ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we discuss the history of mergers and acquisitions, and the way that market bubbles or supportive legislation tend to increase the numbers of mergers and acquisitions, whereas stock market crashes, oil crises, bubble bursts, and other national or global economic events tend to reduce their numbers. Mergers and acquisitions used to be popular as a way of achieving a monopoly, but competition laws forced organizations to shift to types of deals that use legal loopholes or that involve other countries. We discuss why employees can experience fear and other negative emotions about an impending merger or acquisition within the organization that they work for by looking at the history of mergers and acquisitions nationally or globally, as well as by developing stereotypes from the media or other employees that are inspired by historical events. This leads us to explore the empirical evidence about what emotions employees experience – both positive and negative – through a systematic review of published studies about the topic within Chapter 3, which will follow.
