ABSTRACT
The consultant was asked to develop an approach and plan for the merger process of two large retail organizations in the Netherlands. Although both Dutch, the organizations differed greatly in their organizational culture. The consultant was hired for a longer period of time (1.5 years) and was part of an integration project team, cooperating with the company’s management team and appointed integration team members from different disciplines. During the research process an iterative and pragmatic approach was taken. Several methods were used to gain insight in the situation at the start of the advisory process: ethnographic observation, interviews with management team members, interviews with employees from different departments and levels in both organizations, analysis of statistics from the intranet. The results were not so much focused on taking the best of both worlds in terms of systems and ways of working or on deciding when to communicate what exactly, but on facilitating interaction between employees of both companies, empowering them to create meaning in a new organization. Listening to people, giving them a voice, responding to feedback and questions, and facilitating everyone in their communicative responsibilities were key aspects in this project.
