People management in mergers and acquisitions in Sri Lanka: employee perceptions

Abstract

Though there is an increasing interest in and a growing amount of literature available on people management aspects of mergers and acquisitions (M&As), few studies have empirically examined employee experiences. Further, no such studies have been conducted in the Asian developing country context. From a practical standpoint results will provide practitioners with information that would be valuable for a better understanding of employee experiences of M&As and to enable understanding and addressing people management issues in M&As more effectively. The aim of the article is to present, compare, and discuss empirical evidence on employees' interpretations of their experiences of people management in two different types of bank mergers in Sri Lanka – extension merger and collaborative merger. For the study two banks were selected which had undergone an extension merger and a collaborative merger. From the two banks 109 employees responded to the survey questionnaire. The findings revealed that the employee perceptions are affected by the type of the merger and employees are less satisfied in the collaborative merger than in the extension merger. Further, findings revealed that age, gender, and marital status influence the perceptions of the respondents and among those age is the most influential. The article concludes with a discussion on the implications of the findings and research areas for further enquiry and understanding.