ABSTRACT
The lessons learned session with senior management had been held, and one of the lessons that had been emphasized is that people issues should be under the microscope the first day an acquisition or merger possibility becomes a gleam in the eyes of executive management. Don Howard and Wayne Cascio committed to ensuring that human resources (HR) strategies for staffing, development, performance management and rewards management should encourage integration of functions, an aligned focus on meeting organizational objectives and optimizing the application of its core capabilities. Don shifted direction and decided to look at their intellectual capital, which along with social capital constitutes human capital. When Pete, Don and Wayne presented the retiree health recommendation, one of the concerns the CEO had expressed was that it seemed that all news was bad news regarding the merger when employees were informed of changes.
