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Performance management can play an important role in the implementation of strategic change, by aligning employees’ mindsets and behavior with organizational goals. However, the ways in which employees react to change efforts aided by performance management practices are far from straight-forward. In this chapter, we develop a conceptual framework for understanding employees’ reactions to strategic change as a consequence of their occupational identities and their performance management outcome. We further apply the framework to an empirical study of a strategic change initiative in a school organization that was supported by a new performance management practice. We show how variations in perceived identity threat translate into four distinct patterns of emotional and behavioral reactions, where only one represents whole-hearted change acceptance. The study contributes to our understanding of individual- and group-level heterogeneity in reactions to strategic change, and also to a more nuanced conception of identity threat.

Building on social identity theory, the purpose of this paper is to present a study on the socio‐cultural integration process in a merger of two European pharmaceutical subsidiaries in Mexico. The paper investigates antecedents of perceived threat to pre‐merger identities in an officially claimed “merger‐of‐equals”.

A mixed‐methods approach was adopted comprising semi‐structured interviews (with 37 interview partners) and standardized employee surveys with 890 respondents.

Findings indicate that identity of the new organization was largely shared among members of the different subgroups. Though the employees considered their pre‐merger identities to be at stake (as demonstrated through the interviews), this experienced threat was not very strongly expressed in the survey. In fact, the sub‐groups were able to maintain distinctiveness, acknowledge the value added of each group, and had access to resources.

The main study limitation concerns the fact that this research was conducted using a cross‐sectional design. It would be interesting in future research to observe the processes as they unfold over time.

The paper's findings may help managers and change agents to understand that within merger partners, subgroups exist and different concerns in terms of their identity may emerge.

The results shed light on how shared identity in the new organization can successfully develop despite different perceptions of the integration process of members from the acquired and the acquiring groups. In contrast to past research findings on M&As, positive results were achieved despite contradictory perceptions of integration process of members of the acquired and the acquiring groups.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the role of organizational culture in governing the dynamics of resistance and facilitation of change by explicating the operational mechanisms underlying the Model of Organizational Change in Cultural Context (OC3 Model).

A conceptual definition of facilitation is introduced that parallels the psychosocial construction of resistance, while departing from traditional views that cast these constructs as polar opposites. Within the context of the OC3 Model, a multifaceted perspective on organizational change is advanced in which facilitation takes place alongside of, rather than in the absence of, resistance.

Two sources of resistance and facilitation are delineated, both stemming from the degree of cultural alignment of the content (strategic initiatives) and process (implementation strategies) elements of strategic change. The dynamic interplay of these independent sources of resistance and facilitation is explored within the context of the OC3 Model where the consequences of cultural alignment or misalignment are considered with respect to change implementation and linked to established theory and empirical evidence. Four interaction effects emerge from this analysis: augmentation, undermining, prevailing and immunity. A visual model illuminating the countervailing effects of facilitation on resistance is provided, along with illustrative examples derived from multiple ethnographic field studies.

Theoretical and practical implications of these interaction effects for advancing scholarship and leading organizational change are explored.

Articulating this theoretical extension of the OC3 Model provides a valuable corrective to extant theories of change that afford equal importance to all culturally embedded sources of resistance and fail to account for the counter balancing effects of facilitation.