The Power of 'Organizational Culture' as a Discursive Formation in Merger Integration

Abstract

This paper argues that knowledge on 'organizational culture' has acquired authority and constitutes a 'truth' on mergers, a truth imbued with both enabling and constraining power effects. Taking a Foucauldian perspective, the paper theorizes 'organizational culture' as a discursive formation that is implicated in a regime of truth. This regime has involved a process of disciplinary normalization in merger integration with the result that 'culture' has become naturalized to 'organization'. Drawing on ethnographic research into merger integration, these arguments are illustrated through two vignettes titled 'surveillance' and 'sanctuary'. These represent the reproduction of, and resistance to, the truth effects of 'organizational culture'. The implications of critically examining 'organizational culture' in this way are twofold: first, it opens up space for other merger discourses, and second, it enables positioning of merger accounts within cultural discourses in a way that forwards productive rather than divisive effects in theory and practice.

Power in Management and Organization Science

“…This approach shifts the focus beyond ideological considerations because there is no authentic or true self prior to the appearance of power. As such, the power of subjection lies the way it can create discursive or narrative 'truth effects' that are lived on an everyday subjective basis (Boje, 1995;Riad, 2005).…”

The Process of Postmerger Integration: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

“…In contrast to the studies discussed above, several scholars have taken a critical perspective on the role of culture in PMI, identifying the limits and even biases inherent in studying cultural differences in this context (Riad, 2005;Risberg, 2001;Vaara, 2002;Vaara et al, 2014). Vaara et al (2014) examined managers' attributions regarding causes of PMI performance, and found that managers attributed failure -but not success -to cultural differences.…”

Cultural clashes in a “merger of equals”: The case of high‐tech start‐ups

“…This literature also tends to view culture during postmerger integration as an outcome of a premeditated integration approach (e.g., Bower, 2004;Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991;Morosini & Singh, 1994;Nahavandi & Malekzadeh, 1988;Schweiger, 2002). Although the extant literature on culture clashes is overly deterministic, the constructionist approach posits that the impact of culture on postmerger integration is best explained through the discursive and sensemaking traditions of cultural theory (e.g., Gertsen, Soderberg, & Torp, 1998;Hellgren et al, 2002;Riad, 2005;Soderberg & Holden, 2002;Vaara, 2000Vaara, , 2002Vaara, , 2003. In this view, the merged cultures are social constructs that reflect both the context of identity construction and the social organization of meaning in postmerger integration.…”