title: Acquisition narrative balancing: consistent communication for emotional events: a multi-case study investigating the emotional response of acquired middle managers to acquisition announcements
Creators: name: Sweet, Veronika
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2022

description: For the reasons for failure rates of corporate acquisitions, a gap of knowledge still exists and 
attracts considerable attention from both practitioners and academics. The continued 
acceleration of merger and acquisition activity, globally, and across all industry sectors, demands 
greater understanding of this gap in knowledge. With increasing acquisitions, the likelihood of 
experiencing such an event, with the resulting emotional responses affecting the working life of 
middle managers, increases too. In an acquisition, the acquired middle managers are key figures 
and deserve better understanding of their relevance for an acquisition’s success.
Acquisitions are emotional life events. However, examination of the extant body of literature 
reveals a paucity of scholarly exploration of the acquisition narrative on the emotional responses 
of middle managers in the acquired corporation. This study addresses the problem, and 
examines, through a multi-case study design, the emotional responses of acquired middle 
managers in the acquisition narrative. This study addresses three research questions: (1) How 
do acquired middle managers describe the acquisition announcement? (2) How do acquired 
middle managers describe their emotional response to the acquisition announcement? (3) Which 
intervening factors influence the relationship between the acquisition announcement and the 
emotional response?
Data is selected, prepared, and analysed in accordance with the subtle realist ontology, moderate 
constructivism epistemology and the stance of an empathetic observer. The research explores
four organisational cases, and investigates the emotional responses described, retrospectively, in 
semi-structured interviews. Data analysis and synthesis result in four findings: Acquisition 
narratives being sequences of the Pre-narrative and the Acquisition Announcement (Finding 1), 
sequential emotional responses initiated by sequential acquisition announcements (Finding 2), 
catalysts for consistency comprising perceived legitimacy and consonance (Finding 3), and
perceived legitimacy and consonance acting as stimuli for middle managers’ appraisals, resulting 
in sequential emotional responses (Finding 4). These findings contribute to both theory and 
practice by offering an emergent theoretical framework on the nature of the relationship between 
the acquisition announcements and the middle managers' emotional responses and the
modification of existing Emotional Balancing Theory. This research presents a circular model of 
acquisition narrative balancing with four stages. The emergent theoretical framework provides 
the foundation for further research and the focus for practitioners in the acquisition planning 
process. It specifically provides organisational leaders of the acquired and acquiring entity with a 
better understanding of what requires consideration in their communication strategy towards the 
middle managers.