Organizational culture highly depends upon the HR practices and strategies within an organization. Culture is made up of acceptable and appreciated norms and attitude at the workplace. In the situation of change implementation in the organization at any level, HR managers take actions to control the whole situation in advance. In my opinion, the employee's satisfaction towards job decreases when they find themselves unable to get an adjustment in the new system after the change plan implementation. HR managers who consider employees as valuable organizational asset focuses on long term benefits and organizational success.

According to a research study conducted on change management and committed HR managers, managers of each organization have the responsibility to enhance employees’ willingness to adopt change. Managers of the change adopting organization should develop strategies to reduce uncertainties about the intentions of the organization regarding future work. Thus, reinforcement by the management for the adoption of change bring influence in overall organizational culture. For instance, after merger HR managers would have to pay attention to the ethics, rules and regulations of the subsidiary company to align these rules and regulations with the parent company as such practices not only influence social climate or culture of an organization but also change or employee’s attitude towards business operations and their retention practices.

However, to accept change in the organization both companies should have new HR strategies committed to the change management. According to the research study, organizational cultures should be supportive of ethical decision making, communication, and reinforcement to establish positive behaviour for change. Thus, managerial staff committed and loyal to the improved culture of both workplaces would create a new organizational culture to accept organizational change (Neves, Almeida and Velez).          

Propose a change model that they can follow.

            Under the research findings, organizations need to follow up change management model that enables the whole workforce to adopt change and ensure its application at each level of the organization. The change management model should integrate new build, co-existence, absorption, and best of the breed.  Al Mada and Al Shurooq would have a transformation to identify gaps and new ways to operate collaboratively with each other. Incentive management system and rewards can encourage organizational change adoption in the employees thus incentives should be added in a proposed change model. Here absorption is also important as it synergies finances and operational requirements to be achieved after acquisition and consolidation decision (Schönreiter).

Although, I would recommend also recommend two way street of communication. Fully functional and integrated communication system would reduce ambiguities and result from the increase of work accuracy at workplaces. Integrated communication channels in the change management model will enable the change management team to discuss each and every aspect with the relevant workforce (Appelbaum, Karelis and Henaff). Thus, the change management team can translate the purpose of change and integration of both organizations Al Mada and Al Shurooq is possible. Moreover, the change management model should also focus on different strategies for employee’s motivation to earn the actual objective behind this merger (Kavanagh and Ashkanasy).

The merger or acquisition of Al Mada and Al Shurooq was made to promote the business of these companies in the targeted markets.  Al Mada was working on traditional business operations while utilizing only a few software application for the execution of business operations. However, before this merger or acquisition, Al Shurooq was working as a traditionally advanced company in the market. Al Shurooq had the latest software to execute its business activities (Neves, Almeida and Velez).

Considering this information, I would suggest the advancement of technology in the Al Mada workplaces also. Change management model will address the advancement of technology and motivation of employees towards the use of modern technology. Thus, both companies would be able to work properly. A research study on change management suggested a change management model with a focus on employee's motivation.

According to this model, two types of motivation intrinsic and extrinsic should be provided by the organizational leaders to encourage workforce and bring desirable positive changes in employee’s behaviour at the workplace. Research findings present that extensive changes occur in an organization as a result of acquisition, consolidation and merger. Such extensive changes are critical to organizational success. In the case of Al Mada and Al Shurooq merger, change management team need to engage individuals towards work with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation strategies. Moreover, fear of job loss should be also controlled otherwise employees dissatisfaction will increase.

To deal with these issues, I would suggest the implementation of a change management model in such a way that promotes ethical and collaborative culture at the workplace. In change management model, the extrinsic motivation of workforce would relate to the shifts in the organizational culture. However, conclusively, I would suggest a change management model that relates to culture, employees motivation, employees engagement, communication system integration, and the centralized hierarchy of control. Moreover, the change management model should also address specific requirements and mission of merged companies as a single entity to reduce conflict of interest among employees and management (Kavanagh and Ashkanasy; Appelbaum, Lefrancois and Tonna).                            

Explain how each phase of the model may be achieved.

