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The authors review literature that focuses on women and minorities in the context of mergers and acquisitions (henceforth referred to as mergers for the sake of simplicity) aiming to explore how and to what extent diversity and gender issues are studied in merger research. The authors sort the reviewed research into three themes: the impact of gender on merger outcome, the impact of merger on women and minorities, and the impact of merger on diversity management and equality work. The authors suggest that it is important to conduct further studies on the topic but also assert that merger managers can learn from diversity management literature and practices how to manage employees with diverse backgrounds during the post-merger integration.

In this chapter, we want to draw merger and acquisition scholars' attention to the variety of settings investigated under the generic label “M&As”. We seek to answer the following question: “What are the study objects that mergers and acquisitions scholars actually investigate and refer to with the generic label ‘M&As’?” We will achieve this aim by conducting a detailed analysis of existing empirical research published in management journals. Through our analysis, we wish to contribute to the existing literature by examining the complexity and ambiguity behind the label “M&As”, and exploring the variety of research settings where management scholars have, thus far, used it to measure merger and acquisition performance. By doing so, we will raise scholars' awareness of the importance of defining the scope conditions where the merger and acquisition performance construct does or does not apply.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Gender and Diversity Stream, Standing Working Group (SWG) at the recent European Group of Organisational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, which was hosted in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The paper provides an overview of the SWG before turning to the scope of the papers and a brief synopsis of three of the best papers within the context of the stream.

Approach is report style following submission of a paper and participation in the three-day colloquium.

Evidently, the Gender and Diversity Stream has secured its position within the EGOS colloquium. The stream provides an environment forum in which to present works where participants engage in critical reviews of participant’s work. The success of this growing stream is found not only in the scholarly and practical importance of the subject terrain but also in the organisation of the stream which is thematically organised to ensure participants were engaged and actively took part in the discussion.

This paper presents insights on the EGOS SWG on “Gender and Diversity” and traces the topic of “critical approaches to organising and managing diversity” which was the SWG’s main theme of the stream at the EGOS Colloquium in Rotterdam 2014.

The purpose of this study is to understand how the concept of diversity management is translated and adapted into the Danish societal context. The authors therefore seek to answer these questions: to what extent do larger Danish companies experience a need to practice diversity management? Do they also have specific diversity policies? And how do these Danish companies discursively construct and manage diversity?

The authors surveyed 100 Danish firms and performed a discourse analysis of two frontrunner firms' diversity documents.

The Danish firms in the survey experienced a need for diversity management, but were somewhat reluctant to introduce diversity policies. The two frontrunner firms drew on a discourse of diversity as a business case intertwined with a discourse of social responsibility with focus on helping minority groups having difficulties accessing the job market. The findings indicate that concepts must be translated for the local context in order to be accepted by local actors.

Further studies should look closer into local practices of diversity management to increase understanding of how this seemingly universal management concept is translated.

Danish society, which until recently was relatively homogeneous, forms a specific cultural context for diversity management that differs significantly from American and British multicultural societies.

The purpose of this paper is to address gender and management in contemporary globalization by focusing on the ways in which male top managers in a multinational corporation (MNC) construct their identities in interviews with researchers.

Qualitative analysis based on interviews with virtually all top managers in the Nordic financial services company Nordea (53 men and two women).

It is found that becoming international induces a particular masculine identity for the top managers. In becoming international, however, their national identification persists. The unstability of the MNC as a political constellation leaves room for questioning the transnational identity offered.

This paper's findings suggest that in the global world of business, national identity can also be interpreted as something positive and productive, contrary to how it has been previously treated in feminist and men's studies literature.

The purpose of this paper is to build on contemporary intersectional literature to develop a grounded methodological framework for the study of social differences.

A systematic literature review serves as the foundation for a discussion of the challenges associated with intersectional research. The findings assist in positioning the proposed methodological framework within recent intersectional debates.

The review shows a rise in intersectional publications since the birth of the “intersectionality” term in 1989. Moreover, the paper points to four tensions within the field: a tension between looking at or beyond oppression; a tension between structural-oriented and process-oriented perspectives; an apparent incommensurability among the macro, meso, and micro levels of analysis; and a lack of coherent methodology.

On the basis of the highlighted tensions in contemporary research as well as the limitations of that research, the present presents a methodological framework and a discussion of the implications of that framework for the wider diversity literature.

The paper suggests an empirically grounded approach to studying differences. This provides an opportunity, for scholars and practitioners, to reassess possible a priori given assumptions, and open up to new explorations beyond conventional identity theorization.

The paper suggests a need for an empirically grounded approach to studying social differences, which would not only create an opportunity to reassess common assumptions but also open up for explorations beyond conventional identity theorizations.

The framework departs from traditional (critical) diversity scholarship, as it is process oriented but still emphasizes stable concepts. Moreover, it does not give primacy to oppression. Finally, it adopts a critical stance on the nature of the macro, meso, and micro levels as dominant analytical perspectives. As a result, this paper focusses on the importance of intersectionality as a conceptual tool for exploring social differences.

The paper aims to report on an in‐depth study of the merger and acquisition processes involved in the creation of the leading financial services corporation in the Nordic countries: Nordea. The purposes are, first, to describe the roles played by the HR function and examine the effects of the roles enacted by the HR function on how the workforces were managed and integrated in the post‐merger processes; second, to analyze issues influencing the changing roles played by the HR function in Nordea during the merger processes.

The data for this paper were collected mostly through 60 interviews with HR managers and top executives in Nordea. In addition to the interviews, access was provided to company‐internal material and consultancy reports concerning the HR function.

The paper finds that the Nordea case shows, on the one hand, typical problems in organizing and managing HR issues, but also illustrates, on the other, how the HR function is easily left with a secondary non‐strategic role in these processes.

The paper shows that the general limitations of any single case analysis apply also to the present study.

The paper indicates that the communication of expectations both to and from the HR function may be particularly important in clarifying the roles the function is to play in the post‐merger process.

The paper offers unique insights into the roles played by the HR function in merger processes.