the able from the less essential personnel.
According to the AMO model, ability-enhancing HRM practices allow acquirers to recruit
and select employees (from each firm) who have the right skills and attitude needed to com-
plete a merger (Delaney & Huselid, 1996). Relatedly, HRM practices such as retraining pro-
grams, selective hiring, and skill-enhancing training help to win the hearts and minds of
capable personnel from acquired firms. All of these practices are critical to improving morale
and raising and integrating the collective human capital base of acquirers (e.g., Cabello-
Medina et al., 2011; Takeuchi, Lepak, Wang, & Takeuchi, 2007; Yang & Lin, 2009; Youndt
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Brueller et al. / Human Resource Management Practices 11
& Snell, 2004). Teva Pharmaceutical Industries CEO Vigodman (2015) noted that they
refined their capability for screening and retaining only the most suitable employees and
teams from their targets.
Over and above removing redundancies on the basis of skills, ability-enhancing HRM
practices are useful for selecting a transition team; setting up integration timelines; communi-
cating rules, routines, and expectations; enforcing processes and milestones; and balancing
operational trade-offs while managing the integration of absorbed personnel. Similarly instru-
mental in dissolving a target’s autonomy is the role of ability-focused HRM in identifying and
preventing areas of friction and harmonizing cross-cultural issues, often by attracting, retain-
ing, and deploying the right personnel (while pruning others; Dhanaraj, Lyles, Steensma, &
Tihanyi, 2004). On the basis of this logic, we suggest the following proposition:
Proposition 1: Ability-enhancing HRM practices mediate the relationship between annex & assimi-
late strategies and PMI absorption.
Harvest & Protect—Ability- and Motivation-Enhancing HRM—PMI
Preservation
Harvest & protect acquisitions intend to harness and preserve the capabilities, partner-
ships, and other intangible assets of target firms. For instance, to preserve the capabilities and
vital partnerships of IronPort (a maker of products and services that protect enterprises
against Internet threats), Cisco enabled IronPort to operate almost as it did prior to the acqui-
sition. IronPort was grafted into Cisco’s security business unit by using a PMI preservation
(Yirrell, 2007). It comes as no surprise that harvest & protect acquisitions and PMI preserva-
tion are best paired with HRM practices aiming to safeguard and keep targets’ capabilities
intact so they can then be redeployed by acquirers. Considering the critical role played by
ability-enhancing HRM practices in removing redundancies and preserving human capital,
we suggest that when parties complement their ability-enhancing HRM effort with motiva-
tion-enhancing HRM practices, they can greatly strengthen personnel’s buy-in and, thus,
enable the harvest & protect acquisitions and their PMI preservation. There are several rea-
sons for this prediction.
First, while ability-enhancing HRM practices ensure that personnel possess appropriate
human capital skills, motivation-enhancing HRM practices tend to strengthen the associa-
tion between the work, intentions, effort, and even identity of employees with their rewards,
retention, and commitment. Practices such as performance and career development plans,
competitive pay and benefits, flexible work design, and job security tend to motivate
employees to engage at a higher level (Ryan & Deci, 2000). An important nuance to stress
at this point is that even when training improves individual skills and ability, these benefits
are more likely to produce firm-level outcomes when coupled with motivation-enhancing
HRM practices. This blending of practices tends to expand the abilities, skills, and motiva-
tion of employees (Tharenou, Saks, & Moore, 2007). And, of course, as engagement
increases among personnel, so does their resilience against disruptions, including those
stemming from acrimonious M&As. For instance, studies show that ability- and motivation-
enhancing HRM practices are associated with increased engagement levels and reduced
voluntary turnover (Batt et al., 2002; Gardner et al., 2011; Guthrie, 2001; Huselid, 1995;
Sun, Aryee, & Law, 2007).
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12 Journal of Management / Month XXXX
Second, extant research shows that the combination of ability- and motivation-enhancing
HRM practices contributes greatly to a firm’s operational and financial performance (cf.
