Managing the post-acquisition integration process: How the human integration and task integration processes interact to foster value creation

The paper reports a study of the post-acquisition integration process in th ree foreign acquisitions made by Swedish multinationals. Detailed interview data and questionnaire responses in both acquiring and acquired firms are presented. The sub-processes of task integration. and human integration are separated out and it is shown that effective integration in these cases wa s achieved through a two-phase process. In phase one, task integration led to a satisficing solution that limited the interaction between acquired and acquiring units, while human integration proceeded smoothly and led to cul tural convergence and mutual respect. In phase two, there was renewed task integration built on the success of the human integration that had been ach ieved, which led to much greater interdependencies between acquired and acq uiring units.