5 Why employees experiencing mergers and acquisitions think and act in terms of group dynamics of “us versus them”
Mergers and acquisitions can elicit a mentality among employees of “us versus them.” This is because the psychology sub-field of group processes and intergroup relations tells us that social situations which put people into groups elicit a sense of belonging and identity for people within one’s group but rivalry, hostility, or discrimination towards people outside the group or the outgroup (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). Employees could therefore respond to a merger or acquisition by seeing employees from the partner organization as “not one of us.” The field of group processes and intergroup ...
