SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING OF NEWCOMERS AND SURVIVORS OF A BUSINESS MERGER

Back to Page Authors: Viviane Cruvinel Di Castro, Celmo Celeno Porto, Marcos Rassi Fernandes, William Tov

Keywords: mergers and acquisitions, subjective well-being, worker, scale of positive and negative feelings

Abstract: Background: The increasing number of mergers and acquisitions makes it imperative to conduct studies that assess emotional aspects in this context, where there are survivors, workers who have undergone an organizational merger, and newcomers, who have not passed through this type of change. This study evaluated the subjective well-being of workers of a business merger. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with 152 employees of a Brazilian drugstore company, which underwent a merger process. Subjective well-being was accessed through the Positive and Negative Experiences Scale. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney, Spearman correlation and Multiple Regression tests were used for data analysis. Results: More than half of the sample were women (55.6%), with the majority of workers being young adults aged between 18 and 30 years old. Workers experienced more positive than negative feelings at work, thus experiencing subjective well-being (Affected Balance = 10.31 ± 6.99). There were no differences between survivors and participants (U = 2832.0, z = -177, ns). Bivariate analysis showed that the variables gender, age, educational level, and leadership position are associated with greater subjective well-being (p <.20). Specifically, male gender, older age, higher educational level and leadership are associated with greater subjective well-being at work. Conclusions: Workers demonstrate happiness at work, regardless of the experience of a business merger. Socio-demographic and socio-organizational variables are determinant regarding the experience of subjective well-being at work, being important indicators in the evaluation of this type of psychological construct.