Rationalizing Change in Merger & Acquisition (M&A) Announcements

  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
  • The purpose of this study is to examine the use of strategic communication as a means of rationalizing organizational change through mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in selected news releases. The approach draws on literature reviews examining the link between communication approaches and M&A success. From the reviews, key themes emerged and formed the basis for the design of this study. This study applies discourse analysis methods to selected news releases in the energy sector to analyze the way the organization legitimizes the rationale or case for change through M&As. Findings reveal organizational strategy was the salient theme in rationalizing the M&As. This study also found vision, reason, identity and timing as well as use
    or reference to strategy, outcomes, preferred senders, and purposeful messaging were defining characteristics of M&As from a strategic communication and organizational change management perspective. This study contributes to advancing the understanding of strategic communication as a means to facilitate transformative change and how communication effectiveness may directly impact M&A success.

  • Date created
    2022-03-29
  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Type of Item
    Research Material
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-j6tf-tw81
  • License
    Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International