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http://lea.sagepub.com Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash: Can Cultural Leadership Lessen the Casualties?
Michelle C. Bligh Leadership 2006; 2; 395 DOI: 10.1177/1742715006068937 The online version of this article can be found at: http://lea.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/4/395
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Leadership
Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash: Can Cultural Leadership Lessen the Casualties?
Michelle C. Bligh, Claremont Graduate University, USA
Abstract Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity continues to rise, despite evidence that the majority of M&As fail to meet the nancial and synergistic expectations of shareholders or employees. Post-merger cultural clashes are often blamed for disappointing M&A outcomes, yet little research exists to guide organizations through the difcult process of cultural integration. In particular, the process of cultural leadership as an important inuence on merging organizational cultures and subcultures has been only sporadically examined. Through an analysis of interviews with 42 post-merger employees, this study qualitatively explores the construct of cultural leadership (Trice & Beyer, 1991, 1993). The results advance the denition and measurement of cultural leadership, bringing it out of the theoretical realm to explore the key processes of creation, change, and integration that comprise effective post-merger cultural leadership. These ndings have important implications for how organizations can anticipate post-merger cultural clashes and tailor leadership programs to address their underlying roots, ultimately enhancing merger success rates. Keywords culture; integration; leadership; merger/acquisition
Introduction
When cultures merge, the problems encountered are as instant as whiplash. (Fisher, 1999: 12) Neither culture nor leadership, when one examines each closely, can really be understood by itself. (Schein, 1992: 12) It is commonly reported in both academic and practitioner journals that organizational culture is vital to the success or failure of mergers and acquisitions. According to a 1999 Hewitt Associates survey of 218 major US organizations, integrating corporate cultures was cited as the top challenge for 69 per cent of surveyed companies (Troiano, 1999). Five years later, De Camara and Renjen (2004) asserted that merger activity would continue to gain momentum in 2004 and integration will remain a hot topic with senior executives. A wide variety of issues, including company identity, communication difculties, human resource problems, ego
Copyright 2006 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi) Vol 2(4): 395426 DOI: 10.1177/1742715006068937 www.sagepublications.com
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clashes, and inter-group conicts are often grouped under the umbrella term of cultural differences. As a result, culture is often made the scapegoat for the failure of mergers and acquisitions that, if not for culture, might otherwise have been profitable or even synergistic. According to Love and Gibson (1999: 51), to an escalating degree, culture clashes are drawing the heat for mergers and acquisitions that do not work out. The purpose of this study is to more systematically look at the role of cultural issues in a post-merger situation; specically, whether cultural leadership can help facilitate cultural integration, ultimately leading to more successful post-merger outcomes. Despite evidence that mergers frequently end in failure, M&A activity has been steadily increasing. A single day in October 2003 witnessed four deals valued at more than US$70 billion, the largest wave of activity since the 1990s bull market (De Camara & Renjen, 2004). This continual increase in merger activity seems contradictory to reports that approximately 50 to 80 per cent of all mergers fail to meet expectations (Honor & Maheia, 2003; Mallette et al., 2003; McCann & Gilkey, 1988; Mottola et al., 1997; Tetenbaum, 1999). Despite seemingly overwhelming evidence that mergers and acquisitions have extremely high failure rates, companies continue to see mergers as an irresistible way to cut costs and improve efciency (Tetenbaum, 1999). M&As can be a signicant source of trauma for both employees and managers, and often result in lowered trust, commitment, satisfaction, and productivity, and increased absenteeism, turnover, and attitudinal problems (e.g., Buono et al., 1985; Larsson & Lubatkin, 2001; Nahavandi & Malekzedah, 1988; Nikandrou et al., 2000; Schweiger & Denisi, 1991; Schweiger & Walsh, 1990). These human resource difculties may add substantial costs to the integration process and hinder the ability of the organization to achieve the desired synergistic benets of merging (Blake & Mouton, 1985; Haunschild et al., 1994; Weber, 1996). One conceptual approach to understanding the unique dynamics of a merger is to view the process as an attempt to combine organizations and departments with often very different cultural systems. As Martin (2002) points out, when organizations are examined from a cultural viewpoint, attention is drawn to aspects of organizational life that historically have often been ignored or understudied (p. 2). A vast array of research on organizational culture suggests that culture is a powerful determinant of both individual and group behavior, and pervades nearly every aspect of organizational life (for reviews, see Allaire & Firsirotu, 1984; Martin, 1992, 2002; Reichers & Schneider, 1990; Rousseau, 1990). Buono et al. (1985) argue that the full potency of organizational culture is evidenced during a merger and acquisition, which creates a series of cultural collisions that ripple through the organization and may disrupt its entire workings. Troiano (1999) cites cultural integration as one of the most vital and difcult challenges after a merger. Dutton et al. (1994) point out that distinctive organizational attributes often remain hidden to employees until the organizations collective identity is challenged (see also Albert & Whetten, 1985; Fiol, 1991). A merger invariably threatens this collective identity, indicating that cultural issues may be critical, yet understudied, determinants of merger successes and failures. Despite the continual popularity of mergers and acquisitions and an incipient recognition that cultural issues may play a vital role in determining M&A outcomes,
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Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh
few specic guidelines exist to assist organizations in managing this process. In particular, the role of leadership as an important inuence on merging organizational cultures and subcultures has been only sporadically examined (see Hunt, 1991; Schein, 1985; Sergiovanni & Corbally, 1984; Trice & Beyer, 1993). On one side, organizational culture scholars have critiqued what they see as the over-emphasis of leadership in both creating and sustaining values, emphasizing that leaders and managers cannot unilaterally impose a desired culture on their organizations. In reaction to early conceptions of culture that treated it as a tool for managerial manipulation, many scholars have critiqued these cultural magicians (Ott, 1989) who sell the belief that corporate culture can be controlled, changed, and manipulated from the top down in ways which meet the managerial needs for cost effectiveness and productivity gains (Turner, 1986: 104). In addition, other scholars have questioned whether cultural management is even possible (Alvesson, 1990; Linstead & GraftonSmall, 1992). The culture literature thus suggests that by the nature of its stability, organizational culture, once established, is difcult to change (Langan-Fox & Tan, 1996: 277). In contrast, the leadership literature has for the most part over-emphasized the role of top-down leadership in single-handedly creating, maintaining, and changing cultural values. The recent emphasis on charismatic and transformational leadership has contributed to the notion that cultural change emanates from the highest level of the organization, and is synonymous with truly amazing leaders with almost clairvoyant visions. In addition, treatments of cultural change often reect a romance of leadership, in which cultural transformations may be mistakenly attributed solely to top-level leaders and their actions (Meindl et al., 1985), or fail to take into account the important role of followers sensitivity to the cultural/symbolic messages of leaders (Collinson, 2005a). This study seeks to establish some middle ground between these two perspectives through empirically examining the role of leadership in facilitating post-merger cultural changes. While previous research has suggested that culture may play an important (albeit largely undetermined) role in mergers and acquisitions, the current research empirically examines what employees interpret as successful cultural leadership at multiple levels of the organization in the wake of a merger. First, the article will review theoretical and empirical work that addresses the relationship between culture and leadership, pointing out some potential shortcomings of current conceptualizations. Building on this previous work, the review will turn to the concept of cultural leadership (Trice & Beyer, 1991) and its hypothesized role in facilitating post-merger integration through leadership processes that create, change, integrate, and embody cultural manifestations. Finally, empirical ndings will be presented that specically examine how employees themselves conceptualize cultural leadership through semi-structured interviews with 42 employees in a post-merger organization.
Leadership and culture change

