Essay On Cultural Integration

(one group imposes its culture to the other); integration (the two firms are integrated structurally, but less so culturally and neither tries to dominate the other, which can happen without conflicts only if the acquire accepts to allow such autonomy); separation (the acquired group refuses to adopt the other firm’s culture altogether, and each will function independently if the acquire allows it); and deculturation (members of the merging firms are unwilling to adopt the other culture, which leads either to confusion or to the creation of a new shared culture). The authors suggest that the integration strategy adopted by each firm should be compatible. The chosen mode of integration will depend on the companies’ willingness to preserve their own culture, and on their perception of the other culture’s attractiveness. Therefore, the negative impact of cultural differences can be mitigated depending on the relative attractiveness of the new culture and by the chosen form of integration, as these will determine the level of interactions and conflicts between the companies. This theory received mixed empirical support, as some scholars backed it with evidence (Very et al., 1997; Morosini et al., 1998) while others determined that the link between cultural differences and performance is independent from the

The integration outcome is determined by employees’ perception of the other culture and of the integration process, rather than absolute differences of similarities in cultures, as it will determine their behaviour and willingness to integrate: indeed, as Smith (2006) argues, people are both a crucial factor in achieving change, and the biggest potential obstacle to