Research seminar on emotions in mergers and acquisitions in International Business and Management

The subjects of International Business and Management and Organisation, in co-operation with EmoMA project arranged a joint research seminar on 15 September.  Doctoral Candidate Riikka Harikkala-Laihinen from TSE presented her doctoral research on "Employee emotions in intercultural integration dialogue" and explained how she is planning to extract data from a case company's M&A dialogue during the integration phase. The visiting doctoral researcher Dipl.-Kffr. Eva Schlindwein from The Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, on her behalf,  introduced the working paper written by her and her supervisor Prof. Dr. Mike Geppert : "Sensemaking in the context of MNC mergers and acquisitions: an emotional sensemaking approach to subsidiary integration".

The presentations aroused vivid discussion on how to study emotions in the context of mergers and acquisitions and how to find the most appropriate methods to ensure validity of the research. The main challenge was regarded to be the complexity of the ways that emotions arise and influence appraisal – an individual functions as part of the surrounding context and therefore, emotions caused by work reflect on private life and vice versa. Thus, in data collection it is important to try to distinguish between different triggers of emotions and to extract the actual triggers as carefully as possible. Also defining the lens through which the emotions are analysed as accurately as possible was considered essential.