Although culture has been dened in many different ways (see Martin, 2002: 5561 for an overview of the variety of denitions of culture in the literature and the dimensions on which they primarily differ), the majority of these denitions emphasize the collectively shared, historically based, emotionally charged, symbolic, and inherently
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fuzzy characteristics of culture (Trice & Beyer, 1993). In addition, researchers have long suggested that cultural frameworks provide generalized guidelines or prescriptions for the way individuals within the group should interpret organizational events, interact with other members of the group, and perform work-related tasks (Mohan, 1993; Schein, 1985). According to Davis (1984: 1), culture is the pattern of shared beliefs and values that give members of an institution meaning, and provide them with the rules for behavior in their organization. Researchers who focus on shared values as an integral part of culture have often attempted to link these values to measurable performance outcomes (e.g. Barney, 1986; Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Denison, 1984; Denison & Mishra, 1995; Wilkins & Ouchi, 1983). Other scholars have pointed out that organizational culture does not necessarily imply a uniformity of values: culture may be conceptualized as a common frame of reference or shared recognition of relevant issues (Feldman, 1991: 154) that members may disagree about or actively contest. Despite debates about epistemology, methodology, and levels and manifestations of the concept (see Martin, 2002 for a full discussion of these debates), culture continues to be cited as an important determinant of the success or failure of organizational innovation, change implementation, restructuring, and ultimately performance (e.g., Detert et al., 2000; Nahavandi & Malekzadeh, 1988). Given the collective, obscure, and inherently conservative nature of organizational culture, it is not surprising that post-merger cultural integration can seem like an insurmountable task. Characterized as a historically grounded bundle of deeply shared values and beliefs, culture is likely to be characterized more by continuity than by change (Trice & Beyer, 1991: 149). Martin (2002) suggests that an organizations culture can be interpreted through a wide variety of cultural manifestations, including rituals, stories, humor, jargon, physical arrangements, formal structures and policies, and informal norms and practices. As the long and somewhat convoluted history of culture in organizational research has been reviewed elsewhere (see Barley et al., 1988; Denison, 1996; Rousseau, 1990), this article will focus more narrowly on the relationship between organizational culture and leadership. Pettigrews (1979) study was one of the rst to explicitly link leadership and the burgeoning concept of organizational culture, pointing out that a leaders effectiveness is likely to be inuenced by the extent to which a leader can create words that explain and thereby give order to collective experiences (p. 578). It was Scheins (1983) theoretical work, however, that brought to the forefront and more thoroughly developed the relationship between leadership and organizational culture. Schein argues that the process of embedding a culture is a teaching process, although not necessarily an explicit one. As founders or leaders, these individuals have the ability to encourage employees to try particular methods, which, if effective, become embedded into the organization as part of its culture. Bennis (1986) similarly argues that the single most important determinant of corporate culture is the behavior of the chief executive ofcer . . . he or she is the one clearly responsible for shaping the beliefs, motives, commitments, and predispositions (cited in Morley & Shockley-Zalabak, 1991: 425) of his or her subordinates. Other scholars expanded this leader-centered approach beyond the CEO level, to involve middle- and upper-level managers in the creation and transmission of organizational culture. Articles such as Sathes (1983) Implications of Corporate Culture: A Managers Guide to Action provide practical advice to managers about
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the concept of organizational culture, exploring the ways in which culture might affect an organization and suggesting managerial tips for how to effectively implement changes. For the most part, these studies emphasize the importance of the leadership role for the creation and maintenance of organizational culture. In contrast, a number of empirical studies have documented the failure of cultural management efforts to produce any lasting changes, particularly if these efforts are primarily conceptualized and implemented at the top levels of the organization (e.g., Jermier, 1991; Jermier et al., 1991; Martin et al., 1985; Siehl, 1985). Reichers and Schneiders (1990) review concludes that most top-down interventions and strategies for making organizations more successful are doomed to failure, precisely because they neglect to take existing cultures into consideration and the difculties inherent in changing them. Mohan (1993: 84) similarly concludes, change that imposes foreign assumptions, norms, or values on a community without considering or even building on strongly held prior conceptualizations will not succeed. In a similar vein, Martin et al.s (1985: 99) study warns scholars and practitioners against buying into the seductive promise that a founder can create a culture that reects his or her own values, beliefs, and vision for the future. The authors in-depth study was conducted in a relatively new organization, a situation posited to be conducive to founder inuence. Their results, however, indicate that many of the concerns and interpretations of the founder were not shared by other members of the organization, and underscore the fact that leader behavior is seriously constrained by contextual factors. Despite these caveats, the authors conclude that in accord with the leader-centered integration paradigm, the founders choice among this limited set of options made a dramatic difference in how people interpreted the meaning of events (p. 123). This study helps qualify top-down culture management, demonstrating that leaders and founders can importantly inuence organizational culture, yet only within the limits of powerful constraints such as organizational life cycle, leaderfollower distance, salience of cultural values, follower identities, and the inuence of the developing culture itself (see Collinson, 2005b, 2006; Martin et al., 1985). This evidence suggests that a theoretically informed model of leadership and culture change is necessary to forge a middle ground between theories of imposed cultural integration on one hand and stubbornly persistent cultural frameworks that strongly resist modications on the other hand. Given that top-down cultural change interventions have a poor record of success, it is clear that an alternate model for leading post-merger cultural integration is needed. While most scholars and practitioners generally recognize that leadership does have an impact on organizational culture (with varying levels of signicance), the issue of how leadership affects culture has received only scattered attention (see Martin et al., 1985; Pettigrew, 1979; Schein, 1985; Siehl, 1985).
Cultural leadership
Trice and Beyers (1991, 1993) concept of cultural leadership describes the role that leaders at all levels of the organization can play in inuencing cultural change. Cultural leadership is formally dened as the process through which leadership inuences cultural ideologies and expressive behaviors. This type of leadership is
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distinguished from instrumental leadership, which concerns how leaders inuence the accomplishment of work in organizations. According to Trice and Beyer (1991), a cultural approach to leadership goes beyond an instrumental approach to illuminate the other side of leadership how leaders inuence the understandings and networks of meanings that others hold and express through their actions (p. 150). The authors conceptualize these two types of leadership (cultural and instrumental) on different continua, arguing that the two can exist simultaneously or independently. In addition, they point out that cultural leadership may be particularly likely to occur outside of formal leadership roles and independent of an organizations ofcial hierarchy, making it a more prevalent and uid form of leadership that is difcult to study (see also Beyer & Browning, 1999). Trice and Beyer (1993) specify a number of leader behaviors and characteristics that facilitate cultural innovation versus cultural maintenance (see Table 1). In addition, they further delineate four variants of cultural leadership: leadership that creates, changes, embodies, or integrates cultural elements. The authors suggest that
Table 1 Trice and Beyers (1993) Elements of cultural leadership
Elements of cultural leadership Personal qualities
I I I I I
Innovation Self-condence Dominant personality Strong convictions Evangelist Dramatic and expressive Crisis Radical ideology That leader has extraordinary qualities needed to deal with crisis Repeated success in managing crisis Effective role model Creates impression of success and competence Articulates ideology Communicates high expectations, condence in followers Motivates New structures and strategies; or radical changes in structures and strategies Communicates new cultural ideologies and values Establishes new traditions Change is institutionalized
I I I I I I I I
Maintenance Condence in group Facilitator Strong convictions Catalyst Persuasive No crisis or manageable one Conservative ideology That leader represents existing values that were successful in the past Continuation of success Effective role model Creates impression of success and competence Articulates ideology Communicates high expectations, condence in followers Motivates Refurbishes and strengthens existing structures and strategies; or incremental changes in structures and strategies Afrms and celebrates existing cultural ideologies and values Continues existing traditions Continuity is made appealing and vital
Perceived situation Vision and mission Follower attributions
I I I
Performance Leader behaviors
I I
I I
I I
I I
I I
Administrative actions
Use of cultural forms
Use of tradition Persistence over time
I I
I I
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these four types of leadership arise in response to different core organizational problems, which include attracting followers and uniting them, weakening or replacing old cultural elements, keeping the existing culture vital, and reconciling the diverse interests of subcultures. However, Trice and Beyer leave the precise mechanisms through which leaders solve these core problems open to further research. As a result, current theoretical work falls short of explicating the process whereby leadership may be more or less effective in facilitating cultural change and integration. In addition, little attention has been paid to leadership contexts in which several or all of these problems must be faced simultaneously. For example, post-merger leaders may simultaneously and/or sequentially face challenges attracting followers and uniting them, weakening or replacing old cultural elements, keeping the existing culture vital, and reconciling the diverse interests of subcultures. In other words, effective post-merger cultural integration may necessarily involve all four variants of cultural leadership, as leaders seek to establish new cultural elements (leadership that creates), facilitate the integration of both existing and new values into the merging culture (leadership that integrates), modify some existing cultural values (leadership that changes), while at the same time supporting and reinforcing new cultural values (leadership that embodies) (Trice & Beyer, 1993). In other words, in the wake of a merger cultural leaders may need to both embody the core values of the existing culture (maintenance), while at the same time carrying forward new and/or modied cultural elements (innovation). The above review suggests that leadership in a newly merged organization may entail a relatively complex interplay of both maintenance and innovation, as leaders help followers negotiate, modify, and manage cultural similarities and differences in the post-merger environment. The current study will empirically examine postmerger cultural leadership in an attempt to address the following research questions: 1. What leader behaviors constitute cultural leadership? 2. Are there identiable variants of cultural leadership as Trice and Beyer (1993) theorized? 3. Does cultural leadership entail processes of both innovation and maintenance in the post-merger environment?
Method
Site selection
Two criteria were essential in choosing a research location for this study. First, the organization had to have recently undergone a merger. Second, the organization had to place a high level of emphasis on completely merging the cultures, systems, and processes of each of the members of the new system. This study thus makes the assumption that cultural integration in the post-merger organization is the desired goal, which is not the case in all types of M&As. Given these conditions, the organization chosen was a large Northeastern healthcare system that went through a full-scale merger involving over 12,000 employees in four large hospitals and seven smaller facilities.1 Through conversations with both employees and managers, it was clear that the system was suffering from identity
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problems, inter-organizational competition, and markedly low morale in the wake of the merger. Within the larger organization, the rst two service lines slated for integration (Cardiac and Obstetrics/Gynecology, or OB/GYN) were chosen for the current study. Both consolidations involved the physical and cultural combination of well-established units that had traditionally been strong competitors throughout their histories. At the time of data collection, the OB/GYN consolidation process had been underway for 18 months, while the Cardiac consolidation had been underway for just under six months. Comparing and contrasting both consolidations provided an opportunity to examine the same issues both within and across two very distinct consolidations, at different stages of a similar process, yet embedded within the same overall organizational context. This purposeful sampling design provided a number of advantages, including facilitating the cross-fertilization of ideas across consolidations as well as increasing the validity and generalizability of ndings. In sum, these consolidations represented two distinct efforts to merge geographically and culturally diverse departments, increasing the likelihood that cultural clashes and leadership issues would be particularly salient.
Data collection
Data collection consisted of semi-structured one-on-one interviews, observations, and document analyses conducted over a one-year period. The choice of interviews is appropriate given the current focus on the process of cultural leadership as perceived by employees themselves. Thus, cultural leadership was not dened a priori according to the theoretical components proposed by Trice and Beyer (1991, 1993). Rather, cultural leadership was dened by respondents subjective perceptions about the type of leadership that is perceived to inuence successful post-merger integration.
Sample
A stratied probabilistic sample of employees was chosen to interview, including all of the managers from both consolidations, as well as a random sample of employees under each manager, taking into account previous and current organizational afliations. In addition, three of the top executives of the organization were interviewed in order to incorporate senior managements perspective. This within-case sampling is an important strategy to achieve content validity in qualitative research (Goodwin & Goodwin, 1984). In addition, three employees who were no longer employed by the organization were interviewed in order to maximize the possibility of nding disconrming, deviant, or negative information and enhance the validity of the ndings (Murphy et al., 1998). The nal sample included 13 managers, 23 employees, three senior managers, and three former employees. Thus, a total of 42 interviews were completed over a four-month period. Interviews ranged in length from one to two hours, and all were tape-recorded. The interviewing component of the study incorporated a mid-range methodology developed by Sackmann (1991). This methodology incorporates an issuefocused investigation, in which the aim is to provide a stimulus to respondents so that they are forced to make an interpretation that is based on their cultural framework rather than on that of the researcher (p. 303). Interviewees were asked to
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comment on their experience with the consolidation process, and what types of guidance they had received during the process. As follow-ups, employees were asked to comment on the effectiveness of specic forms of leadership identied, as well as how the consolidation process might have been improved.
Additional data sources