Chuang & Liao, 2010; Collins & Smith, 2006; Gelade & Ivery, 2003; Gong, Law, Ghang, &
Xin, 2009; McClean & Collins, 2011; Sun et al., 2007). As Figure 2 indicates, harvest &
protect acquisitions and PMI preservation aim to capture the capabilities of target firms to
facilitate their appropriation by the acquirer. However, research shows that many capabilities
are not quite amenable to being suddenly uprooted from their original context and simply
implanted in an acquirer’s business (Dhanaraj et al., 2004). Such grafting may exacerbate the
erosion of capabilities that are embedded in personnel, some of whom may passively resent
their acquirers while others simply quit. Following Chadwick, Super, and Kwon (2015), we
suggest that firms are more likely to preserve human capital, causally ambiguous practices,
and poorly codified protocols—thus facilitating the preservation of PMI—when they rely on
HRM practices aimed at enhancing both ability and motivation.
This logic is further supported by studies showing that the combination of ability- and
motivation-enhancing HRM practices allows firms to develop positive attitudes (as mea-
sured by job satisfaction, commitment, and perceived organizational support) and improve
organizational citizenship behavior (Campbell, McCloy, Oppler, & Sager, 1993; Jiang et al.,
2012). Our view is that such combination is critical to the development of a productive work
relationship between acquiring and acquired firms and preserving the know-how, capabili-
ties, and processes of target firms. Because talent often represents the lion’s share of an
acquisition’s value and potential, ability- and motivation-enhancing HRM practices are also
a useful modality to mitigate personnel turnover (Collins & Smith, 2006). HRM practices
that preserve job contexts also alleviate the stress and anxiety often experienced by employ-
ees during M&As in a phenomenon known as “merger syndrome” (Marks, 1997; Marks &
Mirvis, 1998).
Consider the case of Johnson & Johnson. Rather than combine a harvest & protect strategy
with PMI preservation, it annexed and then absorbed Cordis Corporation into its angioplasty
business, thereby squandering valuable capabilities that were costly to replace and losing key
personnel, know-how, and uncodified processes (cf. Finkelstein, 2003). As noted, capabilities
often reside within the social and professional fabric of a target’s personnel. Particularly in
knowledge-intensive acquisitions, the expertise and potential of key personnel are often more
valuable (ex post) than the technology and intellectual property they have developed in the
past (Bower, 2001; Granstrand & Sjölander, 1990; Mayer & Kenney, 2004). Research shows
that knowledge rooted in employees and human capital can allow acquirers to improve upon
diverse time-consuming processes (Dierickx & Cool, 1989; Leonard-Barton, 1995; Puranam
& Srikanth, 2007). Because ability- and motivation-enhancing HRM entice key personnel to
stay on board and engage, such practices are critical for enhancing the association between
harvest & protect acquisitions and PMI preservation (Birdi et al., 2008).
A final point is that, when compared with annex & assimilate and their PMI absorption,
harvest & protect acquisitions and their PMI preservation require appreciably more interper-
sonal dialogue and interfirm coordination, especially about priorities, how and where a tar-
get’s capabilities might complement or conflict with the acquirer’s processes, and how
human capital is captured and when and where it should be redeployed. For example, acquir-
ers might grant a target’s CEO veto power regarding personnel layoffs, a practice that Cisco
formalized with some of its acquisitions (Paulson, 2001). At the interpersonal level, Cisco
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Brueller et al. / Human Resource Management Practices 13
implemented a mentorship program that matches acquirer-target peers to facilitate socializa-
tion, educate new employees, provide access to vital information, and learn about the culture
at Cisco (Jonsson & Foss, 2011; Paulson). A similar practice was implemented by Banc One
where “new affiliates were matched with ‘sister’ or ‘mentor’ banks” (Uyterhoeven, 1996: 7).
