Strategies for Managing Human Resources

Questions: 1. Why do some companies fail to develop HR plans as part of their mergers and acquisitions strategies? 2. What roles should HR professionals play in these processes? Answers: 1. Many companies fail to develop HR plans during the Merger and Acquisition process. These happens because the primary focus of the organizations during the merger or acquisition process is towards the revenue which the combined entity will have. They focus on the market share and activities which will showcase their strength in the market (Ivancevich, 1987). All this lead to ignorance of the most important resource of the organization which are the people who form the base element in the building of those organizations. They should be dealt with first during MA process so that the process would be smoother and fruitful. 2. HR managers should play a key role during Merger and Acquisition Processes. Generally, they would be left out in the beginning and will be involved in the end to find out the redundant positions and fire the employees with low performance (Schweiger, 1992). However, the exercise should be opposite. The HR managers should be involved in the beginning to find out the crucial resources from both the merging organization and retain all employees to boost the morale of the employees from both the organization. References Ivancevich, J. M., Schweiger, D. M., Power, F. R. (1987). Strategies for Managing Human Resources During Mergers and. People and Strategy, 10(1), 19. Schweiger, D. M., Weber, Y. (1992). Strategies for managing human resources during mergers and acquisitions: An empirical investigation. In Human Resource Planning (pp. 101-118). Gabler Verlag.