In addition to interview and observational techniques, organizational charts, consolidation work plans, and agendas and notes from departmental meetings and organizational forums were utilized as other sources of information. This information was used to cross-validate the interview data.
Data analysis
Interviews were transcribed and coded using ATLAS/ti, a code-based theory-building software package. Following Miles and Huberman (1984), coding of the data took place in two primary stages. The rst stage involved a list of codes generated a priori from Trice and Beyers (1993) theoretical components of cultural leadership, as well as some initial inductive codes that developed from themes that emerged in the initial stages of data collection. In the second stage of coding, or pattern-level coding, the network capabilities of ATLAS/ti were utilized to help group the categories obtained in the rst level of coding into analytic units and higher-order concepts and categories. These analytic units were then used to examine linkages and interrelationships among concepts. The data-analysis process therefore remained partially inductive throughout these phases of initial and pattern-level coding. To validate the nal coding scheme and establish inter-rater reliability, two additional coders were trained to use the coding scheme and subsequently coded all of the interview data independently. After minor modications to the coding scheme, interrater reliability was satisfactory at .91, and all discrepancies in coding were reconciled prior to drawing nal conclusions.
Results
Respondents spoke often and at length about the types of leadership or guidance they perceived to be most effective in bringing together multiple work sites and departments with very different cultures. Some of these elements were based on actual experiences and observations; others were more speculative. In addition, some of the elements were predicted by Trice and Beyers (1991, 1993) previous theoretical work, while others emerged from the data themselves. In presenting the results, I have provided highlights from the empirical data in the words of respondents themselves, in addition to some more interpretive and prescriptive suggestions for developing effective cultural leadership based on data from the current case. These suggestions should be interpreted with caution, however, in that they often reect what respondents indicated should or could have ideally happened rather than what was actually experienced in the wake of the merger. A detailed discussion of each theme following Trice and Beyers framework of the variants of cultural leadership follows, and a summary of the elements is listed in Table 2. In addition, cross-method
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2(4) Articles Table 2 Variants of cultural leadership in a post-merger context

Cultural innovation Leadership that creates Core organizational problem: To attract followers and unite them Core post-merger problem: Letting go of the old to prepare for the new I Recognizes historical cultural differences
I
Cultural maintenance Leadership that integrates Core organizational problem: To reconcile diverse interests of subcultures Core post-merger problem: Reconciling differences between the old and the new I Actively team builds across previous site memberships I Utilizes employee input into post-merger changes I Communicates informally about cultural differences Leadership that embodies Core organizational problem: To keep existing culture vital Core post-merger problem: Establishing and afrming new cultural elements
Leadership that changes Core organizational problem: To weaken and replace elements of the old culture Core post-merger problem: Weakening and replacing the old to move forward I Articulates an ideology for change
I
Provides outlets for loss and renewal Fosters realistic expectations of both challenges and opportunities
Creates ongoing momentum for the change process Utilizes the symbolism of the mundane Role models a commitment to the change process
evidence for each theme along with sample quotes from the respondents is located in the Appendix.
Letting go of the old to prepare for the new