Whereas the issue of human capital retention in annex & assimilate and PMI absorption
often applies to a relatively smaller subset of the target’s employees, in harvest & protect
acquisitions and PMI preservation, a significantly larger part of a target’s value and potential
resides in the broader ecosystem or social network and interpersonal relationships. In such
cases, the importance of acquired human capital lies not only in what personnel know but
also whom they know and work with, including buyers, suppliers, and regulators who are
external to their firms (Galpin & Herndon, 2014). Acquirers interested in complementarities
must not only identify the location of a target’s capabilities but also preserve the human capi-
tal, social milieu, and professional ties that nurture and sustain such capabilities (Bower,
2001; Huber, 1991; Puranam, 2001). Hence:
Proposition 2: Ability- and motivation-enhancing HRM practices mediate the relationships between
harvest & protect strategies and PMI preservation.
Link & Promote—Ability-, Motivation-, and Opportunity-Enhancing HRM—
PMI Symbiosis
A primary objective of link & promote acquisitions is to accelerate the boundary span-
ning, growth, and strength of both acquiring and acquired firms through opportunities for
cross-firm learning, knowledge flow, and renewal (Chakravarthy & Lorange, 2007). As
noted in Table 1 and shown in Figure 2, we reason that this M&A strategy is best coupled
with PMI symbiosis because of the overlapping focus on strengthening ties between firms to
infuse greater strategic and operational agility to both parties (Ranft & Lord, 2000). We also
suggest that the combination of ability-, motivation-, and opportunity-enhancing HRM prac-
tices (AMO)—with human capital focus on reciprocal engagement and empowerment—will
positively mediate the associations between link & promote acquisitions and PMI symbiosis.
We draw upon studies that underscore this theoretical reasoning. To clarify, opportunity-
enhancing HRM practices are those designed to empower and inspire personnel to build on
their knowledge, skills, and ability—as well as their ambitions—to advance interfirm objec-
tives, processes, and outcomes. Examples include flexible job design, personnel engagement
programs, and transparent management (Jiang et al., 2012).
The complementary effects of AMO-enhancing HRM practices are impressive because
despite occurring at the individual, human capital level, they eventually augment and amplify
organization-level outcomes. Skill- and motivation-building HRM practices inspire person-
nel to develop new competencies that, in turn, broaden their career and promotion opportuni-
ties inside and outside their organizations (Tharenou et al., 2007). Opportunity-enhancing
HRM practices (e.g., coaching, high-potential career tracks, succession plans, job rotations,
exchange programs) enhance employees’ human capital as well as their identification with
wider-reaching organizational objectives while elevating their commitment to pursue more
challenging goals and to engage at a higher level (Ryan & Deci, 2000). To better appreciate
how HRM practices at the individual level contribute to outcomes at the firm level, consider
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14 Journal of Management / Month XXXX
how a 1 SD increase in AMO-enhancing HRM practices is associated with, respectively, a
0.13, 0.18, or 0.09 SD increase in firms’ financial performance (Jiang et al., 2012).
Naturally, AMO-enhancing HRM practices are complementary, and some might argue
that acquirers should always maximize all three HRM dimensions (ability, motivation, and
opportunity) in every M&A event. In theory, such advice is applicable to many firm-level
functions (not only HRM) and even individual-level action, but reality and scholarly work
show that all seemingly positive relations reach inflection points after which the relations
turn asymptotic and often negative, leading to a pattern of curvilinear relations (e.g., the “too-
much-of-a-good-thing” effect; cf. Pierce & Aguinis, 2013). In addition, the development,
maintenance, and deployment of well-rounded AMO-enhancing HRM practices entail sig-
nificant costs as well as legal and operational complexities. Diverging from traditional think-
ing—where more AMO-enhancing HRM practices are better and the three (ability, motivation,
and opportunity) are inseparable—we stress that different strategic objectives, operational
needs, and budgetary constraints call on firms to emphasize different combinations of AMO-
enhancing HRM practices. In fact, viewing employees as constantly exerting their full abili-
ties, motivation, and opportunities to each task—regardless of budgetary constraints and
operational needs—is not only unrealistic but counterproductive too.
