Conflicts Resulting from Mergers and Acquisitions Growth Strategies

Running head: MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Mergers and Acquisitions
Student Name
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MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS 2
Executive Summary
This report investigates the conflicts resulting from mergers and acquisitions growth strategies.
The report posits that even though mergers are important in pooling firms’ resources together for
competitive advantage in the market, 83% of these strategies end up failing. The case of DeWaal
Pharmaceuticals and BioHealth Lab demonstrates the pitfalls of ignoring cultural integration.
Further, the report compares the merger with relevant management theories and concepts and
gives recommendations for conflict resolution and ways to get the merger back on track.

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS 3
Table of contents
Mergers and Acquisitions................................................................................................................1
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Mergers and Acquisitions................................................................................................................4
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................4
1.2 A critique of the integration process......................................................................................7
1.3 Conflict Resolution................................................................................................................9
1.4 Process for the two senior executives and HR to integrate.................................................10
1.5 Evaluation of the usefulness of the organizational theory and practices.............................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS 4
Mergers and Acquisitions
1.0 Introduction
This report examines a merger between DeWaal Pharmaceuticals and BioHealth Lab and
compares them to contemporary real-world cases. Mergers and acquisitions occur for various
reasons in businesses. It has however been established that the biggest motivator is the alignment
of financial, products, and markets to position the growth of the merged entities as is the case
between DeWaal and BioHealth (Marks & Mirvis, 2010; Light, 2001).
In retrospect, some cases, mergers and acquisitions result from a challenging business
environment that threatens the merging parties. Such threats could be due to technological
changes. In the recent past, many companies have done mergers and acquisitions due to a
growing threat from perceived technologically advanced competition. Case in point is Lenovo
and IBM merging to be more competitive against rivals such as Apple, Hewlett Packard, and
Dell (Snow, 2011).
Another reason for Mergers and acquisitions is due to fear of a rapidly shifting economic
environment. Unilever, for instance, acquired Best Foods in Asia due to a challenging economic
climate in Europe and the United States. This was as a result of the economic crisis which shrank
the purchasing parity of Unilever traditional customers. This was also coupled with the lower
cost of production in Asia as compared to the western countries (Marks & Mirvis, 2010).
Even though organizations hurry into mergers and acquisitions, the human resource
aspect is often ignored given lower precedence than financial and market prospects. This often
results in culture shock which leads to mistrust between employees. Research shows that about