Leadership that creates: recognizing historical cultural differences
Many respondents reported that a successful post-merger leader needs to be able to explicitly recognize, understand, and utilize cultural differences at every step of a merger or consolidation in order to elicit employee buy-in. According to one manager: I think because we at Universal know the cultures, then we have to respond to that, we cant act like it doesnt exist. People hate coming to the Colonial. OK, why? And then deal with it from there. One nurse looking back on the OB/GYN consolidation reected, I think a group of managers from each site should meet together and compare how things are run at each place. So that they know what someone is coming into and what someone is coming from in moving forward. Another employee reected,
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If you do an open heart surgery, it should be the same whether you did it in New York or Texas, but its really not. The basic procedure may be the same, the results, but how the table is set up, how the room is set up, the process of getting the patient into the room, theres all these little nuances for each place, and to learn those is another kind of a stumbling block. And you might not even realize all of the differences until you get into the procedure. By then its too late. Another employee similarly emphasized the importance of recognizing existing cultural contexts before moving forward. She recommended: Maybe having some direct meetings and saying here is the history of the Cardiac team at State, here is how its evolved, here is where we are at, now as the Cardiac Service Line what is your vision in taking that and then trying to go forward with it. Trying to understand some of what has happened and then developing a plan that we can all get behind. A manager involved in the OB/GYN consolidation similarly reected, Where I think some of the problem came in is that we forgot the history. We werent informed of what to expect, nothing. We didnt know there were those kinds of differences. We really didnt know what it was like anyway. They had completely different equipment, their monitors were much newer, just small things add up to bigger things. Because its a daily thing, its an all-day long, ongoing thing. Anything you do, the whole protocol is different. Based on this feedback, cultural leaders might be advised early in the process to make a concerted effort to understand the histories and uniqueness of the groups involved, and keep that knowledge at the forefront of any new initiatives. Managers and employees that recognized existing cultural variation were more easily able to draw on shared cultural values in the midst of cultural change as well. As one manager put it, really it comes down to whats best for the patient. Thats the only thing that will save me. If I get into conict, thats usually a place we can agree on. If we really disagree, then well go back to whats best for the patient and then back up from there, and back track. People have a hard time not agreeing whats best for the patient. Another manager similarly reected, We are all caregivers. And we are in this business because we take care of patients. And we want to provide the kind of environment that we would bring our families to. And were the only ones that can do that. The CEO cant do that, the executive VP cant do that, and in spite of them, we can do that. And you would be surprised when its their responsibility, when they know this service rises or falls based on what they do, its a very powerful incentive for people. Effective cultural leaders may more effectively recognize and understand the inevitability of cultural variation, drawing on different perspectives and ways of doing things in order to come up with new cultural meanings that provide adequate room for variation in their interpretation. In other words, effective cultural leaders recognize how existing cultural differences can be reconciled under a broader umbrella of cultural unity. For example, different approaches to how a department works together to perform a given task can be reconciled by appealing to how a new
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approach combines the best elements to provide better patient care. Crucial to this process is a focus on integrating best practices to reach a goal that everyone can agree upon, regardless of where those practices came from. Overall, this evidence suggests that recognizing and utilizing the dual cultural forces of unity and multiplicity can be a powerful tool in facilitating cultural integration. Ybema (1997: 181) argues that in organizational cultures, consensus and dissent and harmony and conict do not exist separately but rather occur simultaneously or successively. Cultural leadership involves recognizing and anticipating this dissent and conict, and then overcoming it through appealing to a shared overarching value such as patient care. As one manager put it, There might be a culture clash when they come over, there will be head-butting. But when you step back, its not that different. Its just when you get into turfdom and stuff its very hard, things are very emotional, its very hard to remember that we are all here to provide good patient care.
Leadership that creates: providing outlets for loss and renewal

A prevalent theme that emerged from the data was the intense emotionality of the consolidation experience, and the need for cultural leaders to address this tense and uncomfortable aspect of post-merger reality. Employees recounted numerous stories of trauma and emotional upheaval throughout the consolidation process. As one nurse who transferred put it, I worked at my site for 14 years and never cried on my way home from work. Ever. Until I moved to that place. I just get sick to my stomach to think about if I ever had to go back there. Many employees spoke of the need to cry, to vent their emotions, or to just have someone to listen. Often they built networks of support with coworkers and peers to address the emotional trauma of consolidation. In addition, employees expressed a need for managers and peers who would be available to listen in an objective way to concerns, and who would recognize that it was traumatic to lose their positions or see a friend and coworker of 20 years lose his or her position. Both managers and employees emphasized the importance of having a friend or manager available to talk about feelings and frustrations. As one manager put it, you have to know what they are feeling, you have to see their expressions, the look on their faces, the look in their eyes. Another manager similarly emphasized the importance of caring and empathy in interacting with employees throughout a consolidation: I always tried to put myself in their position and see how this would feel if it was me and it helped me to gure out the right way to do it. And that didnt fail me, it worked very well. In the absence of a cultural leader who recognizes and attempts to understand this emotional realm, efforts to integrate employees may unleash emotional outbursts and resistance that might otherwise be avoided. Other managers viewed employees emotional distress as an opportunity to motivate them forward with a sense of renewal. In addition to recognizing and providing an outlet for the emotional labor employees often experienced, several managers suggested that a critical post-merger task is to challenge employees to utilize their anger and fear constructively: There will always be a degree of anger if employees are displaced and told to go somewhere else. The heart and soul of this is to challenge this anger. Focus on
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the care of patients, providing state-of-the-art care, were all in this together. Focus on the positives, on the ability to open up new job opportunities. This new state-of-the-art care we can provide. Constructively look at how to structure that anger and focus on making it not personal. Cultural leadership may thus involve not only recognizing and understanding the emotional experience of employees undergoing a consolidation and providing outlets for their sense of loss; it may also involve challenging employees to channel those emotions into a renewed focus on making their work situation better for themselves, their coworkers, and their patients.
Leadership that creates: fostering realistic expectations of both challenges and opportunities
Another prevalent theme across interviews was an emphasis on the importance of creating moderate, but not overly high, expectations in preparing employees for upcoming changes. Although Trice and Beyer (1993) theorized that cultural leaders would create high expectations and condence in the ultimate success of the cultural change, respondents overwhelmingly spoke of the importance of creating moderate, realistic expectations in people involved in an upcoming consolidation. Both managers and employees felt that everyone involved needs to be aware that the process is likely to be challenging at best and crisis-provoking at worst. According to one manager: I think the key thing is attitude. If you are all set in your mind that its not going to work, to be honest with you, its not going to work. Its not. And its not going to be easy. Does it take a lot of work? Yes. Does it take lot of energy? Yes. It really does. And it takes a commitment. She reected on how she tried to mobilize her employees to view the upcoming consolidation as a difcult challenge, but one that could be overcome with hard work and dedication to create a better work environment and increase patient satisfaction. Another manager also reected what she saw as the importance of preparing employees for the difculties inherent in a cultural integration of this magnitude: I think you have to be a cheerleader in saying its going to work, its going to work, but I also think you dont prepare them well if you tell them that its going to go smoothly. Because its a major change for people, and I wouldnt feel comfortable doing that and I think staff can see through that, they know that, I mean if you work in a place for 20 years they are not going to buy that its no big deal to change. Inherent in this notion of creating realistic expectations for employees was the fear that employees would be skeptical and distrustful of leaders who glossed over the difculties of consolidation, as they would be perceived as simply touting the company line and not having the best interest of all employees in mind. This evidence suggests that giving employees realistic expectations about the difculties inherent in consolidation, coupled with consistent messages about its likelihood of success, may be most effective in mobilizing employees to view the consolidation as a challenge that can ultimately be met. High expectations, on the other hand, in the current case often resulted in resentment, distrust, and lowered morale as employees perceived the actuality of the experience as being much different from the picture painted to them by management. As one employee involved in the OB/GYN
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consolidation put it, I was wholly unprepared for what consolidation actually meant. If they had been upfront, if they had been truthful . . . maybe I wouldnt have been so overwhelmed.
Weakening or replacing old cultural elements to move forward