Our suggestion that different M&A contexts guide firms on which AMO-enhancing HRM
practices to use and when is consistent with a configurational perspective; sometimes it is
ideal to employ a single component, while other situations call for a combination of two or
even all three. For instance, ability-enhancing HRM practices aid in removing redundancies
and increasing compliance, but such objectives are hardly pivotal in link & promote acquisi-
tions and PMI symbiosis. The blending of ability- and motivation-enhancing HRM practices
helps to preserve capabilities, but in link & promote acquisitions and PMI symbiosis, capa-
bilities are preserved because parties remain autonomous. Still, the combination and comple-
mentarity of all three AMO dimensions is the most suitable modality in PMI symbiosis, as
such HRM practices promote boundary-spanning interfirm citizenship behavior, trust, recip-
rocal engagements, professional and social ties, learning, empowerment, and synergy
(Appelbaum et al., 2000; Jiang et al., 2012).
Interestingly, the AMO-enhancing HRM practices are not limited to human capital attri-
butes such as reciprocal engagements and empowerment; they are also associated with ele-
vated well-being, positive attitude, higher engagement levels, and superior performance
among employees (e.g., Hempel, Zhang, & Han, 2012; Wagner, 1994). Of course, all of these
attributes are foundational for PMI symbiosis. Compared with only one or two dimensions of
HRM, the combination of all three gives employees more opportunities, facilitates creativity
and problem solving, and promotes opportunities to engage stakeholders outside their firm.
A strong fusion of the AMO-enhancing HRM practices also calls for greater transparency
and openness, autonomy and trust, collaboration and meritocracy, and a general sense that
one’s job entails a greater purpose (Chuang, Jackson, & Jiang, in press). Again, all of these
qualities are critical for buttressing the association between link & promote strategies and
PMI symbiosis.
Research also reveals that all three HRM dimensions (ability, motivation, and opportu-
nity) are related to diverse organizational-level outcomes. Notable among these are opportu-
nities and greater motivation among employees to develop new knowledge, skills, and ability
(G. S. Becker, 1975; Carmeli & Schaubroeck, 2005) and stronger professional ties (Gant,
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Brueller et al. / Human Resource Management Practices 15
Ichniowski, & Shaw, 2002) as well as to engage in shared value creation and cross-organiza-
tional citizenship behaviors (Appelbaum et al., 2000; Collins & Smith, 2006). AMO-
enhancing HRM practices are conducive to high-quality interactions that encourage even
new hires and temporary employees to engage across firm boundaries and, thus, to perform
their job better (Gittell, Seidner, & Wimbush, 2010; Vogus, 2006). We reason that by facili-
tating interfirm relations that promote mutuality, empowerment, and trust, AMO-enhancing
HRM practices augment the relationship between link & promote strategies and PMI
symbiosis.
In sum, link & promote acquisitions require personnel who hold different organizational
identities to suddenly work together and forge new professional and social ties. AMO-
enhancing HRM practices are a main modality to create the necessary human capital, profes-
sional ties, social fabric, and organizational context to manage newly formed interdependencies
that are called upon to facilitate PMI symbiosis (Smith, Amiot, Smith, Callan, & Terry, 2013).
Hence:
Proposition 3: AMO-enhancing HRM practices mediate the relationships between link & promote
strategies and PMI symbiosis.
Discussion
Firms pursue M&A strategies for a variety of weighty reasons—for example, to secure
new assets, customers, and capabilities; reduce costs and competition; and increase growth
and synergies, to name a few. To illustrate how critical these objectives are, the value of
worldwide M&As in 2014 alone totaled $3.5 trillion; M&A deals are a “big deal” for firms,
managers, and scholars. Despite their hopeful objectives and worldwide valuation, most
M&As and their associated PMIs are highly disruptive—M&As are galvanized with process
mismatches and cross-operational difficulties that often lead to performance decline. Indeed,
M&A-PMI relations often exacerbate tension across business units and personnel, and they
are rampant with defection by talent, customers, and even suppliers. These observations,
combined with historical accounts that between 70% and 90% of M&As fail to realize their
objectives (Christensen, Alton, Rising, & Waldeck, 2011; Galpin & Herndon, 2014) plus
their ultimate dependence on human engagement, persuaded us to study M&A-PMI relations
from an HRM perspective.
