Cultural differences in working environments

Differences in management style between merging corporations

Incidence

Difficulties in transnational mergers tend to be associated with the differing emphasis distinct cultures place upon individual and team effort, or the freedom of staff to voice opinions. Inconclusive meetings may be a source of much frustration where one culture assumes that decisions need to be made at a higher level and the other assumes that such decisions can be delegated to the level of the meeting. Some cultures prefer elaboration of abstract models, others prefer a more pragmatic approach.

Claim

The scale of corporate mergers and acquisitions places enormous pressure on companies to learn to incorporate vastly different working styles and practices. In 1998 it was estimated that up to 50 percent of such mergers fail to achieve their objectives, notably because of factors associated with the inability of cultures to mix, and the consequent collapse of staff morale.