Leadership that changes: articulating an ideology for change
Many respondents spoke of the importance of clearly articulating the rationale for the consolidation, the underlying ideology for why a change of this magnitude was necessary. Ideally, respondents spoke of this ideology as providing a guidepost or framework for how post-consolidation culture differences could be resolved. One senior manager put it this way: If people dont understand why they are doing something, they arent going to do it, they arent going to participate, in fact, some people will resist it. Articulation of a clear ideology was often discussed as a mechanism for how broad cultural changes that were taking place could be interpreted and translated by employees in various stages and areas of consolidation. Several managers mentioned that cultural leaders should be able to articulate the ideology for change in a way that encourages employees to see how the change will benet both the organization and the employees themselves: I think that makes a difference, if they are really able to see the big picture and understand that when you are saving money for the organization, youre saving money for all of us. Another employee put it similarly: You dont phrase it as Universal needs you for this. Youll get, what has Universal done for me? In other words, articulating an ideology may not always be enough. Cultural leaders may need to articulate an ideology in a way that illustrates to employees that it is not a corporate ideology, it is a shared ideology that employees can capitalize on to create a better culture and better employee and patient or customer outcomes. Many employees reported that a compelling ideology or rationale for change was missing prior to both service-line consolidations. As one employee commented, It doesnt seem like we are all pulling the rope in the same direction. One nurse spoke at length of the pain her and her coworkers experienced as a lack of direction resulted in uncertainty and prolic rumors surrounding the upcoming consolidation. She reported not understanding why changes were being made, or what the future might hold as rumors dragged on for months that her department would be closing: In medicine, a clean cut is a lot easier to heal than one that is jagged and left to fester. And thats basically what was happening. We were being left to fester. Taken together, this evidence suggests that effective cultural leadership may involve being able to articulate a clear ideology for why change is necessary, and drawing on that ideology as a framework or guide for how to make the difcult decisions that arise during a merger or consolidation. In addition, it likely involves helping other employees to see the ideology as a shared plan that they can use to make sense of the difcult transitions and decisions they will be forced to make.
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Leadership that changes: creating ongoing momentum for the change process
Employees also expressed the desire for cultural leaders who could create an impetus or drive for change that goes beyond mere compliance. Implicit in this characterization is the idea that ideally, cultural leaders create momentum that continues to grow on its own, without necessarily entailing the attention or direct participation of the cultural leader. Several employees spoke of the importance of identifying key individuals who could act as cultural leaders themselves, keeping the momentum of the change process going in various areas and levels of the organization: You lter to these jobs because you want to make a difference. Some people just put in their eight hours. Everyone isnt motivated to be a center of excellence. I take my stars and my stars help drive a lot of things, and the people that just want to do the bare minimum will do it. And theyll feel good about their day. So my job is to nd the stars. Another manager described how a leader can motivate employees through transmitting a sense of excitement about upcoming changes: I think the role of the manager needs to be the leader in giving the positive messages that the staff needs. Not just saying, oh yeah, weve got to merge, thats the way it is, but seeing it in a positive light . . . to be able to see the positives and look for the potential in the situation rather than the bad things that could happen. And to be able to present it to staff in that light. Another employee talked about the lack of this momentum for change in the OB/GYN consolidation, and felt that there was a leadership void in this respect: Not that they arent good managers, or strong managers, they are not managers of change. They havent managed the change, they havent fostered it to make it better, they havent grown it. Another manager spoke of her attempt to create momentum for change by continuously referring back to the benets the upcoming changes would have for patient care: I tell them, we can make patient care better. Think of how great this will be for our patients. That we have the best of the best all in one place and to have it streamlined so they get the best services that there are. Many managers expressed frustration that creating momentum for change felt like a constant battle: If I hadnt been pushing, pushing continuously it wouldnt have happened. I had to keep the ball rolling. Another manager expressed a similar sense of urgency in keeping the integration moving forward: The longer that the process drags out, essentially the biggest issue is morale. Morale from the day it starts, takes a serious toll. The longer the process takes, the longer integration takes, the more your patient care and employee morale suffers. An integral part of keeping the process moving forward in a timely fashion is the symbolic message this sends to employees. Any delays or lulls in the momentum of the change process breed doubt about the viability of the integration effort and allow employees to continue to cling to their existing values and beliefs. As one employee put it, Ive worked here long enough to know that change doesnt happen quickly in this organization. I dont think it does in any organization. The bottom line is that you have to start making some changes and you have to make them quickly. The creation of a continuous sense of progression through both symbolic and concrete avenues gives employees a sense of condence in the eventual success of the
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integration and allows less room for doubts, insecurities, and fears to emerge. As one employee put it, when they pushed back the date of the Cardiac consolidation, everyone was like, phew, its not going to happen. Thus, one of the primary roles of cultural leaders may be to create the impression of forward momentum, through both concrete changes that support the change effort as well as through symbolic avenues when concrete changes are delayed. In addition to being integrally involved in keeping the integration process moving forward, creating momentum for change also builds commitment to the change process itself. According to one manager, you need to get these people real positive and pumped up about it, we need to help people realize that change is the most positive thing that secures their job. Encouraging employees to embrace change may be an extremely difcult task, but leaders who can create a constant impression that the change process has an unrelenting momentum and will ultimately lead to positive outcomes can begin to foster employee buy-in.
Leadership that changes: utilizing the symbolism of the mundane

Schein (1983) argues that elements such as formal statements of organizational philosophy, the design of physical spaces, the explicit reward and status system, and organizational systems and procedures will strongly affect an organizations culture. While the current ndings do not dispute that these elements can and do act as levers of cultural change, respondents perceptions of effective cultural leadership focused more often on the mundane, everyday aspects of organizational life. Employees were very sensitive to how leaders acted, and what these actions revealed about leaders true beliefs and ideologies. Leaders reactions to everyday occurrences were often interpreted as symbolic representations of their underlying values and beliefs. For example, although stafng levels had remained at a relatively consistent level since the merger, many employees interpreted this status quo level as representative of managements underlying lack of commitment to patient care. In one employees estimation, if patient care was really the issue, stafng would be increased. This interpretation of organizational events, giving them a more signicant or telling meaning than the event itself might denote to an organizational outsider, was a prevalent feature in the post-merger organization. For example, one employee interpreted top managements new formal emphasis on patient care as insincere based on their informal priorities as represented by their actions: The bottom line is money. [The consolidation] is not going to increase the quality of patient care, they say it is but they dont care about patient care. Money is all they pay attention to. Although these are not managerial reactions to critical events, formal policies, or the redesign of physical spaces, these examples illustrate how employees nonetheless drew strong conclusions about managements commitment and buy-in to these new cultural priorities. As Trice and Beyer (1991, 1993) theorized, cultural leadership may often operate through more mundane and informal channels, as employees interpret everyday behaviors in ways that reinforce a perceived disconnection between the organizations formally expressed cultural values and leaders observed commitment to those values. One employees lack of condence in the organizations commitment to patient care was symbolically represented in the organizations preparation for the
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on-site survey by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO): Every two years, we pretend were something were not. Our oors are clean in the public areas. The cockroaches are swept up. We go through this gyration that were doing something that were not totally committed to as an institution. Its hilarious. This comment, taken with others like it, suggests that employees evaluate a wide range of organizational events as indicative of senior managements lack of commitment to an expressed cultural value. As another employee put it, Theres no commitment, nobody cares about patient care, they only care about appearing to care about patient care. They put so much into trying to pretend that they are something they are not. Its for show. These accounts and interpretations of managements true values and beliefs support the notion that cultural leadership involves a strong symbolic element as well. What formal and informal leaders communicate, what they indirectly express through their actions, and what they do not pay attention to as well as what they do pay attention to can be extremely inuential. Symbolic interpretations of organizational events were not solely limited to senior managements actions and behaviors. Indeed, there is ample evidence that leaders can symbolically support their commitment to cultural change and integration through a variety of everyday activities. For example, one manager recounted how she had to pay careful attention to the minor details of communication with the departments involved in an upcoming consolidation: By mistake I would send out memos, and I would send it to everybody, and if I missed one person or one unit, they thought it was intentional, or who did I list rst was very important. Another manager recognized how her choice of where to hold a meeting could be reinterpreted as favoritism for one site over another: I had to go site to site because they were very funny about, were not always going to go to Colonial. So we had to meet back and forth, site to site. These stories suggest that cultural leadership in practice may have a strong element of the mundane. Cultural leaders who act in ways that symbolically support a new cultural framework are more likely to affect employees interpretations of organizational events in ways that support rather than undermine cultural integration. In addition, this evidence supports Trice and Beyers (1991, 1993) assertion that cultural leadership may not be limited solely to senior leaders who can inuence how buildings are structured, how the organization is designed, or how the formal reward system is structured. Instead, cultural leaders can facilitate integration through everyday details, such as the order of memos, where meetings are held, or the language that they use when referring to the groups involved. All of these minor details can potentially send very strong messages to other employees about a leader or peers commitment to the cultural integration process. As one employee put it, So for integration, we have to start with the little things, they really matter to people. Its not so much what you say, but how you say and what happens in the aftermath.
Leadership that changes: role modeling a commitment to the change process