At a broad level, our HRM-focused framework infuses microlevel concepts and espe-
cially processes (the AMO framework and attention to human capital issues) into macrolevel
theoretical lenses to explain how firms can configure their M&A-PMI relations. That is,
M&A research is often dominated by macroperspectives, but this paper adds a microview
and applies a configurational approach to examine how and why AMO-enhancing HRM
practices mediate the relationship between M&A strategies and PMI outcomes. Our premise
is that although M&A-PMI relations vary considerably, acquiring and acquired firms can
reduce the disruption and risk by carefully configuring themselves and applying distinct
HRM practices.
This paper offers several contributions to the literature. First, even prior to the melding of
the HRM practices and the AMO model with the M&A-PMI literature, our framework stands
to advance research in this area by clarifying why M&A strategies must be matched by
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16 Journal of Management / Month XXXX
suitable PMIs. Indeed, we speculate that the M&A-PMI configuration is a robust conceptual
platform that can address diverse contingencies regardless of variations in industry, business
cycle, scale, complexity, risks and obstacles, or even the type of transaction. Specifically, and
being a configurational framework, it clarifies that annex & assimilate acquisitions employ
PMI absorption, harvest & protect acquisitions call for PMI preservation, and link & promote
acquisitions are best matched by PMI symbiosis. Articulating the different M&A-PMI con-
figurations is important because each pair is based on a different strategic objective and dis-
tinct PMI outcome, follows distinct logics, and exhibits specific acquirer-acquired
interdependencies.
A second and probably key contribution of this study is the configuration of an HRM
perspective based on the AMO model. While the operational, legal, and especially the cross-
cultural difficulties that M&As pose are well known, the fact that most employees are quite
removed from, yet often find themselves on the receiving end of, M&A choices management
made for them, has not been adequately addressed. Given that employees are rarely asked to
be “sold” or “bought,” it is surprising that their role, from passive resistance and open back-
lash to active support and full stewardship, are rarely addressed explicitly in M&A-PMI
studies. We reasoned that because AMO-enhancing HRM practices are human capital build-
ing systems, they can effectively mediate the M&A-PMI relations—for example, by harness-
ing personnel’s human capital to engage and execute M&A strategies and bring about
effective PMI.
Complementing our M&A-PMI configurations with the AMO model, the normative
framework (see Fig. 2) features three main paths: First, as Proposition 1 states, ability-
enhancing HRM practices (such as removing redundancies and preserving assets) mediate
the relationship between annex & assimilate strategies and PMI absorption. Second, and
consistent with Proposition 2, ability- and motivation-enhancing HRM practices (e.g.,
removing redundancies while simultaneously preserving human capital to conserve capabili-
ties) mediate the relationships between harvest & protect acquisitions and PMI preservation.
Finally, in accordance with Proposition 3, AMO-enhancing HRM practices (e.g., cause-
based programs that transcend firm boundaries, e.g., that promote reciprocity, empowerment,
and cross-organizational citizenship behavior) mediate the relationships between link & pro-
mote strategies and PMI symbiosis.
Consistent with research on dynamic capabilities (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000; Teece,
Pisano, & Shuen, 1997) and HR flexibility (Way, Fay, Wright, Snell, Chang, & Gong, 2015),
our framework encourages acquirers to carefully assess their HRM capabilities before they
consider, let alone approve, any M&A-PMI combination. For example, acquirers whose
HRM capabilities are limited to ability-enhancing practices should avoid link & promote
acquisitions and PMI symbioses, even if their would-be targets are highly lucrative. Similarly,
acquirers whose HRM practices are restricted to enhancing opportunity should not try to
pursue annex & assimilate acquisitions and PMI absorption. This perspective clarifies why
even well-crafted M&A strategies are unlikely to fully meet their objectives unless they are
carefully matched by suitable PMIs and configured (or mediated) by the correct HRM prac-
tices (and human capital).
