CONFLICT MANAGEMENT The Psychology of conflict and conflict ...

386 TERRY AND AMIOT
Different psychological approaches have been proposed to understand
employees’ reactions to organizational mergers (see Seo & Hill, 2005).
Studies using a stress-and-coping approach have focused on variables
located at the individual level of analysis, such as employees’ appraisals
of the merger situation and the coping strategies used to deal with it (e.g.,
Terry & Callan, 1997; Terry, Callan, & Sartori, 1996). The organizational fit
approach implicitly recognizes the intergroup dimension of the merger
by proposing that the successful integration of both organizations into
an overarching, merged entity depends on the degree of fit between the
values and the practices endorsed by the management of the two merging
organizations (Buono, Bowditch, & Lewis, 1985; Larsson & Lubatkin,
2001). To account for the fact that conflict and rivalries are often observed
during mergers, however, and for the processes by which the two merging
organizations come to fit together and form one new superordinate
group, an intergroup approach is warranted. Because mergers involve
the imposition of a new superordinate identity on employees, while also
requiring them to let go of their premerger organizational identity, mergers
trigger the type of recategorization and social identification processes
that are central to intergroup theories (e.g., Anastasio, Bachman,
Gaertner, & Dovidio, 1997; Haunschild, Moreland, & Murrell, 1994; Terry,
Carey, & Callan, 2001; van Knippenberg, van Knippenberg, Monden, &
de Lima, 2002).
To provide an understanding of employee responses to an organizational
merger, this chapter outlines an intergoup perspective, based on
the social identity approach (Hogg & Abrams, 1988; Hogg & Terry, 2001;
Tajfel & Turner, 1979). From this perspective, identification and recategorization
processes (Gaertner, Dovidio, Bachman, & Rust, 1993; Hornsey
& Hogg, 2000) are key factors that need to be considered in an effort to
understand intergroup conflict in response to an organizational merger.
These processes also need to be considered longitudinally (Cartwright
& Cooper, 1992; Seo & Hill, 2005), as intergroup dynamics are in flux in
the context of a merger. Results of three studies are presented. The aims
of these studies were to demonstrate that intergroup rivalry and conflict
does occur in the context of organizational mergers and that the nature
and extent of this conflict can be predicted from a social identity perspective.
The second aim of the research was to examine the effects of the
beliefs about the sociostructural characteristics of the intergroup relations
in the new organization and justice perceptions on employees’ adjustment
during this change. The third goal of the research was to investigate, in a
longitudinal manner, how these social identification and justice processes
operate as the merger unfolds. An intergroup perspective has considerable
potential to contribute to the current literature on organizational
mergers, given that reducing conflict and effectively managing organizational
diversity in newly formed superordinate organizations is likely
to have considerable benefits for employee well-being and morale, while
it also enhances the likelihood that the merger will be successful. A focus