In the Effect of Communication Quality on Organizational Commitment Levels on Employees in Mergers: Mediator of Organizational Trust, Moderator Role of Transformational Leadership

Abstract

From past to present, companies have preferred mergers and acquisitions for different reasons and expectations. However, studies show that a significant part of mergers and acquisitions cannot achieve the success and goals that companies expect from the merger. One of the most important reasons for this is that by focusing on financial goals in the merger and acquisition process; managerial elements such as communication, leadership and human resources are given less importance.

In this study, it is aimed to examine the role of organizational trust as a mediating variable and transformational leadership as a moderator variable in the effect of communication quality on the organizational commitment levels of employees in a merger process.

The field study was carried out by collecting survey data from the employees of the companies which went through a merger. These compiled data were used to test the relationships between the variables as stated in the hypotheses. Therefore, in addition to demographic data, the questionnaire includes expressions related to organizational commitment, communication quality, transformational leadership and organizational trust variables.

The research universe, in which the field study is applied consists of a total of 22,650 white-collar and blue-collar personnel and managers working in organizations involved in the mergers process. Therefore, according to the calculation made on the population size, the sample size should consist of at least 378 people. The questionnaire forms were delivered to 385 people and after eliminating some responses 378 observations were used in further analyses.

As a result of the analyzes, it was concluded that the quality of communication displayed during the merger process increased the affective commitment of employees, which is one of the sub-dimensions of organizational commitment, and organizational trust played a mediating variable in this increase.