The M&A-HRM-PMI framework advanced here recognizes different degrees of integra-
tion across a wide range of strategic objectives. It clarifies, for instance, why acquiring and
acquired firms must view their M&A-HRM-PMI configuration from multiple perspectives
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Brueller et al. / Human Resource Management Practices 17
and, more critically, engage their HRM functions early—during the premerger due diligence
phase. Indeed, we worry that the secretive nature of the due diligence processes preceding
most M&As leaves many HR departments in the dark, engaging them only once a public
announcement has been made. This is too late to issue effective warnings or apply changes
concerning HRM-related risks and liabilities. Some of our own work reveals that when HR
executives are involved in the premerger due diligence phase, acquirers routinely uncover
such deal breakers as pension liabilities, union issues, defined contribution plans, executive
contracts, and retiree medical plans, to name a few. In other words, well-engaged HRM func-
tions can scout and avert bad deals and help firms to prioritize integration activities and influ-
ence PMI outcomes.
We also explained why the M&A-HRM-PMI configuration is a more complete model.
Historically, M&A-PMI value was projected from a legal point of view and a financial due
diligence perspective, but we stress that precisely because M&As are highly complex and
disruptive, economic value can become more realizable with early and ongoing HRM
engagement. Rather than using HRM as a supporting, compliance, or post hoc tool—merely
implementing strategic decisions that have already been made—M&A-related choices,
including financial, legal, and personnel, must be made in conjunction. Just as chief financial
officers enable M&As by conducting financial due diligence and allocating financial
resources, HR executives should run human capital reviews and match HRs and talent with
firm needs. For example, when seeking to acquire the Hungarian firm Biogal, Teva
Pharmaceutical Industries’ diligence revealed that 50% of Biogal’s 2,000 employees were
redundant. In light of the expected effects of massive layoffs on the small town of Debrecen,
Teva conditioned further negotiations towards a deal on Biogal’s agreeing to the layoffs.
Failing to reach an agreement, negotiations broke off and were resumed only 5 years later,
when Biogal finally accepted Teva’s plan for restructuring, which allowed Biogal to reach
the efficiency level prevailing across Teva’s factories. Only then could Teva finalize the deal
and commit resources for “early retirement, social welfare, retraining, a placement agency,
relocation, and financial aid for ex-employees who would be interested in establishing a
small business venture” (Almor, Tarba, & Benjamini, 2009: 44-45).
Our conceptual framework unearths some counterintuitive relations rarely acknowledged
in extant literature. Scholars recognize the distinct nature of each of the AMO-enhancing
HRM practices, but most studies highlight their complementary nature and assume that more
is better (i.e., the view that firms should always aim to enhance all three dimensions: ability,
motivation, and opportunity). We, too, recognize the utility and complementary nature of the
AMO-enhancing practices, which is precisely what Proposition 3 advocates. Also, should an
acquirer possess all three AMO-enhancing capabilities without concern for cost or complex-
ity, they may certainly apply all three across diverse M&A-PMI contexts. However, HRM
practices can quickly overrun cost estimates, and their overdeployment can cause consider-
able friction and waste. Hence, we question whether a more-is-better approach truly aligns
with organizational reality and conclude that, given the high price tag of most M&As and
budget-constrained HR departments, overdeployment of HRM practices would indeed be
unwarranted.
The notion of “too much of a good thing” is a challenging theoretical issue deserving
more attention, but here we stress another view: that the application of all AMO-enhancing
HRM practices irrespective of M&A-PMI relations is not only expensive but may even
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18 Journal of Management / Month XXXX
undermine deals. Consider, for example, the Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ acquisition of
Pharmachemie, which commanded a 40% share of the Dutch market. Because of its strong
local reputation, the acquired firm insisted on remaining autonomous. In other words, pre-
serving “the company as an independent entity was a supreme value” (Tarba, Almor, &
Benjamini, 2012: 93). This contrasted with the fact that Pharmachemie’s capabilities were
not up to par. Pharmachemie had two costly plants that were inefficient by Teva’s standards
and development/marketing functions that Teva would eventually disband. Hoping to please
Pharmachemie by showing sensitivity, Teva deviated from the M&A-HRM-PMI configura-
tion initially called for in the deal (i.e., annex & assimilate acquisitions; ability-enhancing
HRM practices; and PMI absorption) and instead pursued PMI symbiosis. Teva offered con-
siderable AMO-enhancing HRM practices, but Pharmachemie was too weak and misconfig-
ured to succeed on its own in Teva’s global context. As Wil Van Maris, Pharmachemie’s HR
manager acknowledged: “We were the most dynamic company in the Netherlands, yet we are
the least in Teva” (Claus, 2006: 898). After squandering valuable resources and time, both
parties recognized their misconfigured M&A-HRM-PMI triage, and Teva fully absorbed
Pharmachemie. This example demonstrates that deploying the best AMO-enhancing HRM
practices to the wrong M&A-PMI path can be quite wasteful; again, acquirers need to con-
figure their HRM practices to the correct M&A-PMI context they face.
We do not elaborate on contexts in which acquirers underinvest in AMO-enhancing HRM
practices as extant research is quite clear that such underinvestment has devastating ramifica-
tions, including increased disengagement and reduced quality (Tsui, Pearce, Porter, & Tripoli,
1997; Wang, He, & Mahoney, 2009). For instance, underinvestment in HRM practices weak-
ens the psychological bond between employees and their firms, so it is easy to see how it can
undermine M&A-PMI relations. In fact, investment in and attention to HRM practices is one
of the main motivations for this conceptual study: that extant research underestimates the
critical (mediating) role that HRM practices play in M&A-PMI relations.
We hardly discussed organizational culture, so as a litmus test of the framework utility and
generalizability, it may be interesting to see whether it can shed light on the role that culture
plays in M&A-PMI relations. To clarify, when M&As fall short of achieving their financial
objectives, studies often attribute the failure to a clash of cultures between the combined enti-
ties (Galpin & Herndon, 2014). In fact, in a recent report, cultural conflict was the cause of
30% of failed M&As (Miller & Fernandes, 2009). Scholars describe this phenomenon as
cultural misfit (Weber & Camerer, 2003), acculturation and acculturative stress (Larsson &
Lubatkin, 2001), and social construction of cultural differences (Vaara, Sarala, Stahl, &
Björkman, 2012). These perspectives contribute greatly to the consensus that culture plays a
critical role in M&A outcomes. However, what remain rather unclear are the conditions
under which culture clash might or might not undermine M&A-PMI relations. Indeed, some
acquirers seem to manage and execute their M&As despite significant cultural differences
(Stahl & Voigt, 2008; Viegas-Pires, 2013).
How can our conceptual framework shed light on this issue? Moving from left to right in
Figure 2, our framework suggests that a culture clash’s strongest disruptive potential is likely
with PMI absorption, where acquiring and acquired firms are fully and completely integrated
into a single operational entity. An example of this is the Daimler and Chrysler merger, where
discordant cultures included diverging operating styles, levels of formality, and philosophy
on a gamut of issues ranging from pay and expenses to strategy and operations. With PMI
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Brueller et al. / Human Resource Management Practices 19
preservation, the threat of a culture clash is reduced, mostly because acquiring firms do not
seek to digest entire targets but instead to “surgically” harvest only a subset of a target’s
capabilities and personnel. Naturally, as the number of capabilities and personnel that acquir-
ers seek to graft into their operation or business units grows, the greater the threat and disrup-
tion that culture clash may pose. Finally, because under PMI symbioses both acquiring and
acquired firms remain highly autonomous and independent, these PMIs are more resilient to
cultural differences. Of course, an acute size disparity (in which acquirers are especially large
and targets are particularly small) is a general shock absorber that mitigates the influence of
cultural differences and renders them less likely to derail M&A-PMI relations (Markman &
Waldron, 2014). Critically, the greater the disruption that culture clashes impose on M&A-
PMI relations, the stronger the configurational role that HRM practices must play in match-
ing and harmonizing culture and value systems.
