TRUST AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT: IMPLICATIONS FOR POST-ACQUISITION INTEGRATION

Abstract

While post-acquisition integration entails process and system alignment, it first and foremost involves people. Generally speaking, post-acquisition integration projects raise a need for collaboration between the employees in the acquirer company and in the acquired company, but also within the acquired unit itself. The role of mutual trust – a shared belief that the integration will have a mutually beneficial outcome for all parties involved – in this process has been the starting point for this thesis. This thesis has discussed the meaning and role of trust in a post-acquisition organizational environment both from a theoretical and an empirical angle. Based on an in-depth case study, the specific aim has been to establish how trust can be constructed in post-acquisition integration. Through the construction of four empirical ideal-types, we believe we have shown how diverse organizational groups attach different meanings to trust through sensemaking and identity construction processes. Our findings suggest that while trust can play a facilitating role in post-acquisition integration, trust cannot be constructed by any individual actor. Instead, trust develops from social interaction and is grounded in the values adopted over time.