Organisational Change Report: M&A, Communication, and HR Challenges

This report delves into the dynamics of organisational change, particularly within the context of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A). It examines the crucial role of change agents, both internal and external, and their influence on leading change, with a focus on Kotter's Change Model. The report further investigates the application of organisational communication strategies in addressing HR challenges during M&A, highlighting the Schramm Model of Communication and various communication channels. Additionally, it explores the use of organisational learning in managing employee stress and emotions. The report includes reflections on personal work experiences, SMART objectives, and case studies to provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic. The report is structured around key themes, including the influences of change agents, the use of organisational communication in meeting HR challenges, and the application of organisational learning in managing employee stress and emotions, providing a thorough analysis of these critical aspects.

ORGANISATIONAL
CHANGE

Table of Contents
Influences of change agent in leading organisational change during M&A..........................3
Use of organisational communication strategies in meeting HR challenges.........................5
Use of organisational learning in managing employees stress level and emotions in a company
................................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

Organisational change refers to the whole process of introducing change within an
organisation, in terms of, processes, technologies, culture as well as strategies (Shire, Holtgrewe
and Kerst, 2017). In addition to this, it also takes the account certain impacts which is
experienced by each department within a company as well . The report below is based on
organisational change during Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and it covers influences of
change agent in leading change, use of organisational communication strategies in meeting HR
challenges and use of organisational learning in managing employee stress level and emotions in
a company.
Influences of change agent in leading organisational change during M&A
Review of the theme
There have been significant changes in organisations witnessed during M&A in
hospitality industry. Furthermore, I aspire to be a manager in hospitality company where there is
a likelihood of change happening around departments and organisational structures. In addition
to this, changes within mergers and acquisitions are impact a firm for a long term and experience
quite an impact on change agents which must be acknowledged by a manager within such
industry. There are several change agents who have specific influence throughout change within
an organisation. During M&A, there were certain agents which were both external as well as
internal to the organisation and both these categories had effective influence on leading change.
As for internal agent, there were managers, employees and executives. In addition to this,
external change agents counted for suppliers, investors and government (Gerlitz, 2015).
I came across several theories related to change management which allowed the change
agents to function effectively and influence the overall process of change. However, one
prominent theory which helped me in gaining a better understanding of this influence in leading
change. This theory is Kotter's Change Model, which is a highly effective model which is
appropriate for analysing the influence of change agents.
Application of theories/models in organisations
Another sector which has faced merger and acquisition in recent times is
telecommunication. Recently, Apple acquired PowerbyProxy. Organisational change within the
company is also influenced by several change agents. In this scenario, internal change agents had
much of an impact within the case of the organisation. However, entities which play a very

crucial role within such a change within the company are CEO's, managers and leaders. All act
as a change agent towards leading change within the organisation (Rusly, Sun and Corner, 2015).
Managers and leaders within the company should operate actively towards motivating
employees within the company. In addition to this, it is also necessary that a vision related to the
change is created which is facilitated throughout the organisation. Kotter's Change Management
model deals with the same concept of creating a vision and facilitating the same to ensure
effective transition of an organisation to restructure itself as per requirements. Leaders, which
are managers and CEO of the hotel should first create a sense of urgency within the overall
organisation in relation with the change. Within the company, change agents such as customers
and government regulations have quite an influence on the operations of a firm while Mergers &
Acquisitions (Elsetouhi, Elbeltagi and Haddoud, 2015). Customers change their preferences and
demands repeatedly, due to which, companies like Apple are influenced to change their
structures so that they could keep service users satisfied. In addition to this, changing
government regulations also influence a firm in merging its operations with another company in
order to effectively enhance their functionality within the market. This is how a sense of urgency
is created within the company. A series of steps follows after this step, which are creating a
coalition, forming a vision, enlisting volunteers, removing barriers, generate short-term wins,
sustain acceleration and institute change. Change agent within the organisation are required to
function actively in all these stages which generates a positive influence of these agents on the
organisation.
Leaders within this process create strong and probable influence which helps in leading
such a structural change during M&A. Through using strong motivational techniques, a two-way
informative pathway is built by these leaders which helps in creating a vision and integrating
efforts of each organisational employee towards facilitation of change within M&A.
Reflection of application of theories/models in personal work experience
In my opinion, change agents play a very important and effective role within the
company which is essential for facilitating professional experiences of manager as they could be
one whilst bringing change within the company. I always aspired to become a manager in
hospitality industry (Carroll and Helfert, 2015). However, in the past, this approach was not
effectively implemented, enhancing difficulties in convincing and persuading others towards
change. The reason for the same Is that people within an organisation are likely to achieve work

