A Study on Workforce Integration in an International Acquisition

International acquisitions are extremely difficult to maneuver and success is far from guaranteed. Navigating through financial statements is one thing, but trying to link together two or more geographically and culturally diverse workforces is an entirely another thing. This study analyzes fourteen employee interviews from four different companies involved in international acquisitions within the last ten years. It develops a comprehensive comparison of companies looking to partially integrate through hands-off management or fully integrate through synergistic collaboration of workforces. The analysis looks at the actions companies take once the decision is made to grow internationally through mergers and acquisitions in order to form strategic roadmaps at the corporate level and integration roadmaps at the deal-specific level based on whether the companies intend to integrate partially or fully. Of course, different approaches to those actions yield different cultural and operational outcomes, but both convey strong messages that managers should understand when considering an international acquisition.