Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Meeting abstract › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Meeting abstract › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The Politics of Acquisitions
T2 - An Upper Echelons Perspective
AU - Lou, Bowen
AU - Shepherd, Neil
AU - Strobl, Andreas
AU - Bauer, Florian
PY - 2022/8/1
Y1 - 2022/8/1
N2 - Acquisitions are among the most complex, exacting, intractable, and high stakes decisions faced by Top Management Teams (TMTs). Consequently, they are inherently political in nature—provoking conflicting viewpoints and power struggles among executives. While political behavior is a central construct in organizational theory, and despite widespread acknowledgement of its inevitable presence in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) decision making, there is a shortage of theory and evidence concerning its antecedents and consequences. Consequently, to address this gap, we draw upon the upper echelons literature to develop and test a theoretical model of political behavior in M&A decision making. Focusing on the psychological context surrounding the TMT, we theorize that TMT cognitive diversity fuels political behavior which in turn undermines acquisition performance. Critically, we also theorize that TMT cohesion serves as the central generative mechanism enabling acquirers to counteract the effects of TMT cognitive diversity and thereby dampen damaging political behavior. We test our theoretical model using a field sample of 109 acquisitions in the UK, utilizing direct psychometric measures validated with objective secondary performance data. The results support our theory, and TMT cognitive diversity leads to political behavior during M&A decision making. TMT cohesion reduces political behavior, it also interacts with cognitive diversity, and contrary to our theory, cognitive diversity appears to weaken the benefits of cohesion. Based on these findings, we discuss the important theoretical and practical implications
AB - Acquisitions are among the most complex, exacting, intractable, and high stakes decisions faced by Top Management Teams (TMTs). Consequently, they are inherently political in nature—provoking conflicting viewpoints and power struggles among executives. While political behavior is a central construct in organizational theory, and despite widespread acknowledgement of its inevitable presence in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) decision making, there is a shortage of theory and evidence concerning its antecedents and consequences. Consequently, to address this gap, we draw upon the upper echelons literature to develop and test a theoretical model of political behavior in M&A decision making. Focusing on the psychological context surrounding the TMT, we theorize that TMT cognitive diversity fuels political behavior which in turn undermines acquisition performance. Critically, we also theorize that TMT cohesion serves as the central generative mechanism enabling acquirers to counteract the effects of TMT cognitive diversity and thereby dampen damaging political behavior. We test our theoretical model using a field sample of 109 acquisitions in the UK, utilizing direct psychometric measures validated with objective secondary performance data. The results support our theory, and TMT cognitive diversity leads to political behavior during M&A decision making. TMT cohesion reduces political behavior, it also interacts with cognitive diversity, and contrary to our theory, cognitive diversity appears to weaken the benefits of cohesion. Based on these findings, we discuss the important theoretical and practical implications
U2 - 10.5465/AMBPP.2022.10379abstract
DO - 10.5465/AMBPP.2022.10379abstract
M3 - Meeting abstract
VL - 2022
JO - Academy of Management Proceedings
JF - Academy of Management Proceedings
SN - 0065-0668
IS - 1
ER -