Another mechanism for creating an impetus for change frequently mentioned was role modeling. One employee recounted how managements decision not to seek accreditation for her department reected its lack of embodiment of quality: They
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arent even a good role model for quality. This was a classic example, here was a quality initiative, and they were going to snuff it because it might not look good for the other site. Hello! As long as we are consolidating, what difference does it make? Many instances of role modeling positive and negative underscored the need for leaders to support desired values through a variety of behaviors. One of the managers faced with an upcoming consolidation took it upon herself to write a letter to all of the patients and doctors that would be affected by the move. With her staffs input, she drafted a letter assuring patients that they would continue to receive quality patient care, explaining the reasons for the consolidation, and giving them her phone number to call with any questions or concerns they might have. This made a very signicant impression on her staff: one nurse informed me that she felt it showed her manager had a real commitment to quality patient care, as she had gone above and beyond what was required to ensure the patients were taken care of. In addition, she felt it made her transition to the new department less traumatic, knowing the patients would be there, and would not be there screaming or suffering. Another example reects how leaders in formal positions can forfeit their opportunity to act as symbolic role models of desired values: I tried to say from the beginning [that] just because it was always done that way doesnt mean its right. Theres new things to learn from everybody. When the girls came from the other site they brought a lot of good information, people just werent ready for information of any kind. But at some point its going to have to be, it will take over and come to the forefront. This statement was made over two years after the employees from another site had transferred into this nurses department. Rather than acting as a role model in the application of new information and procedures, this manager adopted a laissez-faire, wait and see approach that her staff followed. As a result, many of the transferred nurses felt a decided lack of empowerment and support, and their frustration was so severe that all but two of them eventually moved on to other jobs. Employees also mentioned the need for managers who would set an example in minor ways, such as picking up a piece of paper on the oor, not to mention more signicant ways, such as treating transferred employees in an inclusive, respectful way. As one employee put it, Management needs to walk around the hospital. People dont know who you are. Introduce yourself. Pick up the paper on the oor. Act like you care. Employees spoke of a lack of good role modeling on the part of management concerning how they treated new post-consolidation employees as well. As one nurse put it, The manager didnt have to do anything elaborate. How about saying, nurses are coming from another site, please welcome them, their unit is closing and then show them. Be welcoming. Dont turn your back, and maybe the staff wont either. Several of the managers I spoke with, however, took pride in their self-perceptions as role models. Beyond role modeling simple behaviors, they spoke of how they could demonstrate through their actions both a commitment to cultural values and a commitment to making the change process a success: To me quality of care means after you are done with that test, you dont sit in that room until somebody remembers to come pick you up. It means I take you back to your room. Another manager reected on her ability to role model adaptability and success in the face of difcult cultural changes:
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They challenge me. Do I like it, maybe not, but am I a part of this system? Yes. And I think as a role model for a change agent, they see it in me. Its up to me to have a positive attitude and not to knock or criticize whats going on, but lets just make it the best we can. But I would say as a role model, thats my role. How I adapt to changes will be reected in how they adapt to change. And the support I can give them in helping them to manage that change. Taken together, this evidence suggests that as Trice and Beyer (1993) predicted, role modeling is an integral component of cultural leadership. However, certain types of role modeling may be particularly critical in a post-merger integration effort. These include role modeling cultural values, an emphasis on success, and emphasizing a willingness to embrace change. In addition, employees reported that role modeling in minor ways such as creating a way to save a dollar by performing a procedure with two supplies instead of three can potentially make a big difference in whether or not employees identify with a particular value such as cost saving and integrate it into their own behaviors.
Reconciling differences between the old and the new

Leadership that integrates: actively team building across previous site memberships
Another central part of leading cultural change was an emphasis on building relationships across old cultural and site divisions in order to create an integrated team. Many of the managers and employees I spoke to referred to the process of merging and consolidation as being all about relationships. In the OB/GYN consolidation, respondents spoke of the relative lack of teamwork that was fostered between employees from different sites. One nurse recounted her experiences on the rst day of work at the new site: These are the things that no one did anything about. They brought in lunch, so we could have lunch together, and they came in, got their lunch, and left. We sat there by ourselves, it was supposed to be a meeting. That didnt go so well. Another nurse reported a similarly dismal rst impression of working with the employees at another site: So when I did go over there, everyone knew I was coming, I actually had a door shut in my face when I asked if I could put my coat in an ofce. No, theres no room, and the door was slammed. These incidents were interpreted as a lack of commitment to making the consolidation a success, and indirectly communicated to employees that treating individuals from the other site poorly was acceptable behavior. Stories such as this one also fostered ill-founded hopes that if the new employees were ignored, they might just go away. In addition, these incidents resulted in irreparable damage to team building between the two sites in the department, prolonging the pain and trauma of the consolidation experience. Other stories of managers and peers who looked the other way instead of actively fostering teamwork abounded. One nurse who was visiting from another site attempted to walk through the unit to get a sense of what it would be like to work there. She was quickly ushered out of the hospital by security, despite the fact that she was in uniform and a member of the healthcare system. This sent a clear message to the nurses in her department that they were unwanted at the new site, and heightened feelings of animosity and fear between the two departments prior to their
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consolidation. As one nurse put it, They didnt want us here. We got the message right up front that we didnt belong. Another nurse spoke of the pre-consolidation walk through they did of the department before the rst day of work: When we were touring doors were being shut, people were looking the other way. They didnt want to see you . . . and I remember the manager saying, Just remember, theyre not going to like you doing this, she didnt want to rattle up the nurses here. Well what about how that made us feel? Given the salience of these initial impressions of their new department, it is not surprising that these nurses clung to their pre-consolidation site identities and cultural values in order to maintain a sense of pride and worth. They report continuing to do procedures how they did them before, and taking pride in being able to sustain a subculture of their previous site in their new environment. Taken together, these stories illustrate the importance of having a cultural leader who makes building teamwork across sites a top priority, not only in what the leader says, but in how he or she treats new employees and monitors how new employees are treated by others. These incidents suggest that it is critical to closely monitor all team-building activities during a consolidation process in order to ensure that they do not result in stereotype reinforcement, countercultural formation, or outright sabotage.
Leadership that integrates: utilizing employee input into post-merger changes

Not surprisingly, involving employees in cultural integration is another critical component of cultural leadership that emerged. As one manager put it, The staff can make it work or they can make it fail. One manager recounted a story of how she involved her staff in a creative solution to avoid losing one of her best people due to post-consolidation changes: Together we explored it, we thought about it, and they were willing to do it because she was such a valuable member of their team. So they were on board with it, thats the key I think. You have to get the employees on board with it. If I had just made this decision and said, OK, this is what were doing then it would have been a whole other story. This story highlights the importance of involving staff members in order to get their buy-in into changes, and suggests that soliciting and utilizing employee input in the process of making cultural changes may be critical to their success or failure. Employee input can potentially be utilized to help resolve issues of cultural variation, increasing employee commitment to new practices and a strong patient care focus: So my concerns are basically to get them to ease in and to welcome them and use their expertise and give them some autonomy in how to develop this the best way for our patients. To really involve them in creating what is best for practice, and best for themselves.
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Leadership that integrates: communicating informally about cultural differences