as per their own pattern in which they are comfortable in. Through application of Kotter's
Change Model, at present my skills in relation to being a change agent myself has improved. It
has currently helped me to create an effective vision and persuade other individuals within the
hotel to appropriately follow the same and integrate their efforts towards the change. However, I
found it quite challenging in learning the aspects of how to be an effective change agent and
how to apply Kotter's model in order to lead change within the company. This is because there is
quite a resistance and backlash faced by the organisation by employees which cause a barrier in
leading change. I realised that change agents are thus, very much important within an
organisation in order to remove such barriers and influence positive behaviour within the
company with respect to M&A. In future too, being a change agent as well as this change
management model would enhance my capabilities as a manager to lead a change during merger
and acquisition. Moreover, it would help be establish a culture of change within the organisation
which would further enhance flexibility of the company (Ding and et. al., 2015).
SMART Objectives
These objective refers to ones which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and
Time-Bound. In order to improve in relation to apply Kotter's Change Model and being an
influential change agent, the smart objective is mentioned below:
I plan to improve my change management skills to reduce employee resistance by at least
20% within the next 6 months of Merger and Acquisition.
Use of organisational communication strategies in meeting HR challenges
Review of the theme
Communication refers to a procedure which is adopted by organisations for facilitation of
crucial information within and outside the organisation. It allows an organisation to set up
channels which helps each department within the firm to provide as well as acquire effective and
useful information. Moreover, there are several challenges which Human Resource Faces during
the Merger and Acquisition. For instance, it is quite a challenge for the HR to communicate the
employees and justifying the reasons for M&A. Further, another challenge counts for assessing
corporate cultures and integrate homogeneity within cultures of both the companies. However,
all these challenges could be solved by applying effective communication strategies to overcome
each of these challenges. The reason for which this theme has been chosen is that communication

has an appropriate and effective role within Mergers and Acquisitions. Furthermore, application
of its strategy would help me in appropriately enhance my skills with respect to change which
takes place within the company.
However, there were many models such as Aristotle and Berlo's model which were
analysed and studied by me to find out the most effective method though which communication
strategies be applied within the hotel during M&A. Out of all the theories within the lot, the
most effective, in my opinion, is Schramm Model of Communication.
Application of theories in organisations
Mergers and Acquisition requites an organisation to appropriately enhance the
adaptability of the company towards change. To attain this purpose, the Hotel is requited to
effectively communicate with their employees and apply several strategies which persuade them
in adapting and implementing the change within the company.
Companies effectively experiencing certain changes in structure and culture during the
process of Merger and Acquisition. This raises quite a few dilemmas for HR which only could be
overcome through applying certain communication strategies. Schramm's Model of
Communication could help the hotel in effectively enhance effectiveness within the organisation.
This model works on the concept that any information which is to be facilitated within an
organisation is quite useful in case it is not communicated well amongst the employees within
the hotel. In this theory, encoding plays a crucial role and this could be a communication strategy
for HR to appropriately overcome several challenges which they face during Mergers and
Acquisition. There are four components within this model, which are Sender, Message, Receiver
as well as Semantic Barriers. To effectively ensure appropriate provision of information and
accurate interpretation, it is very important for the company to adopt effective and relevant
channels of communication. Along with this model, these could also be well utilised as a
strategies. There are several communication channels comprising of both verbal and non-verbal
communication modes such as meetings, circulars, e-mails, training, etc., which helps an
organisation in communicating the change during M&A and persuade a large number of
audience to adapt the same. Furthermore, choosing the most appropriate type of communication
channel also assists an organisation in better facilitation and accurate interpretation of the
services. Managers and Leaders of the hotel must undertake several case studies in order to
understand communication and application of its strategies during M&A. The biggest example

in this case is related to FCMB merger which could be used as a guidance for managers of
Central Ridge Boutique Hotel to ensure effective handling of change with communication.
Within that merger, interactive communication mechanism was adopted, which is known as
“village square” (The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2018). Within the
same, each staff member is provided with effective opportunity to express their opinions, fears
and concerns which is quite essential in terms of their acceptance towards change. Branch
Managers within this case were quite active in adopting different forms of media in relation to
share information about merger. Moreover, banks they were merging with were also made
familiar amongst the staff members using communication. The strategies adopted by the firm
reflect the Schramm Model of communication as they applied effective encoding and decoding
of information while communicating the merger and acquisition among the members.
This could be a strategy which could ensure accurate interpretation of information and
could justify the principles of Schramm's Model of Communication. Managers should take into
account the participation of staff members to appropriately overcome the communication barrier
and help them to understand culture of the organisation they merge with. However, according to
my opinion, it is very important for the organisation to adopt this model within the overall
management. Managers should use variety of channels like e-mails and methods like meetings
which would peacefully communicate M&A to organisational employees.
Reflection of application of model in personal work experience
Schramm's Model of Communication is quite effective for me in case I want to excel as a
manager of a hospitality organisation (Boussebaa, 2015). There were several challenges in
application of these strategies and elements of this model such as encoding and decoding the
information, for instance, choice of appropriate mode of communication within the organisation
which could ensure proper encoding and decoding of the messages. However, this has enhanced
my communication skills in terms of facilitation of important and necessary conversations within
the overall organisation. In future too, this model as well as the case study would assist me in
applying effective as well as relevant strategies to spread information which is related to Merger
and Acquisition. Furthermore, as a manager, it would make me more competent in establishing
an integrated culture within the company which would also contribute in reducing the turnover.
SMART Objectives

