Mergers, organizational culture, and cultural leadership

One of the biggest obstacles in the way of the merging of two organizations is organizational culture. Each organization has its own unique culture and most often, when brought together, these cultures clash. When mergers fail employees point to issues such as identity, communication problems, human resources problems, ego clashes, and inter-group conflicts, which all fall under the category of “cultural differences”. One way to combat such difficulties is through cultural leadership. Organizational leaders must also be cultural leaders and help facilitate the change from the two old cultures into the one new culture. This is done through cultural innovation followed by cultural maintenance.


Cultural innovation includes:

Creating a new culture: recognizing past cultural differences and setting realistic expectations for change

Changing the culture: weakening and replacing the old cultures

Cultural maintenance includes:

Integrating the new culture: reconciling the differences between the old cultures and the new one

Embodying the new culture: Establishing, affirming, and keeping the new culture