‘Business as usual?’ Retail employee perceptions of organizational life following cross-border acquisition

Abstract

The question of whether strong organizational cultures can be exported across borders has been continually debated in the management and business literature. With increased retail internationalization, the question arises in how far global retailers will be able to transpose their cultural values – which are regarded as key levers to business success – into other national contexts. A case study of the acquisition of a UK retailer reveals workforce compliance to behavioural norms and consent to company values at Schein's () second tier of organizational culture. However, the cultural integration espoused in the retailer's literature is not achieved, but differentiation and fragmentation (Martin, , ) prevail at store level, despite the probable existence of a strong sectoral culture (Ogbonna and Harris, ).

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