It is not easy to manage Change management model in the Merger of two companies. There could be countless unexpected obstacles that management could encounter. The management could face issues regarding wildcard element that can cause the entire initiative to fire back. Considering all the situations and role of Management it is not surprising that 70% of change initiative might get failed. Therefore, the proper management of initial steps is necessary to achieve all the steps of Change management model. Generally, three different types of Management models can be categorized as an organization-wide change, bottom-up, and employee-focused management model. In the present work, Lewis's Change management model is considered (Appelbaum, Karelis and Henaff).

The model will specifically help in merging two companies that are large scale change in the company and it could cause a serious impact on the operation of the organization. A complete cycle of change is considered in the model that is based on three steps including unfreeze, make changes, and refreeze. The model is based upon cyclical steps and order of each step is necessary. In the case of unfreezing step of the merger company, the breaking down of status for each company is the initial step (Neves, Almeida and Velez).

 In this way, both companies will let the employees know about each change taking into the company and how the workers and employees will be working together in the merger company. The next step is making the changes that are moving towards a new direction. In this step, new tools and processes will be employed. This stage is similar to the experimentation stage in which work will be assigned their task and instructions regarding how they will work in the merger company (Appelbaum, Lefrancois and Tonna).

 A complete working guide will be developed for the merger company and their employees to work according to the plan. After making changes and merging both companies and their employees the next step is to refreeze all the steps and changes. At this stage, workers will be able to solve the problems and staff might experience new services. The last step of refreezing is important to implement all the changes in the company and assign the task to all the workers (Bergamin and Braun).

How do you propose to maintain the change?  Sustainability issues.

Maintenance of the model is necessary to step to be considered and make effective development in the company particularly in merger companies where employees are subcategories on the basis of their skills and knowledge. Before starting upper change, it is important to communicate with the management. For the employees and workers were changed difficult and uncertain and they might face difficulties in accepting the change (Vasilaki, Tarba and Ahammad).

Therefore, it is highly important to deal with the major changes in the company, management consideration, and sustainability issues. There are different questions that are required to be addressed to all the employees of Merger company to have knowledge about the changes and impact of change on the company. It is the responsibility of Management of merger company to make it clear why the changes are being made, what are the potential risk issues for maintaining the status of each company separately, what are the changes and risk that an average employee can face (Kavanagh and Ashkanasy).

 After analyzing the main theme, the management company execute the proposed changes and the process uses some business process management software. Making and updating the documentation must be discussed with the employees and they must be aware of the changes so they can carry out the adjustment process. While making adjustments all the employees will provide their feedback. The next changes will be made with their feedback in concern, so the employee's consideration is also involved in making changes in the merger company. It is necessary to make sure that the employees are accepting the changes in small and mega scale (Neves, Almeida and Velez). At this time the employees must be aware of successful approaches considered by the company. In the Merger company, another model known as the ADKAR model can be implemented in which the main focus is to make the changes in the company setup instead of making changes in the employees working area (Neves, Almeida and Velez).

Name the new company

Merger company

References of Prepare the new organizational culture to accept the change.

Appelbaum, Steven H., et al. "Mergers 101 (part two): training managers for culture, stress, and change challenges." Industrial and Commercial Training (2007): 191-200.

—. "Resistance to change in the case of mergers and acquisitions: part 1." Industrial and Commercial Training 49.2 (2017): 87-92.

Bergamin, Stephan and Markus Braun. Mergers and Acquisitions: Integration and Transformation Management as the Gateway to Success. Springer, 2017.

Gaughan, Patrick A. Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructurings. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.

Kavanagh, Marie H. and Neal M. Ashkanasy. "The impact of leadership and change management strategy on organizational culture and individual acceptance of change during a merger." British journal of management (2006).

Neves, Pedro, Patrícia Almeida and Maria João Velez. "Reducing intentions to resist future change: Combined effects of commitment-based HR practices and ethical Leadership." Human Resource Management 57.1 (2018): 249-261.

Schönreiter, Irene Maria. "Methodologies for process harmonization in the post-merger integration phase: A literature review." Business Process Management Journal (2018): 330-356.

Vasilaki, Athina, et al. "The moderating role of transformational leadership on HR practices in M&A integration." International Journal of Human Resource Management (2016): 2488-2504.