Culture Acquisition

Thus far, a common thread through this blog has been along the line of culture adoption.  This post will look a bit further into the acquisition of an organizational culture.  When thinking about acquiring a culture, there are two distinct areas that I am specifically considering: one organization acquiring another with its distinct culture; and an organization actively acquiring a new and different culture without an acquisition of an organization involved.

When an organization acquires another, an often overlooked or underestimated dynamic is the people and culture of the group being acquired.  There are several ways that these acquisitions can be done including completely assimilating an organization inside of another as a single larger organization; as a fully integrated subsidiary where some individual organizational identity and structures remain, while others are integrated; and a non-fully integrated (NFI) subsidiary, where the organization acquired is maintained as a separate entity in most or many regards.  Often this third form, the NFI has a culture or unique characteristics that are part of its value proposition and if that organization is fully integrated, there could be a significant loss of market differentiation, product or customer identity, or other factors.  Intertwined in this is the distinct culture of the organization and the people being acquired through the transaction as employees.

There are many ways to incorporate two or more organizations as mentioned above as well as a number of recommendations about how to do so, such as this 6 Ps method, which starts with a focus on the people of an organization.

So if we are looking at acquiring organizations and thus also acquiring a culture, how do we acquire culture as individuals? Well, this is an important question...and it gets at one of the underlying questions of this blogging exercise. 

While this post was briefly about the acquisition of cultures/organizations, future posts will continue to explore the chicken versus egg question about what comes first, a culture that is conducive to connecting or connecting with others that develops a culture and in each case, how this may occur within an acquisition will be briefly explored as well. ?