Although Trice and Beyer (1993) hypothesized that cultural leaders would communicate high expectations and condence in followers, the communication themes that emerged in this research setting revolved around one-to-one communication that directly addressed consolidation issues. According to one manager, when you sit down and start showing employees the nitty gritty, you get a buy-in a lot quicker. Theres no question. I think that gives them a clear understanding of why we merged, and what the goal of consolidating is. Employees also emphasized the value of individualized communication, and avoiding the assumption that employees know what is going on. When asked how her transition from one site to another could have been facilitated, one nurse replied that her manager should have talked to people, explained to people, sit everybody down together, more communication, anything just to make you feel better. There was no communication about our differences. Another manager voiced a similar opinion. She advised, Communicate with each and every employee. Communicate the truth, communicate a true timeline, set the timeline and stick to it. I think that really is universal in being able to get your employee buy-in. Respondents emphasized that cultural leaders often have to create time and creative channels in order to communicate effectively around difcult integration concerns. One manager reported his frustration in recognizing the role of communication in creating cultural integration, but not being able to do anything about it. He felt that we have to communicate around getting people to come around . . . the problem is that there is not an open opportunity to have time to do this. Other nurses spoke of having to create creative ways to communicate with their staff members. One reported, I grab moments for informal communication, after report or before report on the unit, talking to the staff when you are getting ready to go home or when the new shift is coming on rather than calling meetings that we just dont have time for. As employees grappled with new norms, values, and ways of doing things, they were often left to make their own interpretations about the meanings of new experiences: We got hung out to dry . . . you would say good morning as you would walk into a room with ten people and no one would respond. Or ask a question and no one would respond. I had no idea what I was doing wrong. Employees in both consolidations also craved considerably more background information about cultural differences prior to consolidating in order to prepare themselves for what to anticipate: We werent informed of what to expect nothing. We didnt know there were those kinds of differences. We really didnt know what it was like anyway. They had completely different equipment, their monitors were much newer, just small things add up to bigger things. Because its a daily thing, its an all-day long, ongoing thing. Anything you do, the whole protocol is different. Respondents repeatedly emphasized the need for creative, open, frequent, one-onone communication about cultural differences as a basic prerequisite for cultural integration.
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Discussion
Overall, results provide mixed support for the previously theorized elements of cultural leadership. While some of the elements of cultural leadership were predicted by previous research, in many cases employees expanded or modied them signicantly. For example, while articulating an ideology emerged as an important element of cultural leadership, respondents indicated that simple articulation might not be enough in many cases. Employees who are facing a traumatic change such as a merger need to be psychologically committed to the underlying goals and rationale for consolidating. Part of creating this buy-in involves helping employees to see how upcoming changes can create a successful service and lead to better quality care, challenging them to give up what is comfortable and certain for what is uncomfortable and uncertain. A change of this magnitude thus necessitates that employees believe in the underlying ideology of the merger, and strongly identify with its core components. In addition, interviewees suggested additional dimensions that extend Trice and Beyers original concept of cultural leadership, including recognizing historically grounded cultural differences, the importance of relatively mundane yet symbolic actions, actively team building across previous site afliations, utilizing employee input into post-merger changes, providing outlets for loss and renewal, and creating realistic (as opposed to high) expectations for challenges and opportunities. Overall, these results provide new insights into the elements that make up cultural leadership from the perspective of employees in a newly merged organization. Overall, this study contributes to the literature in three fundamental ways. First, the results advance the study of cultural leadership both theoretically and empirically. Theoretically, this study provides insights into the processes of cultural leadership, delineating the channels and mechanisms through which individuals perceive cultural inuence to be most effective. Empirically, the proposed study represents a rst step toward developing a more sophisticated measurement of the concept, and provides a good deal of circumstantial evidence to suggest that cultural leadership can help increase employee acceptance of post-merger cultural changes. Previous theoretical and empirical research has fallen short of examining the process of cultural leadership at this level of detail; this study is unique in its focus on how the overarching contextual effects of organizational culture can be interpreted differently by employees throughout the post-merger organization, and the role of leaders in inuencing this process. Second, in addition to more specically delineating the processual elements that make up cultural leadership, the results of this study suggest that cultural leaders at all levels of the organization can utilize any combination of cultural leadership elements to facilitate cultural integration. One prevalent nding is that the recognition of the plethora of different cultural meanings in a post-merger organization can be utilized to bring about cultural dissension or integration. How these various elements are utilized determines whether or not cultural leadership leads to an enhancing subculture, an orthogonal subculture, or counter-cultural resistance (see Martin & Siehl, 1983). Cultural leaders can therefore be instrumental in creating counter-cultural resistances as well as cultural integration. Further, cultural leadership may be as problematic in post-merger environments as it has the potential to be
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promising; all of the elements of cultural leadership might prove just as conducive to the formation of countercultures as they might be to the creation of a unied postmerger culture. Third, the current results suggest that cultural leadership at the level of the mundane, the everyday, and the routine may be just as inuential as dramatic changes, reactions to crisis, or well-hyped organizational changes in facilitating postmerger integration. Respondents spoke often of the symbolism of relatively minor behaviors, what leaders failed to pay attention to, or what the status quo might indicate about the organizations culture and true values. While future research is necessary to establish the prevalence of cultural leadership at various levels of the organization, this study indicates that cultural leadership does act at multiple levels of the organization, both within and outside of formal leadership roles as Trice and Beyer (1991, 1993) theorized. In addition, building on Scheins (1985, 1992) work, the current ndings suggest that the interpretation and modication of cultural meaning may frequently take place at the level of daily procedures, routines, and relatively mundane events, and researchers and practitioners may currently overemphasize the role that changes in formalized rules and structures play in this process.
Limitations and practical implications

The results of this study will need to be replicated in a variety of M&A settings in order to establish the limits and boundary conditions of cultural leadership. Further research in different industries and encompassing different types of mergers with larger samples is necessary to establish the robustness of these ndings in a variety of settings. In addition, it is important to keep in mind that interview data are a reection of respondents perspectives, rather than completely objective accounts of reality. Further research will be necessary in order to assess whether the construct of cultural leadership differs in practice from how employees perceive and discuss it, and whether or not cultural leadership does indeed objectively facilitate measurable cultural integration. Finally, the potential for reactivity, social desirability and impression management are all important limitations of this study. In order to overcome these limitations, every effort was made to ensure informants of condentiality, cross-validate stories and organizational accounts, and incorporate data from multiple sources. It is also important to note that due to the timing of the data collection, the current ndings do not speak to Trice and Beyers (1993) theme of cultural leadership that embodies, or keeps existing culture vital. In the immediate wake of a merger, the current ndings suggest that cultural leaders who create, change, and integrate cultural elements are much more salient in employee perceptions; however, this does not imply that keeping existing culture vital is not an importance task of cultural leaders. It does, however, suggest that different types of cultural leadership may be more or less important depending on the life cycle of the organization. Organizations with relatively stable environments and long-standing cultural values may likely devote signicantly more attention and energy to cultural embodiment than cultural integration, for example, and this is an important theme for future research to explore. Finally, it is important to emphasize that the focus of the post-merger organization in the current case study was on cultural integration, rather than explicitly recognizing or embracing the differentiation and fragmentation aspects of culture
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outlined by Martin (2002). As a result, future research is necessary to explore other important questions such as: How might an examination of the post-merger processes of cultural differentiation and fragmentation inform the processes of cultural leadership? How do cultural leaders from merging organizations work together to enhance and/or mute the concerns of one set of organizational members in the pursuit of other groups? How do efforts to harness potential prot gains in the wake of a merger impact the success and/or failure of leadership processes that attempt to create, change, and integrate cultural values? Despite remaining unanswered questions, this study has a number of implications for planning and implementing post-merger consolidations. First and foremost, it expands the dialogue on the relationship between leadership and culture, stimulating new approaches to cultural integration that focus on employees at all levels of the organization. In addition, the results of this study should encourage organizations considering an upcoming merger or acquisition to identify and utilize cultural leaders before a merger or consolidation begins, rather than waiting until the merger has taken place and playing catch-up. Cultural leaders can be vital to the success or failure of integration efforts, and the results of this study reveal how critical it is that they identify with integration efforts themselves so they can act as change levers rather than sources of resistance and counter-cultural meanings. While further research is necessary to validate the elements of cultural leadership in a variety of industry and organizational settings, this study takes an important rst step toward identifying how effective cultural leaders may create, change, and integrate cultural elements. In turn, this information can be used to identify areas of training and education in order to foster cultural leadership prior to, during, and after a merger or consolidation. Employees who are educated about the types of leadership that are most effective in facilitating cultural integration can make an important difference in easing the often painful transition a change of this magnitude can entail. This study is somewhat unique in its emphasis on uncovering employees own interpretations and concerns throughout the consolidation process. Employees that were at different stages of the very real experience of having nearly every aspect of their work environments transformed were given the opportunity to reect on their needs for leadership and support, and provide suggestions and input into how the consolidation process should be planned and implemented. Existing studies have not examined the consolidation process at this level of detail, and have primarily incorporated quantitative methodologies to explore employees perspectives. The responses analyzed in the current study indicate that many of the elements of cultural leadership operate at the routine, everyday level, as opposed to the more dramatic effects of how leaders react to critical events or crises. Nonetheless, these routine, everyday activities have a potentially dramatic impact on employees beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Implementing post-merger integration successfully in complex organizations can be a very complicated and painful process, and at times may seem like an unattainable goal. As one respondent stated while reecting on her post-merger experience, the emotions were so strong, I would rather have my skin peeled off than go through that again. It is clear that a great deal of additional research is needed on how to accurately assess, understand, and overcome post-merger cultural clashes in order for both researchers and practitioners to be able to improve the integration experiences for the employees involved. As M&A activity continues to represent an irresistible
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way to cut costs and realize synergistic prot gains, this study represents an important step toward understanding how to realize people synergy as well as prot synergy.
Note
1. Pseudonyms are used throughout the article to retain anonymity.
References
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Appendix Cross-method evidence for cultural leadership

