Employee adjustment to an organizational merger: An intergroup perspective

Adopting an intergroup perspective, the research was designed to examine pr edictors of employee responses to an organizational merger Data were collec ted from 465 fleet staff employed in a newly merged airline company. As pre dicted from social identity theory, the negative effects of the merger were most marked for employees of the low-status premerger organization. Also, as predicted, the perception of permeable intergroup boundaries in the new organization was associated positively with identification with the new org anization and both job-related and person-related outcomes among employees of the low-status premerger organization but negatively with person-related outcomes among employees of the high-status premerger organization. As pre dicted, there was some evidence that the main and interactive effects invol ving status, perceived permeability, and intergroup contact on employee adj ustment were mediated through strength of identification with the new organ ization.