In sum, acquirers often know how to track and manage the financial and operational
aspects of M&As, but harmonizing divergent cultures is quite daunting. Cultures are difficult
to measure and manage directly, and, sadly, few organizations exercise the same rigor and
discipline in assessing, steering, and overseeing cultural integration that they apply to opera-
tional synergy. These observations suggest that because (1) HR departments are often respon-
sible for personnel and culture and (2) failure to address personnel issues and harmonize
culture mismatch is a key reason for some of the derailed M&A-PMI relations, HRM has an
enormous opportunity to clarify M&A-PMI relations and even drive up their success rate.
The notion that expected “synergies” and accretive “value” depend on the management of
people and cultures is not new—and assertions such as “culture eats strategy for lunch” are
quite popular (Coffman & Sorensen, 2013)—but explaining why, when, and where an HRM
perspective and the AMO model can help firms deal with these issues constitutes an impor-
tant contribution. As noted, to better quantify the soft risks, acquirers must engage HRM
functions in premerger assessments and due diligence phases. Who knows more about people
and culture than HRM?
Future Research
Broadly, our message is that in the context of M&A-PMI relations, HRM is a management
system that is both highly underutilized in practice and understudied in scholarly research.
For example, some M&A studies—perhaps because of a focus on the mergers at the expense
of the acquisitions—give the impression that most acquired firms are fully absorbed into
acquiring firms. Seeking to bring a more balanced view, we stressed that PMIs exist along a
wide continuum, ranging from full absorption to partial preservation to, lastly, optimized
symbiosis. Yet for conceptual clarity, we trichotomized this continuum into three main PMI
outcomes: absorption, preservation, and symbiosis. Hence, one venue for future research is
to recognize this continuum more explicitly and bring greater clarity, perhaps by exploring
other M&A types or dimensions and PMI outcomes along this continuum. A related avenue
for future research concerns the relational context in which acquirers and targets implement
nonstructural coordination mechanisms. While Puranam and colleagues (2009) studied the
important role of common ground and knowledge, we argue that these constructs do not
capture “the reluctance of some recipients to accept knowledge from the outside (e.g., the
‘not invented here’ or NIH syndrome)” (Szulanski, 1996: 31). We suggest that concepts such
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20 Journal of Management / Month XXXX
as relationship capacity should receive more attention as they may play an important role in
enabling the development of trust underlying harvest & protect and link & promote
acquisitions.
M&A strategies and their PMI consequences are formulated and measured on the macrolevel,
but we stressed that their implementations through AMO-enhancing HRM practices are often
executed on the microlevel. We hope that future scholarship in this area will explore other, per-
haps more nuanced, modalities by which HRM practices mediate certain M&A-PMI relations.
Similarly, it is essential to explore how firms and their managers determine the amount of AMO-
enhancing HRM practices devoted to each M&A-PMI combination. Acquirers can engage in
certain M&A-HRM-PMI combinations, which is similar to what has been cultivated in the lit-
erature on ambidexterity where choices span spatial separation, temporal differentiation, and
“semistructures” (Eisenhardt, Furr, & Bingham, 2010). This is important for shifting the discus-
sion from describing M&A-PMI as events to explaining the processes by which each M&A-
HRM-PMI path is pursued so we can better understand how firms create PMI absorption,
preservation, and symbiosis. Addressing such issues is crucial, as scholars strive to unravel pro-
cesses that underpin M&A strategies and enrich our theorizing about PMI outcomes.
Conclusion
Seeking to bring greater clarity to M&A-PMI relations, we identified three main M&A
strategies: annex & assimilate, harvest & protect, and link & promote. We then matched these
strategies with three core PMI outcomes: respectively, absorption, preservation, and symbio-
sis. Finally, we developed a configurational framework (see Fig. 2) to explain why and how
AMO-enhancing HRM practices mediate the relationship between M&A strategies and PMI
outcomes. We hope that this effort will open up new opportunities for research and theory on
the various M&A-HRM-PMI paths.
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