Field notes LEADERSHIP THAT CREATES Recognizing historical cultural differences I guess lessons learned would be the team building and the culture is really entrenched, it needs a lot of work and its not something that in six months you wipe your hands clean and say things are OK now, there are no more problems. You have to keep pounding out that emphasis on integration, patient care, and how based on shared history we can build something that is better together. (Personal Communication) Providing outlets for loss and renewal Manager had to bring in the Employee Assistance Program due to the intense conict going on in her department. Goal: identication of employees views, needs, and concerns regarding working conditions, management, and other job-related aspects of work. (Meeting Notes) Reactions of people in transition: guilt, resentment, anxiety, self-absorption, stress; promote personal and organizational growth through education and development. (Meeting Documents) Frame conict as broadly as possible (i.e. patient care, monetary constraints) and let groups bring their different interpretations to the table; recognize past differences, and guide process of integration under emphasis on patient care. (Meeting Documents) Documents
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Fostering realistic expectations of both challenges and opportunities I was honest with them. There were reasons we needed to close: the lease was very expensive and reimbursement is not great. So I was honest with them. And they knew the difculties. (Personal Communication)
2(4) Articles
So you are going to consolidate a bunch of people that culturally have been brought up to be competitors and now youre going to make them all go work together.
You have to take the emotional personal end out of this whole thing. And I dont know that were always capable of doing that. Because its an emotional process for us, even people whose jobs are staying the same.
Im going to encourage the people that have been there to put their trust in me to make this work, and these are the things I can do for you, these are my services to you, but its not going to be easy.
The Challenge: remaining responsible to our patients and employees in todays constrained scal environment. (Meeting Documents)
Leadership
Interview data LEADERSHIP THAT CHANGES Articulating an ideology for change The plan itself, back to the rst phase, has got to be precise in terms of outcome expectations and measuring the success of various work steps and time frames that have to be met and so forth. Then have to communicate it effectively to build employee buy-in. (Meeting Notes) Creating ongoing momentum for change It's teaching people to deal with change. Working with people to cope with change. Where OD would be able to do that cultural shift thing, change shift. That would be very helpful. We should right now start working with Cardiac people here and at Colonial on dealing with change, accepting the future, viewing this movement as positive stuff, securing our position in the marketplace, we should start working with them. (Meeting Notes)
Field notes
Documents
After you go through the step-wise things, from the standpoint of getting the organization to similarly understand it as the plan has been developed, is to reiterate once again the reasons why and to articulate the plan as effectively as possible. It's part of change, it's a change process.
Have to create staff buy-in to the vision of achieving the economic potential of the merger and establishing a single system culture. (Meeting Documents)
You look at it as a challenge to make it better for everyone. And I think it can be exciting, its like a new road to go down and people just have to think that they have to change.
Formal evaluation of how the organization is orchestrating and engineering the process of change itself in order to engender employee support. (Meeting Documents)
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Appendix Continued
Field notes Utilizing the symbolism of the mundane Story of CEOs choice of date of consolidation a result of a passing conversation in the hall with the senior physician on the Cardiac team: Does July sound good? Sounds good. OK then, July. Interpreted by employees as evidence that senior management has a different plan every week, and isnt really committed to making the consolidation a success. (Meeting Notes) Role modeling a commitment to change Story of poor role modeling of patient care focus: employee asking her manager to improve the ow of the patient care by moving three storage rooms out of the middle of her oor; the managers reply was that he didnt want to inconvenience the storage people. (Personal Communication) LEADERSHIP THAT INTEGRATES Actively team building across previous site memberships Team building initiative: employees asked to identify the most important team effectiveness characteristics that will help you succeed at Universal; most important team effectiveness characteristics you will need to implement for the consolidation to succeed. (Meeting Notes) Team Development: investigate how individuals work in groups, the degree of cooperation or conict in groups, and the use of team problem solving and process improvement. (Meeting Documents) Focus on achieving measurable outcomes of performance in your own department; identify opportunities for continuous improvement and implement them to improve customer service and outcomes. (Meeting Documents) Each and every employee has to emphasize through their daily actions that we can make this merger a success. (Meeting Documents) Documents
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In the beginning if I would slip and say, well States does it like this. I could just see people bristle and I knew I lost them for the rest of that meeting. Forget it, I just blew it. Comparisons. Just like you don't like to be compared to your sister or another wife. So we relabeled it blending best practice.
I was always positive. Always. And then my, the nurses can tell you, I would always say, change is never a bad thing.
Team building is a lot of just nuts and bolts. Showing up, having meetings, posting agendas, sending out minutes, getting feedback to people, being available, listening, all kinds of things that are not rocket science and they're not sexy things but they help.
Leadership
Interview data Utilizing employee input into post-merger changes The best thing you can do too is include them in the opinions, the ow, how we're going to rework things. The development of new units. You put workforce groups together with your employees, youd be amazed at the energy that comes out of them, the knowledge that comes out, their creativity is beyond. We havent tapped into that. (Personal Communication) Creating communication channels for cultural differences Manager advises to always listen, be there, and show employees that you understand. Let them know what is going on. Her door is always open, except when she is changing, literally. (Informal Communication)
Field notes
Documents
They didn't involve the people that do the work. Isn't this something they teach you in Management 101? You really have to be there, be in scrubs, down in the trenches.
Empowerment or Participation: opportunities that leader affords others to share in decisions; helps build the full-edged support of the people that have to translate it into action on a daily basis. (Meeting Documents)
Communication with each and every employee is the biggest challenge. That gets to the heart, its helping each and every employee to understand why a change or a consolidation effort is being made and handling all of the communication that needs to be handled.
Managers become consultants with each individual staff member having an opportunity to provide input; involve staff in one on one interactions; face-to-face discussion between manager and staff member. (Meeting Documents)
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Michelle C. Bligh is an Assistant Professor in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, USA. Her research interests include charismatic leadership, organizational culture, interpersonal trust, and political and executive leadership. Her recent work has appeared in a number of academic journals. She also serves on the editorial review board of The Leadership Quarterly. She has a book forthcoming titled Follower-centered Perspectives on Leadership as part of the Leadership Horizons series, and is co-editor of a special issue of Applied Psychology: An International Review on follower-centric approaches to leadership. She is a research afliate of both the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College and the Center for Leadership Innovation and Mentorship Building (CLIMB) at California State University San Marcos. In addition, she has served as a visiting faculty member for the Executive MBA Program at the Singapore Institute of Management since 2004. She has consulted with organizations in a variety of industries, including local and state law enforcement, consulting rms, healthcare organizations, and real estate rms to assess and improve organizational culture, change management, and leadership development. Dr Bligh received her MS in Organizational Culture and Communication as well as her PhD in Management from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and is an alumna of Pomona College. [email: Michelle.Bligh@cgu.edu]
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Leadership

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Leadership and culture change

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Perceived situation Vision and mission Follower attributions

Performance Leader behaviors

Use of cultural forms

Use of tradition Persistence over time

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Additional data sources

2(4) Articles Table 2 Variants of cultural leadership in a post-merger context

Letting go of the old to prepare for the new

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Leadership that creates: providing outlets for loss and renewal

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Weakening or replacing old cultural elements to move forward

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Leadership that changes: utilizing the symbolism of the mundane

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Leadership that changes: role modeling a commitment to the change process

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Reconciling differences between the old and the new

Leadership that integrates: utilizing employee input into post-merger changes

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Leadership that integrates: communicating informally about cultural differences

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Limitations and practical implications

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Appendix Cross-method evidence for cultural leadership

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

Surviving Post-merger Culture Clash Bligh

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