At least 4 page? Review scenarios involving Company A, which has been acquired b

Question

At least 4 page?

Review scenarios involving Company A, which has been acquired by Company B. Company A was founded in 1956 in Mobile, Alabama. The average age of its workforce is 57 and it is comprised of 40% Caucasian and 85% male. Company B was founded in 1997 in San Francisco, California. The average age of its workforce is 35 and it is comprised of 45% Caucasian and 50% male.

These two companies have been staunch competitors in the marketplace for several years and the employees of Company A are resentful of integrating with their former rival. There are many strategic and ethical challenges involved in this acquisition. A few of the goals of the acquisition project are listed below:

Managing the Communication and Information Sharing:

The company wants to keep employees informed of how the acquisition will impact them.

The company wants to be sure that they provide enough information to satisfy the employees, but not provide so much that the employees feel overwhelmed.

The company wants to be sure that the timing of the communication matches their execution of the changes within the two organizations.

Managing the Consolidation and Changes:

There is no doubt that there will be layoffs as a result of the acquisition. The company wants to do what is best for the acquisition in a way that inflicts the least amount of harm to the existing employees.

The company wants to make the decisions about who to layoff in the fairest way possible.

The company wants to try and limit exposure to potential discrimination (age and gender) stemming from the layoffs.

Managing the Relocations of Some the Employees:

Another impact of acquisitions is that employees may be asked to relocate in order to maintain employment in the newly formed organization.

The company wants to manage the expenses and potential disruption with the relocations.

The company wants to assess relocations verses hiring new employees locally.

Let us look at the role and responsibilities of HR managers regarding managing the company’s goals related to the recent acquisition.

Instructions:

You have a wide variety of employees encompassing different ages, genders, and ethnic backgrounds represented in these two companies. As a Strategic HR Director, your goal is to create a workforce that will effectively move the newly formed company forward.

Now, address the following issues:

Identify all of the information you would need to effectively manage the three goals above.

Identify the challenges and potential issues related to implementing the three goals above.

Develop recommendations for strategies to address these challenges and help the newly formed company meet its goals.

Write a five-to-seven-page report in Word format.

Explanation / Answer

The three goals, namely:

Following is the information required to effectively manage the above three goals:

As given in the case, company B has more of a young employee ratio as compared to company A. Thus, B has an advantage of being more active and energetic in their patterns as compared to A.

A company always needs young souls and energetic vibes in their pockets as extra load and consistent form with more power can be expected from the, as compared to people above the age bracket of 50-55. So, during layoff, it should think about removing personnel who are not performing well, but mostly from a merit point of view too. Higher age bracket people will reflect more experience and more expertise. To a proper blend of reasoning and tact will be required to lay off people. Thus, fairest way to lay off would be on merit basis. I.e. worst performers out, potential and excellent workforce stays put.

B has more female employees than A. This is a great work culture to sport. This visual picture of an equal amount of workforce will help, after acquisition, to limit exposure to potential discrimination. To blend the relationships of people of different gender and age group, the company, on the occasion of the acquisition, should host a party, basically a get-together and know-all fest, so that everybody tries to gel-up with one another and at least knows each other via face recognition.

As we know the ratio of age brackets, to fire a candidate and hire a new one is costlier than training the old employees and expect improvement. Hiring and training has many costs involved. Rather than incurring so many costs, small amount and time should be invested in proper efficient training and development of potential and available employees for effective results.

B has been formed lately as compared to A. Thus, working culture and philosophy of A and B are different from each other. Thus, company should acknowledge culture and philosophies of both firms and try to bring them together or apply new principles combing both firm’s cultures and philosophies so that employees try to unite and they all are on the same page.

To satisfy the employees, basic knowledge is enough. This will do no harm.

Caucasians means the employees are from a different motherland. This means life here might not be as easy as for the natives. Thus, proper care needs to be taken for them as they are in a great ratio. Their mentality is different from that of natives. Thus, to have their confidence and gain effective and efficient outcomes from their work, it’s quite necessary to take care of them in a good way.

A has almost 85% male. Thus, they might need a lesson or a talk on how to react or behave in an environment of equal women workforce and how to maintain a friendly and a formal plus health and a competitive and controversy-free working environment.

Challenges would be:

Company A was founded way earlier than B. Thus, differentiation in thinking, working culture and philosophies is inevitable. To match the vibes and rhythm of these two mentalities is a task.

Average age of company A is more than that of B, thus way of thinking and way of working, plus energy levels and methods of work differs. Thus, match making of both of them is again a headache.

Company A works in Alabama and B in California. Both have different air, different lifestyle, different arena, different ethics and different standards. Thus, gelling-up together and having the same point of view is a bit difficult.

Company A is male dominant and B is equal gendered. Thus, in A, there might be lack of professional confidence in women unlikely in B, where the nature is competitive. A proper training and development session would help build confidence and create a healthy environment to work.

Company A and B are arch rivals since years. They are resentful against each other. Thus, to change this attitude is again a task.

Recommendation for strategies.

As given in the case, company A and B both have equal differences and things to worry.

But with proper strategies and recommendations, such things can be worked out.

Now usually, to know one another, what does a normal group or an individual do? They meet up. They socialize. That’s the same thing which can help here too.

To know one another, keep a gathering, a fest or an event, on the occasion of the company’s takeover. Now, throwing a party does not necessarily mean all people will interact with each other. So to make sure that happens, you need to keep small activities, games etc. so that people come together and they interact. This will help knowing of faces and knowing of selves.

To inculcate sense of bonding, one needs to have such gatherings as well as various speakers coming to the company and helping lay foundation in the new way of thinking. Motivational speaking and psychological talks will help bonding mentalities and evolve effective work culture.

It is not easy to bond people of different age and people with big age gaps. This needs proper planning, training and execution of strategies.

To gel-up standardization of Alabama and California, it will take time and efforts. Making of new teams and groups, which has people of different age group, gender and locality will help.

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