Company profile

XYZ Inc.
Our company, XYZ Inc., is a passenger vehicles manufacturer and distributer. The company was
incorporated in July 20, 2004 and its headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, U.S. Its Products (14seater, 7-seater, 33-seater and 56-seater are sold to both the local market and international
market. With a recent strategic plan to expand its market to the Africa, Nigeria was its first
destination.
ABC Ltd.
ABC Ltd., is a leading automobile assembling company based in Lagos, Nigeria. The company
was incorporated in June 14, 2010. The company usually imports vehicles body parts and
assembles them. It sells its products to the local market.
Steps in unifying the different cultures between the two companies
Having completed the merging of the two companies, the legal and financial aspect, culture clash
pose a big challenge to the success of the merger. As the HRM of the XYZ Inc., the following are
suggested steps to ensure that the two cultures work together to obtain the desired results of the
two companies:
1. Set cultural integration agenda
Organizations culture can be defined as all the shared values, beliefs and behaviors that dictate
how people do things in the organization. To integrate the two cultures, we first need to define
cultural objectives in broad terms. And as the HRM, I have the responsibility to ensure that the
objectives are realized.

Setting the cultural agenda necessarily requires tough decisions to be made. This decisions
involve whether the merger should adopt one firms culture or to integrate the two. The choice
will depend on the one that will have a greater value of the deal.
2. Diagnosing the cultural differences that matter
The second step is to pin-point significant cultural differences between XYZ and ABC.
Diagnostics will identify and measure the differences among people, units, geographical regions
and functions. The disparity may be diagnosed through the following; management interviews,
process flow maps, customer interviews, employee surveys or decision X-rays and
accountability. These tools will lead to useful discussions.
3. Defining the desired culture
The culture to be adopted by the resulting firm is defined. Culture is defined not just by defining
the themes or adjectives but with specific behaviors, and with incentives and measures that will
be used to encourage those behaviors. This will be done by bringing together the stakeholders of
the former companies to help in co-creating the new culture.
4. Formulation of culture-change plan
To reach at the merger objectives, planning plays a crucial role. The plan to build up that culture
needs to focus on key groups of employees, such as front office staff. Beginning with a diagnosis
of differences, we can then define the precise behaviors we want to witness.
We then define the forerunners and consequences that will foster the adopted behaviors. This
might include a training program that will identify, describe and train on the behaviors to be

adopted. The plan will also have a feedback mechanism. The feedback mechanism involves
monitoring and evaluation.
The plan formulation will involve key employees of the former companies (Culture-change
team). We will create cross-functional post-integration teams that consist of employees from both
organizations to work on logistical details. This strategy will not only give the employees some
ownership of the process, but it will help the two cultures begin to shape out how to work with
one another.
The plan will be developed with the assistance of experts. The experts will help in providing
tried strategies for the culture-change.
5. Launching culture-change
We will launch the program soon after the plan is approved. To engage all employees in this new
culture of recognition, the team will help them understand their continued value to the merged
organization, and unite all employees behind the new vision and core values designed to attain it.
6. Monitoring progress
Once the plan has been implemented, the team will monitor the progress of the adopted change.
This is part of feedback of mechanism of the desired culture-change. Monitoring is taking a
periodic look at how the plan is going. It provides the link between the written plan and the dayto-day operation of the business. Monitoring will also help in making corrective measures in case
of disparity with the plan.
7. Evaluating progress of culture change

The data obtained through monitoring on the progress of the culture-change plan is evaluated.
Evaluation involves establishing whether the implementation of the culture-change program is
still in accordance with the formulated plan or not. If yes, then no changes will be made on the
current undertakings of the implementation progress. But if on evaluation, the team finds out that
the day-to-day operations shows a deviating behavior from the plan, corrective measures is
adopted.
8. Taking corrective measures
If the implementation program team finds out that the actual employees behavior is deviating
from the plan, they will institute measures to correct the disparity. Correcting the differences will
ensure that the organization is heading towards the right direction in meeting the overall
company mission.

References
LaPlante, A. (2006, October 1). Glenn Carroll: How Do You Successfully Merge Two Corporate
Cultures? | Stanford Graduate School of Business. Retrieved January 5, 2016, from
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/glenn-carroll-how-do-you-successfully-mergetwo-corporate-cultures
Wickford, H. (n.d.). How to Merge Two Different Cultures in the Workplace | Chron.com.
Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/merge-two-different-cultures-workplace13705.html

Stafford, D. & Miles, L. (2013, December 11). Integrating mergers after a merger. Bain &
Company: Insights. Retrieved January 5,2016, from
http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/integrating-cultures-after-a-merger.aspx