This theme made me realise that it is very important for managers to enhance their
communication skills to ensure adaptability of individuals with respect to Mergers and
Acquisitions (Maletič, Maletič and Gomišček, 2016).
I aim at enhancing organisational communication skills by at least 20% within the six
months of training related to the same. The measuring of these specific skills would be the rising
level of persuasion amongst the organisation in relation to merger and acquisition.
Use of organisational learning in managing employees stress level and emotions in a company
Review of the theme
Throughout mergers and acquisition, employees within an organisation are subjected to
high emotional and stress levels as the whole shift in organisational structure force them to
mould their ways with which they were accustomed to. This theme is chosen for the report as it
this phenomena is quite usual in business organisations. In addition to this, there are various
challenges which are faced by employees of the organisation due to M&A. Moreover, as a
manager, it is very important for me to learn how mergers and acquisitions impact individuals
within a firm. In addition to this, there are several appropriate and essential models and concepts
which are very much essential to understand in order to manage stress levels and emotions using
organisational learning. Moreover, there are several theories which govern organisational
learning and that could help managers within the organisation to manage the stress and emotional
levels within the employees through organisational learning like cognitive learning and
behaviourism. However, out of all these theories, Constructivism could be used as an effective
theory for the same (Virtanen and Kaivo-oja, 2015).
Application of theories in organisations
Change is an inevitable aspect within an organisation, however, its adaptability is another
aspect which must be appropriately enhanced in case a company wishes to evolve and perform
under different conditions. Emotional and stress levels of employees are likely to rise within
merger and acquisition as there is a specific amount of uncertainty associated with the change
which would be brought by the overall structural and functional changes. Furthermore, with
changes in work culture, employees don't seem fit with the idea of working under the same work
environment. Therefore, this is the major cause of employee resistance and their turnover.

Constructivism is a theory which works on the fact that people construct their own
knowledge through effective experiences. Managers should adopt Participative Leadership,
which provides staff an opportunity to construct their new ideas on the basis of information
which is provided to them. Furthermore, it also enhances the effectiveness of their operations
during the time of Mergers and Acquisitions. Managers must encourage them to generate their
own mental models which would facilitate learning within the new ways. In addition to this,
conflicts too must be resolved through a detailed reflection on theoretical explanations (Prause,
2015).
A case study approach could also be well applied by the company, one of which could be
Volvo's Acquisition of Samsung's Heavy Industry's Division of construction equipment (Lee,
Kim and Park, 2015). The firms used constructive approach to integrate the culture and function
in an effective manner. In addition to this, this also allowed the organisation in effectively reduce
the stress levels of employees and reduced the turnover rate. Thus, with such effective
application, it is essential that there must be an effective use of constructivism through which,
better results related to the change could be acquired.
Reflection of application of theories in personal work experience
Application of constructivism could help me in developing my mental and learning
process and encourage the same in the organisational working environment. Furthermore, this
has also helped me in focusing effectively on methods and strategies which could help me in
reducing the overall stress and emotional level of the company (Ziaee Bigdeli and et. al., 2018).
With training and development programmes and better organisational learning, constructivism
could help me in excelling my role as a manager within the hospitality organisation. In addition
to this, it would also give me an opportunity for making my subordinates quite competent in
working under different culture with same effective level of performance. Moreover, another
opportunity which could be experienced by me could be the decline in resistance rate and better
flexibility among the organisation.
In my opinion, there are several ways through which organisations could apply in order
to reduce stress and emotional level through organisational learning. For instance, they could
adopt practices like Brainstorming, where individuals would be given a chance to present their
ideas on how best to deal with change and what processes and leadership could help the

company in dealing with the same in the most effective manner. This would help in ensuring
employee engagement, along with reduction in stress levels within the organisation. In addition,
another method which managers could adopt in relation to reduce stress levels is indulging
individuals in teamwork. Doing so will allow employees to be familiar with another culture and
could better perform during M&A. Furthermore, problem based learning could also be used by
organisations which would allow managers to be effective in relation to preparing employees
within the organisation to deal with the change and manage their stress and emotional level well.
SMART Objectives
This theme is quite effective in making me realise that constructivism and organisational
learning could be appropriately used by me to reduce stress within the company.
To attain this, I plan at reducing employee complains and stress levels by at least 25% by
the end of 6 months of application of constructivism learning approach. It would be measured by
their frequency of complains (Tukker and Tischner, 2017).
CONCLUSION
Upon reflecting on the other themes, it could be concluded by the information above, that
organisational change is quite effective and inevitable part of a company. Moreover, it is
essential for managers and leaders to appropriately manage change within the firm in order to
ensure a smooth working environment. Change agent play a crucial role within the organisation
in leading organisational change. In addition to this, communication strategies could be used by
an organisation to communicate the change within the company and enhance the adaptability of
employees for the same. Lastly, it is also essential for managers to apply organisational learning
as a method to reduce the stress levels within the organisation.

REFERENCES
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A case study of Sweden's Volvo and South Korea's Samsung. International Business
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