Post M&A ill-health: Main, moderating and mediating effects of job stressors and perceived organizational support
Abstract
Purpose
The current financial crisis in Greece has redefined the way organizations operate resulting in a dramatic increase in mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The purpose of this paper is twofold: first to explore, within the M&A context, the main effects of job-related stressors and perceived organizational support (POS) on merger survivors’ ill-health and second to examine the indirect links between these and commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from 140 employees of two merged financial institutions in Greece post-combination.
Findings
The results indicated significant direct relationships between work-related stressors and POS and ill-health. As regards the indirect relationships, only the mediation link between organizational support, ill-health and commitment was supported.
Practical implications
Implications, limitations and further research issues are discussed in light of the M&A context.
Originality/value
The intention is to extend current stress and M&A literature findings (e.g. Cartwright and Cooper, 1993; Cartwright et al., 2007), and further investigate the relationship between stressors and ill-health within a turbulent context, since little is known about the behavioral reactions arising as an outcome of M&As in a Greek setting. Thus, the unique contribution of this study is to examine this relationship in a double crisis context: the organizational crisis following the M&A and the financial crisis currently facing Greece, since the area of M&As in Greece has so far received little scholarly attention (Bellou, 2007, 2008).
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Professors Christian Vandenberghe and Michael Sfakianakis for their constructive comments on this manuscript. The present research is dedicated to the memory of the author’s father, Dr George Makris.
Citation
Makri, E. and Ntalianis, F. (2015), "Post M&A ill-health: Main, moderating and mediating effects of job stressors and perceived organizational support", Employee Relations, Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 176-191. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-07-2014-0084
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited