Introduction A global increase in investment activities

A global increase in investment activities in mergers and acquisitions exceeded

50,607 businesses in 2018 (U.S.$ 4.1 trillion in 2018) and 49,327 businesses in 2019

(U.S.$ 4.9 trillion) but dropped to 45,652 businesses in 2020 (U.S.$ 2.8 trillion) due to

the COVID-19 pandemic (Morgan, 2020). Cross-border mergers and acquisitions in 2015

increased from U.S.$ 432 billion to U.S.$ 721 billion (Schweizer et al., 2019).

Notwithstanding the aggregate of mergers and acquisitions market amounting to trillions

of United States Dollars (US$) investment annually and tens of thousands of businesses,

research shows that the failure rate is as high as over 60% (Dhir, et al., 2019; Renneboog

& Vansteenkiste, 2019). This represents over 30,364 businesses in 2018 (US$ 2.46

trillion), 29,596 businesses in 2019 (US$2.94 trillion), and 27,391 businesses (US$ 1.68

trillion) in 2020 (Institute for Mergers Acquisitions and Alliances, 2019; Morgan, 2020;

Renneboog & Vansteenkiste, 2019).

Researchers attribute the high failure rate to a lack of leadership skills at both the

pre-acquisition and post-acquisition implementation stages (Cui & Leung, 2020; Khan et

al., 2020; Sarala et al., 2019). Successful merger or acquisition increases return on

investment (ROI), increase market competition, and advances technological innovation

(Borodin et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2019; Olcay et al., 2019). According to Renneboog and

Vansteenkiste (2019), mergers and acquisitions (inorganic growth) grow faster than

organic growth and have become a global phenomenon (Bashan & Armon, 2019). In this

study, my goal was to concentrate on the leadership skills banking executives need to

implement successful mergers and acquisitions.

Background of the Problem

Mergers and acquisitions activities are corporate growth strategies adopted by

corporate leaders all over the globe (Bashan & Armon, 2019; Dhir et al., 2019; Edi &

Iravanti, 2019; Nkiwane & Chipeta, 2019; Teerikangas & Colman, 2019). The global

transactions for mergers and acquisitions exceeded US$ 4.1 trillion in 2018, with the

United States of America and Europe accounting for more than 80% of the transactions

(Schweizer et al., 2019). The failure rate, however, exceeds 70% (Reddy et al., 2019;

Renneboog & Vansteenkiste, 2019), and this is because of a lack of knowledge and

leadership skills in implementing the integration process during and after the acquisition

(Cui & Leung, 2020; Khan et al., 2020; Sarala et al., 2019). Available research suggests

that mergers and acquisitions are not new in Ghana, especially in the banking, petroleum,

telecommunication, and brewery industries (Dartey-Baah et al., 2020; Musah et al., 2020;

Omoregie et al., 2019). The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the

leadership skills for the successful implementation of mergers and acquisitions in the

banking sector in Ghana.

Problem and Purpose

Poor implementation of the integration process is a cause of merger and

acquisition failures and weak shareholders' ROI (Khan et al., 2020; Tampakoudis et al.,

2020). Investment in mergers and acquisitions does not improve shareholders' value; over

70% of these efforts fail because of poor implementation (Dhir, et al., 2019; Renneboog

& Vansteenkiste, 2019). The general business problem is that merger and acquisition

failures result from poor planning and implementation by the merged or acquired

company's leadership. The specific business problem is that some banking leaders do not

have the leadership skills needed to plan and implement mergers or acquisitions.

The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore leadership skills

used by some banking leaders to implement mergers and acquisitions successfully. I used

semistructured interviews with five banking executives in Accra, Ghana. The population

consisted of general managers (GMs), group managers, department heads, and branch

managers employed before, during, and after a financial institution's merger. This study's

results may affect positive social change by creating new job prospects, sustaining

employment, and enhancing the economy for the community, customers, and other

stakeholders.

Population and Sampling

The population for the study was a purposive sampling of eight participants

selected from a universal bank in Ghana, head office in Accra, with experience as part of

an acquisition phenomenon. Senior management members, departmental heads, and area

managers who were in employment before, during, and after the merger constituted the

population. Data sources included semistructured interview questions, public journals,

audited financial statements, and internal newsletters. Purposive sampling is

recommended when the group is identical in attitude, experience, sound knowledge

regarding the research topic, and views to represent the entire population (Hennink &

Kaiser, 2022; Levitt, 2021; Yin, 2018). Yin (2018) identified four approaches that

determine sample size in qualitative research. These are (a) rules of thumb, based on a

combination of methodological considerations and experience; (b) conceptual models,

based upon specific characteristics of the proposed study; (c) numerical guidelines

derived from the empirical investigation; and (d) statistical formulae, based on the

probability of obtaining a sufficient sample size (Yin, 2018). Hennink and Kaiser (2022)

supported a single case study of five to 30 as an ideal number for interview participants in

the qualitative case study research approach.

Nature of the Study

The three methods for research are qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods.

A qualitative method is descriptive or exploratory and occurs in natural settings (Aspers

& Corte, 2019; Kuehn & Rohlfing, 2022; Levitt et al., 2021). The qualitative method was

the most suitable for this study because it is exploratory (Gioia, 2021; Levitt et al., 2021;

Marshall & Rossman, 2016). The qualitative method is appropriate for exploring the

research question of this study. In contrast, the quantitative method includes examining

relationships within the phenomenon using hypotheses, construct models, and empirical

data to explain behavior (Burkholder et al., 2020). A mixed method combines the

qualitative and quantitative (Dawadi et al., 2021; Palinkas et al., 2019). The quantitative

and mixed methods were not appropriate for this study because my focus was on the

participants’ role in developing an implementation strategy instead of testing the

relationship among quantitative variables.

The common research designs for qualitative methodology include (a) case study,

(b) ethnography, (c) phenomenology, and (d) narrative. Researchers use a case study

research design when dealing with an in-depth study of complex issues (Yin, 2018),

which was my focus in this study. I did not use an ethnography design because

ethnography is used to focus on the participants' cultural behavior (Koskull, 2020; Ploder

& Hamann, 2021). Narrative research was not suitable for this study because my goal was

not to extract information from the participants' lived experiences in a story form (Gang,

2022; Surangi, 2022). I did not use a phenomenological design because I focused on the

impact of a process on an organization instead of the individual experience of a

phenomenon (see Neubauer et al., 2019; Williams, 2021).

Research Question

What leadership skills do some banking leaders need to plan and implement

mergers and acquisitions?

Interview Questions

1. What was the level of your involvement in the planning of the merger of the two

institutions?

2. What are the essential leadership skills needed to implement the merger?

3. How does the application of leadership skills help in improving your planning

process?

4. What was the feedback from the team in performing your role as a leader during

the merger?

5. How did you communicate your vision to the team to drive their performance?

6. What strategy did you put in place to motivate the team during and after the

integration process?

7. What are some of the difficulties that leaders face in implementing the integration

of the merger?

8. How did you get along with the team during the implementation of the merger?

9. What were your general impressions of the performance of the merger?

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for this study was Burns' (1978) transformational

leadership theory. According to Burns' theory of transformational leadership, a leader has

the power and ability to raise their followers' performance above the value of achieving

the desired results and the process of achieving those results. Transformational leadership

theory includes a perspective from which banking executives will view the complications

associated with mergers and acquisitions implementation. The transformational

leadership theory has four multidimensional models: (a) idealized influence or

charismatic, (b) inspirational motivation, (c) intellectual stimulation, and (d)

individualized consideration (Avolio et al., 1999; Burns, 1978). According to Avolio et

al. (1999), a charismatic attribute of transformational leadership demonstrates trust,

values, and ethics to the followers, while inspirational motivation provides meaning and

challenge to members' work with inspirational messages to arouse emotions.

Transformational leaders intellectually stimulate their followers by inspiring new ways of

thinking through beliefs and traditions and changing old ways of doing things (Avolio et

al., 1999; Bass et al., 2003; Burns, 1978). The transformational leader provides coaching

and mentoring after identifying the followers' needs and abilities (Avolio et al., 1999;

Northouse, 2019).

Transformational leadership was suitable as the framework for this study in two

ways. First, I used the framework to explore the transformational leadership experience

of banking executives in acquisition integration. Second, I used transformational

leadership to explore participants' thoughts on the outcome of team performance in

mergers and acquisitions in Ghana.

Operational Definitions

Banking executives: Banking executives are chief executive officers (CEOs),

directors, and senior supervisors who have the expertise, understanding, and information

of an organization (Amewu & Alagidede, 2019; Kartadjumena & Rodgers, 2019)

Merger controls: Merger controls are procedures, processes, and regulations that

deal with the review of mergers and acquisitions under antitrust laws (Carletti et al.,

2020).

Merger integration: Merger integration is the degree of interaction and

coordination between the two firms involved in the merger and acquisition (Oh &

Johnston, 2020).

Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations

Assumptions

Research assumptions are important opinions, considerations, and facts that are

taken as true without substantiation (McCrory & Stylianides, 2014). My first underlying

assumption in this study was that the participants would offer reliable and complete

information about their experiences in the implementation process of the merger and

acquisition. I expected the participants to answer interview questions truthfully and

willingly. My final assumption was that the information and data provided by the bank

were reliable.

Limitations

Research limitations are uncontrollable essentials and weaknesses in a study that

can limit the internal validity and generalization of the research (Svensson & Doumas,

2013). The first limitation of this study was the small sample size of eight bank

management staff present before, during, and after an acquisition. The participants were

all from one bank, which could have limited the generalization of the results. The second

limitation was that participation was restricted to those willing to offer information based

on their experience in the acquisition process. The regional managers and department

heads who agreed to participate in the study may have been unwilling to give some

important information for fear of victimization by their superiors. However, the regional

managers were aware of the participant identity protection during and after the study.

Delimitations

Delimitations are restrictions of the study that are in the researcher’s control

(Paechter, 2013). In this study, my goal was to engage leaders in a bank that was part of

an acquisition in Ghana and therefore have the lived experience of merger and

acquisition. Participants were limited to management staff present before, during, and

after the acquisition process. I focused on two foreign banks (Bank X and Bank Y) that

merged their activities in Ghana in 2012. I did not focus on nonmanagement staff who

were not decision-makers and excluded executives who joined the bank after the

completion of the acquisition process.

Significance of the Study

Contribution to Business Practice

Investors expect ROI through profit maximization and stabilizing the business

environment (Cui & Leung, 2020). Successful mergers and acquisitions might maximize

profit and ensure the stability of the firms involved (Cui & Leung, 2020). The study may

contribute to business practice because of the potential to improve executives'

understanding of transformational leadership and its implication on employee

management during the implementation of mergers and acquisitions.

Ghana has limited literature on mergers and acquisitions (Musah et al., 2020). The

findings from this study may be used by organizational leaders to develop a clearer

understanding of the effect of mergers and acquisitions on staff retention, performance,

and future successful acquisition. Investors and institutions may use the findings to

determine how to more effectively structure mergers and acquisitions. Practitioners may

use the findings from the study to maintain core employees for a successful business. The

goal of successful mergers and acquisition integration is to improve shareholder value

and enable management to remain focused on delivering successful mergers and

acquisition strategies.

Implications for Social Change

During the merger and acquisition process, employees experience anxiety and

mistrust from the leaders, which may result in employee emotional apprehension leading

to resistance throughout the process (Khan et al., 2020). The findings may contribute to

senior managers' understanding of the effective leadership skills needed to implement

mergers and acquisitions' complexities and improve employee morale (RodriguezSanchez

et al., 2020). The study may contribute to positive social change because successful

mergers and acquisitions will mean retaining skilled employees (Bansal, 2020). New job

opportunities may be possible due to the results of this study because successful mergers

and acquisitions could lead to business expansion and create economic opportunities for

the community, customers, and service providers.

A Review of the Professional and Academic Literature

This section includes a review of existing literature on mergers and acquisitions

and the primary tenant of transformational leadership theory postulated by Burns (1978)

and expanded by Bass (1985). The literature review includes 223 peer-review articles and

books. Of the articles, over 80% are sourced within 5 years of the estimated graduation

date. I reviewed peer-reviewed scholarly articles and seminal books as part of the

materials.

The purpose of the literature review is to summarize and synthesize existing

scholarly peer-review articles and seminal materials fundamental to the conceptual

framework of the study (Snyder, 2019). A literature review can be used to identify gaps

and potential themes that may emerge in current research and support future research

(Snyder, 2019). In this study, I explored the transformational leadership skills needed by

leaders to implement mergers and acquisitions successfully. This section has 11

subdivisions: (a) leadership style, (b) transformation leadership style, (c) criticism against

transformational leadership style, (d) background of mergers and acquisition, (e)

enactment of laws and regulations, (f) mergers and acquisition performance, (g) causes of

mergers and acquisition failures, (h) integration process, (i) human resource integration

process, (j) cultural integration, and (k) summary. The literature review concludes with a

summary highlighting the gaps and potential themes that may emerge in the literature and

the contribution to filling those gaps.

In this study, I used several strategies for searching relevant literature for the

study, including electronic and printed books and online searches for articles and

journals. I obtained the information by examining the works of researchers and

professionals in the field of study, dissertations, and peer-reviewed literature in relevant

journals. Most of the articles and materials that I reviewed for the study are available in

Walden University Library database. I accessed articles and other information through

various electronic sources such as EBSCO databases, Google Scholar, Business Source

Complete, Emerald Management Journal, ABI / INFORM Complete, ScienceDirect, and

Sage Premier. I conducted the electronic search using keywords including leadership

style, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, mergers and acquisition,

integration, value creation, bank mergers, and regulatory framework. The references in

this study have 79% of materials less than 5 years from the anticipated graduation date

and 92% of peer-reviewed articles that meet the DBA doctoral research study

requirements.

Leadership Style

In today's business’ changing environment, leadership is the most important that

inspires an organization's development; however, leadership style determines how a

leader will develop an organization after a change, like mergers or acquisitions.

Leadership influences followers' behavior regarding the organizational goal and strategy.

According to Al Harbi et al. (2019), leadership articulates the organizational vision and

builds an excellent personal relationship between followers. To date, researchers noted

that leadership directly or indirectly affects team commitment and workplace

performance (Xie, 2020) and influences followers’ behavior regarding the organizational

goal and strategy (Al Harbi et al., 2019).

Businesses face numerous challenges due to uncertainties amid growing

competition, technological revolution, and globalization. These challenges result in both

border and foreign mergers and acquisitions cumulating organizational change (Page &

Schoder, 2019). The change resulting from mergers and acquisitions creates employee

resistance, and organizations need visionary leaders who can provide safety and support

for the new entity (Kuntz et al., 2019; Page & Schoder, 2019). A change like mergers and

acquisitions calls for an appropriate leadership style for successful implementation.

Research on the impact of leadership style on employee attitude showed that

different leadership styles impact employee engagement and mood (Ambad et al., 2021;

Kuntz et al., 2019). When top executives implement appropriate human resource policies

and adopt the proper leadership style, it may enhance employee performance and

commitment during an organizational change like mergers and acquisitions (Ambad et

al., 2021; Mekpor & Dartey-Baah, 2020). Leadership roles come with different

management styles, and each style is expected to influence the success or failure of

postmerger and acquisition integration performance.

Research suggests that an essential element of business survival is effective

leadership. Leaders can choose from an array of leadership styles outlined by

management theorists to promote organizational change, like mergers and acquisitions

(Mansaray, 2019). However, the common management theories are transactional

leadership (Bass, 1985; Kuntz et al., 2019), transformational leadership (Avolio et al.,

1999; Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978), situational leadership (Daniels et al., 2019; Wuryani et

al., 2021), laissez-faire leadership (Donkor & Zhou, 2020; Norris et al., 2021), and

servant leadership (Eva et al., 2019; Liu, 2019). When leaders adopt the best style in

managing employees during a change process, the process might positively impact

employees' retention and successful implementation.

Available literature suggests a growing debate on the best leadership style to meet

the challenging environment. Researchers have argued that transformational leadership is

the best style suitable to influence employees and drive significant organizational change,

like mergers and acquisitions (Cui & Leung, 2020; Mansaray, 2019; Mekpor &

DarteyBaah, 2020; Xie, 2020). Transformational leadership drives employees'

commitment to organizational ideas to change and innovative behavior (Kuntz et al.,

2019; Mekpor & Dartey-Baah, 2020) and has a more positive influence on employee

creative behavior to drive organizational change like mergers and acquisitions (Burns,

1978). The ability of leaders to use leadership capabilities and style may enable the leader

to impact the changing environment.

Transformational Leadership

Burns introduced the concept of transformational leadership style in 1978, and

Bass expanded the concept in 1985. According to Burns (1978), a transformational leader

identifies and uses followers' needs and demands to find growth opportunities. Bass

(1985) suggested a relationship between leaders and followers that remained the central

principle of transformational leadership. According to Bass (1985), trust, respect, and

admiration drive the relationship between leader and follower. Transformational

leadership provides an inspirational vision, gives individual attention to employees,

encourages employees to challenge the current situation, and makes the environment

more effective (Bass, 1985). A leader can lead and change the status quo through the four

primary characteristics identified by the theorist.

The transformational leadership theorist identified four basic characteristics: (a)

idealized influence, (b) inspirational motivation, (c) intellectual stimulation, and (d)

individual consideration (Alwahaibi, 2019; Bass, 1985; Northouse, 2019; Xie, 2020).

Transformational leaders who use charismatic or idealized influence demonstrate the

follower's trust, values, and ethics (Avolio et al., 1999; Bass & Riggio, 2006; Bass et al.,

2003). Leaders who use inspirational motivation provide meaning and challenge to

followers' work using inspirational messages to arouse emotions (Avolio et al., 1999;

Bass & Riggio, 2006). Transformational leaders' intellectual stimulation attribute inspires

new ways of thinking by challenging beliefs, traditions, and old ways of doing things

(Avolio et al., 1999). The leader's individualized consideration characteristic provides

coaching and mentoring after identifying the followers' needs and abilities (Avolio et al.,

1999). Together, the four components of the transformational leader affect employee

creativity in the workplace, and leaders must strategically position themselves to

stimulate the employee (Kasimoglu & Ammari, 2020). The transformational leaders'

attributes outlined by Bass (1985) may provide the leader with the skills to meet the

human resource challenges associated with the post-merger and acquisition integration

process. However, several other factors may influence the leader’s decision-making

process in a changing environment.

Reza (2019) identified four main characteristics of a transformational leader. Reza

stated that this type of leader is (a) a vision builder, (b) a standard-bearer, (c) an

integrator, and (d) a developer. Other researchers like Xie (2020) identified some unique

characteristics of transformational leadership compared to servant leadership as (a)

articulating a vision, (b) fostering the acceptance of group goals, (c) setting

highperformance expectations, (d) providing appropriate model, (e) intellectual

stimulation, and (f) individualized support. According to Xie (2020), a transformational

leader drives their followers by directing their vision, promoting the acceptance of team

goals, and developing individual team member's performance throughout their career

period. These behaviors may motivate the leaders to affect individual employees'

attitudinal change, improved productivity, and creativity for successful mergers and

acquisitions performance.

Transformational leadership strongly influences corporate reorganization through

its elements of idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and

individualized consideration (Dung & Hai, 2020; Hosna et al., 2021; Xie, 2020). These

elements are critical components for successful change management (Alwahaibi, 2019),

positively impact the employee's mentality and behavior during an organizational change

like mergers and acquisitions (Cahyono et al., 2020; Dung & Hai, 2020), and drive

employee performance at the workplace (Gashema, 2019). Furthermore, leaders must

improve employee job satisfaction because it can enhance motivation and impact

employee psychology, attitude, and behavior toward organizational change (Dung & Hai,

2020). Williams Jr. et al. (2018) proposed a model describing the relationship between

transformational leaders, charisma, credibility, and organizational performance. Williams

Jr. et al. (2018) concluded that transformational leadership positively correlates with

organizational performance, while charisma regulates the relationship between

transformational leadership and organizational performance. However, the

transformational leader's credibility in a changing environment like mergers and

acquisitions has important implications for people in leadership positions who develop

and implement a strategy (Williams Jr. et al., 2018).

Employees' apprehension during organizational change is due to a lack of trust in

the new management. The importance of a trusting relationship between transformational

leadership and the followers fosters the employees' organizational identity, which the

leader must overcome (Altunoglu et al., 2019; Dirks et al., 2022; Khattak et al., 2020;

Siswanto & Yuliana, 2022). Transformational leadership may overcome mistrust by

creating transparent organizational communication during and after an organizational

change, like mergers and acquisitions (Yue et al., 2019). According to Yue et al. (2019),

transformational leadership creates transparent communication that positively affects

organizational trust and employee openness to change. This trust culminates into

interpersonal trust to drive team performance (Mahdikhani & Yazdani, 2020; Siswanto &

Yuliana, 2022). With the increase in foreign direct investment through mergers and

acquisitions, organizational change is inevitable. The change involves organizational

restructuring, which might require effective communication, setting up teams, developing

a better organizational climate, and creating trust and beliefs between the organization

and the employees for better performance (Owie, 2019).

The concept of transformational leadership revolves around leaders who provide

long-term goals, inspiration, and stimulation to their followers to exceed their capacity

and achieve their targets (Avolio & Bass, 2004; Burns, 1978). However, the

transformational leader must build leader-follower engagement driven by motivation and

inspiration to achieve their objective (Alwahaibi, 2019; Bass, 1985). Bass and Avolio

(1997) stated that followers trust, respect, and admire their leader, and transformational

leadership provides an inspirational vision and gives individual attention to employees

(Khattak et al., 2020). The importance of employee trust and respect relationships stems

from employees' apprehension during mergers and acquisitions to foster the employees'

organizational identity (Khattak et al., 2020). Bass (1985), therefore, encourages

employees to challenge the status quo and make the environment more effective. Hence

the choice of the right leadership style by leaders may provide the right environment to

implement a successful business change like mergers and acquisitions.

Every employee aims to achieve career success with an organization. However,

organizational changes like mergers and acquisitions may bring staff apprehension that

can lead to exit intention before, during, and after the change process. Al-Ghazali (2020)

examined the relationship between transformational leadership and perceived career

success and concluded that transformational leaders enhance employees' perceived career

success through trust and respect. Followers of transformational leadership theory argue

that the leader provides empowerment to align their follower's goals to that of the

organization to achieve the desired result and empowers their followers psychologically

to meet their commitment and share knowledge in the organization (Han et al., 2020).

Transformational leaders have extensive knowledge and understanding of the workplace

environment to ensure sustainable change that engages employee attention and impacts

workplace productivity (Alwahaibi, 2019; Han et al., 2020). Alwahaibi (2019) and Han et

al. (2020) suggestions may encourage leaders to adopt appropriate leadership behavior

for employee workplace productivity in a changing environment.

Digitization, globalization, and demographic change bring competition, affecting

both employee morale and attitude at the workplace. According to Faupel and Suss

(2019), the transformational leadership style positively influences employees' attitudes

and behavior during an organizational change like mergers and acquisitions. The

leadership style promotes employees' readiness and commitment to change and motivates

them to support it (Faupel & Suss, 2019). Faupel and Suss expanded the knowledge of

transformational leadership during an organizational change in preparing managers to

influence employees confidently. Although organizational change, like merger and

acquisition, is associated with work stress and employees' turnover intention,

transformational leadership characteristics positively influence turnover intention and

lower work stress (Harb & Sidani, 2019; Manopp, 2020). Consequently, studies show that

transformational leaders promote employees and individual responsibility, increasing

productivity and performance at the workplace (Buil et al., 2019; Langat et al., 2019).

The obligation, therefore, is on the organization to select, develop, and invest in the right

leaders who can implement successful changes like mergers and acquisitions.

Transformational leaders build the right environment of admiration, loyalty,

respect, participation, and involvement of employees, which will, in turn, promote their

commitment and performance during and after mergers and acquisition implementation

(Buil et al., 2019; Langat et al., 2019). Mergers and acquisition activities are a change

process, and employees' attitude to change is an essential element of implementation

success. Leaders' transformational leadership skills and attitude toward the change

process determine the success or failure of mergers and acquisition implementation

(Farahnak et al., 2020). Amankwaa et al. (2019) examined the relationship between

transformational leadership and job autonomy, affective commitment, and supportive

management during an effective change implementation in a retail bank. Amankwaa et al.

(2019) concluded that when leadership behavior allows for employee freedom on the job

and a feeling of organizational belonging, managers can foster employee innovation and

business success in the financial sector (Amankwaa et al., 2019). Cahyono et al. (2020)

noted a positive relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction

amplified by contingent compensation. However, the relationship is more perverse, where

the transformational leader shows the idealized influence and intellectual stimulation

characteristics (Hosna et al., 2021). Practitioners must therefore define leadership roles

and styles before leaders roll out the merger or acquisition integration process.

Leaders face challenges in mergers or acquisitions. These challenges include

negative emotions, demotivation, cultural differences, and institutional pressures (Rizwan

et al., 2020). The challenges are critical for the success of leaders in providing job

satisfaction for the general employees. The transformational leader's innovative skills

likely influence their employees' creativity and innovativeness to impact the organization

(Rizwan et al., 2020). The literature's outcome highlights the critical role leaders have in

employee retention and motivation in the job environment to ensure successful mergers

and acquisitions.

Transformational leaders' four characteristics influence different aspects of

employee behavior and performance during mergers and acquisitions or any other change

process (Mahmood et al., 2019). Mahmood et al. examined the impact of

transformational leadership on employees' creative process of handling complex tasks.

The findings suggested that the transformational leader significantly influences

employees' creativity in handling complex processes and employee efficiency (Mahmood

et al., 2019). However, a transformational leader's impact on employee efficiency

depends on the level of knowledge sharing by the leader (Dwivedi et al., 2020).

Therefore, top management should design strategies to facilitate knowledge sharing

between senior management and subordinates, especially during mergers and

acquisitions, that may improve efficiency and performance.

Business executives require employees to show commitment during and after the

mergers and acquisitions integration process. However, Hai et al. (2020) concluded that

mergers and acquisitions create employee apprehension and uncertainties affecting

organizational commitment and citizenship. Palalic and Mhamed (2020) posited that

organizations use different leadership styles to manage employees to achieve citizenship

behavior and loyalty. That notwithstanding, the transformational leader exhibits the

importance of leading organizations to success and that there is a relationship between

transformational leadership and organizational commitment (Palalic & Mhamed, 2020). A

study by Ibrahim et al. (2019) to find a leadership theory that best influences employees'

intention to leave an organization during a change, the findings suggested that

transformational leadership style directly impacts employee intention to leave the

organization and facilitates employee engagement. Like mergers and acquisitions,

organizational change needs leaders who can change their style to suit the new

organization (Al Harbi et al., 2019; Harb & Sidani, 2019). Al Harbi et al. (2019)

suggested that the transformational leader's inspirational motivation characteristic support

the required leadership style for successfully implementing mergers and acquisitions

integration.

A transformational leader motivates behavior where the employees must use

diverse skills (Yizhong et al., 2019). As part of the transformational leadership style, the

leader identifies a task from start to finish, assigns greater independence to the employee,

and expects regular feedback (Northouse, 2019; Yizhong et al., 2019). To understand the

influence a transformational leader has on an employee's role due to the changes in the

policy, Yizhong et al. (2019) examined the mediating role of job characteristics in

transformational leadership and employability relationship. Yizhong et al. concluded that

transformational leaders could improve employees' employability through job demands,

skill discretion, decision authority, and perceived organizational support. Likewise, the

transformational leader can motivate the followers to be more efficient and effective and

enrich job resources (Al Harbi et al., 2019; Yizhong et al., 2019). Yizhong et al. (2019)

acknowledged that managers need to demonstrate transformational leadership skills by

paying attention to employees' career development. Al Harbi et al. (2019) concluded that

transformational leader combines diverse skills by creating self-confidence, intrinsic

motivation, inspiration, supporting innovation, personal development, and social

relationships among employees.

The organizational change brought about by mergers and acquisitions creates

workplace phobia(s) and increases employee turnover intention. Consequently, one of the

objectives of the organizational leader is to maintain a favorable climate to support the

change brought about by the merger or acquisition (Eliyana & Maarif, 2019). During a

change process, like mergers and acquisitions implementation, the leadership style

determines the level of employee commitment post-merger and acquisition (Afsar &

Umrani, 2020). A transformational leader influences employee turnover and work

engagement and prevents employees from forming the intention to leave the organization

(Bose et al., 2021; Eliyana & Maarif, 2019; Ibrahim et al., 2019). The literature supports

transformational leadership skills that may be appropriate to successfully manage change,

like mergers and acquisitions.

To achieve post-merger and acquisition success, leaders must focus on employee

workplace engagement. Leaders may achieve employee engagement through motivation

and providing strategic direction to employees, especially the acquired company (Han et

al., 2020). Han et al. showed that transformational leaders motivate their employees by

incentive and support to accept changes during post-acquisition integration. Second,

transformational leader positively impacts the psychology of the employee’s readiness to

change better than transactional and laissez-faire leaders (Han et al., 2020). The CEO

plays an essential role in the success of every organization through the planning and

implementation of new strategies. The CEO's transformational leadership trait helps to

achieve responsibility (Zuraik & Kelly, 2019). The literature concluded that the

transformational leadership style of the leader improves workplace employee engagement

and mergers and acquisitions outcomes.

Argument Against Transformational Leadership

Despite the plethora of studies and research supporting transformational

leadership theory as the best leadership style with a positive relationship with a

commitment to change, openness to change, and readiness to change (Peng et al., 2020),

there are available studies that suggest the contrary. Hai et al. (2020) investigated whether

transformational leadership influences high-performance human resources practices on

employee job engagement and organizational citizenship behavior. Hai et al. (2020)

revealed that transformational leadership moderated high performance with employee job

engagement in countries like South Korea. In contrast, in the United States,

transformational leadership mediated only the relationship between human resource

performance and corporate citizenship behavior (Hai et al., 2020).

In a similar study, Poturak et al. (2020) suggested that transformational leadership

is more pronounced in developed countries than in a group-oriented and depressed

culture like developing countries because of their charismatic and simulative features.

Crede et al. (2019) investigated the relationship between transformational leadership

behavior and a country's cultural value and practices. The findings were that cultural

values and practices moderate transformational leadership and employee performance

(Crede et al., 2019). In some countries whose culture contrasts with transformational

leadership style, the employee-performance relationship is visible (Crede et al., 2019). In

the same way, when two companies with different cultural environments merge, the

transformational leadership theory may not succeed.

Yousaf (2017) evaluated the usefulness of transformational leadership using

examples of political leadership from South Asia and concluded that, the concept of

transformational leadership is practically non-existent, especially for leaders who gain

popularity and achieve their goals. Even though transformational leadership might help

attain a particular plan, Yousaf (2017) believed that the theory might not have the desired

impact on all stakeholders unless backed by a transactional strategy. Practitioners must

know that the over-reliance on one leadership theory over the other may not achieve the

desired result. Still, leaders must vary leadership styles across countries to achieve

success in a merger or acquisition environment.

Fourie and Hohne (2019) argued that public expectation of the perfection of

transformational leadership theory puts some extra burden on executives in a changing

environment. In some instances, the heroic bias directed toward transformational leaders

points towards the conception that it is odd for executives to fail (Fourie & Hohne, 2019;

Yousaf, 2017). Such burdens and expectations may affect the performance of a

transformational leader in the long run and their ability to manage an important change

like mergers and acquisitions. Several other factors can influence the decision process

and outcomes of mergers and acquisitions. However, I reviewed the transformational

leadership theories that may support and improve the results of mergers and acquisitions

implementation in Ghana.

Background of Mergers and Acquisitions

Every business leader’s objective is to maximize profit by increasing market

share, improving product diversification, gaining patent rights, acquiring new technology,

and, finally, maximizing shareholders’ value. Leaders achieve this objective through

organic or inorganic growth. Organic growth relies on the internal ability and resources of

the company (Shah & Butt, 2019). However, the organic process slows down growth due

to the multiple internal approval processes (Shah & Butt, 2019). Inorganic growth like

mergers and acquisitions is getting an already established company to add to an existing

company for fast and easy growth and ready access to a new market (Hossain, 2021;

Renneboog & Vansteenkiste, 2019; Shah & Butt, 2019). The merger and acquisition

phenomena are popular governance structure and primary growth strategy that

strategically combines one firm's resources with another (Dhir, et al., 2019; Edi &

Iravanti, 2019; Hossain, 2021; Nkiwane & Chipeta, 2019; Shah & Butt, 2019;

Teerikangas & Colman, 2019). According to Renneboog and Vansteenkiste (2019),

mergers and acquisitions grow faster than organic growth and have become a global

phenomenon (Bashan & Armon, 2019; Hossain, 2021). The aggregate investment of

trillions of USD in the mergers and acquisitions phenomenon calls for leaders who have

deep knowledge of leadership styles to handle the complexities of combining different

organizations.

Mergers and acquisitions have been in existence since the 19th century. According

to Thomas and Cardot (2016), the phenomenon reached a crescendo on a national scale in

the 19th century when firms started acquiring other companies from their industry to

increase market share and enjoy partnerships through efficiency. As the mergers and

acquisitions phenomenon developed, multinational businesses increased their global

presence through acquisitions but focused on similar companies with headquarters in

their local market (Thomas & Cardot, 2016). Haspeslagh and Jemison (1991) outlined

merger and acquisition types, including arrangement-merger, forward acquisition, and

backward acquisition. Leaders must define the type of merger or acquisition before

determining the bidding price.

Available literature confirms the statement that investment in mergers and

acquisitions is on the increase on a global scale. Investment in mergers and acquisitions is

only behind the economies of the United States, China, Japan, and Germany (Schweizer

et al., 2019). The total value of M&A in 2017 and 2018 were U.S.$ 3.7 trillion and U.S.$

4.1 trillion, respectively, covering over 44,000 transactions (Morgan, 2019). Schweizer et

al (2019) have attributed the growth to an increase in cross-border mergers and acquisitions

from US$432 billion to US$721 billion in 2015, with China alone contributing US$128

billion. The increase in investment in mergers and acquisitions globally calls for exemplary

leadership to implement the phenomenon to achieve ROI growth. However, some mergers

and acquisition practitioners have leadership challenges where laws and regulations curtail

the growth and outcome of mergers and acquisitions globally.

Enactment of Laws and Regulations

Governments all over the world have introduced regulations and laws to

determine the outcome of mergers and acquisitions. Regulations and laws protect the

interest of shareholders and other stakeholders in the industries. Antitrust laws and

regulations are mergers and acquisitions controls to regulate mergers and acquisitions

practitioners (Carletti et al., 2020; Tyagi, 2020). Carletti et al. (2020) investigated merger

control reforms in 19 countries from 1987–2004 and concluded that merger controls

correlate positively with the profitability of the new company. These laws and regulations

are to protect consumers (a) against monopolies created from the acquisitions, (b)

promote fairness, and (c) sustain the investment in mergers and acquisitions (Carletti et

al., 2020). The government's enactment of laws and regulations redirected investment

into Africa and the emerging market where mergers and acquisition controls are relaxed.

The need for leaders with the requisite skills to manage and understand these laws and

regulations is paramount.

The United States and the European Union are the two most prominent legal

jurisdictions in the world where mergers and acquisitions are concerned (Hu & Ngo,

2015). Whereas laws and regulations on mergers and acquisitions began in 1914 in the

United States, Germany introduced the Act against Restraints in Competition in 1973;

Canada introduced the Federal Competition Act in 1986, and most industrialized

countries in the 1990s (Carletti et al., 2020). According to Dinc and Erel (2013), the E.U.

Merger Regulation 1989, amended in 1997, determined the European Union's approach

to mergers and acquisitions. The result of the enactments is to moderate abuse and waste

in the mergers and acquisitions process by leaders.

In the United States, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade

Commission (FTC) oversee merger and acquisition reviews (Robertson & Roush, 2013;

Sanders, 2019). In 1974, the United States of America enacted the antitrust law known as

the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act (HSR Act). The HSR Act provided a

30-day waiting period for mergers and acquisitions to consummate and slow down

significant transactions U.S. enforcers delayed merging companies (Robertson & Roush,

2013). The rationale for the waiting period was to allow for the public and the judge to

scrutinize the merger transactions to determine the absence of corrupt influence(s) on the

legal process (Robertson & Roush, 2013; Sanders, 2019). The literature suggested that

the U.S. DOJ and the FTC used section 7 of the Clayton Act to challenge monopolistic

and antisocial horizontal mergers and acquisitions (Hu & Ngo, 2015; Robertson &

Roush, 2013; Sanders, 2019). The Antitrust Division of the U.S.DOJ resisted the AT&T

acquisition of T-Mobile operations in the United States because the DOJ believed that the

merger of the two companies would create unfair competition in the telecom industry

(Majumdar et al., 2013). The same antitrust law in the United States discouraged the

Dollar Thrifty Car Rentals by AVIS and objected to the mergers and acquisitions of

Texas Instrument and National Semiconductors, Express Scripts and Medco, and Kinder

Morgan and El Paso Corporation (Bush & Gelb, 2012). The regulations and the laws

have determined the outcome of significant mergers and acquisitions in the United States

of America.

In the banking industry, the United States enacted the Community Reinvestment

Act (CRA) to curtail the monopoly in the banking sector by way of mergers or

acquisitions (Marquis et al., 2012). According to Marquis et al. (2012), the CRA ensured

that banks lived up to their corporate social responsibilities toward the treatment of

communities. In addition to the CRA, the United States introduced the Foreign

Investment Security Act (FISA) of 2007 to strengthen the foreign attachment of local

firms. Though the CRA reduced the inconsistencies in the mergers and acquisitions

bidding prices and curtailed the growth of monopolies, the Act fell short of the process of

integration to avoid employees’ agitations.

The European Commission Enacted Council Regulation No. 4064 / 89 to block

foreign takeovers, creating dominant positions and inhibiting effective competition

(Carletti et al., 2020). According to Carletti et al. (2020), in 2010, the European

Commission decided on over 270 merger cases, including high-profile cases such as

Oracle / Sun Microsystems, Monsanto / Syngenta, and Unilever / Sara Lee Body. In

1968, the United Kingdom (U.K.) introduced the City Code control takeover process of

mergers and acquisitions (McCann, 2013). The primary aim of the code was to protect

target shareholders’ interests and allow the market to operate freely (McCann, 2013).

To further strengthen the mergers and acquisitions legal framework, the European

Union (E.U.) and the United States established the alliances working group in 1991,

called Bilateral Competition Agreement (BCA). The purpose of the BCA is to study

different mergers and acquisitions approaches in the United States and the E.U. (Damro

& Guay, 2012). According to Damro and Guay (2012), the agreement included:

standardized coordination, emphasized the exchange of information, and introduced

fairness. In 1999, following the disagreement between the U.S. and the E.U. on the

merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, despite the existence of the BCA, the two

bodies came up with the Administrative Agreement on Attendance (AAA) to explain

processes already taking place temporarily within the Bilateral Agreement. In 2011, the

parties signed the Best Practice Publications to refine the data collection procedures

between the two-region merger regulations (Damro & Guay, 2012).

Some Asian countries like India have enacted laws to regulate mergers and

acquisitions. For example, the Indian Company Act (ICA), the Monopoly and Restrictive

Trade Practices Act (MRTPA), and specific sector legislation governed mergers and

acquisitions (Shroff & Ambast, 2013). However, after June 2011, S5 and S6 of the

Competition Act and the Combination Regulations of 2011 replaced the MRTPA. The

rationale was to control mergers and acquisitions that cause adverse competition. Shroff

and Ambast (2013) argued that gaps exist in the law regarding interpretations, thus

increasing the difficulty of achieving its aim. From the literature, the introduction of

rules and regulations impacts the success or failure of mergers or acquisitions in the

respective countries. The extent of the impact will depend on whether the merger or

acquisition objective is to create an oligopoly, monopoly, or conglomerate. The

responsibility is on the leaders to know the existence of merger controls in any mergers

and acquisitions decisions. Mishra (2019) suggested the relooked of laws and policies

because it is the cause of some mergers and acquisitions failures.

Merger and Acquisition Performance

Studies show that the mergers and acquisitions phenomenon does not create value

despite the growth in investment globally. Reddy et al. (2019) suggested that mergers and

acquisitions failed to achieve the desired objectives. According to Renneboog and

Vansteenkiste (2019), post-merger performance is affected by management arrogance and

politicking. Liu et al. (2019) examined 86 cross-border mergers and acquisitions between

2007 and 2012 using five years before and after the merger dates. The result shows that

mergers and acquisitions fail to achieve the desired result. Liu et al. (2019) attributed

infrastructure differences within the countries, labor costs, and technological differences

in the host countries as the cause of poor performance in cross border mergers and

acquisitions. Zhao et al. (2019) examined the relationship between the size of the acquirer

and announcement returns and long-term performance in China and whether political

consideration plays a role in the success of mergers and acquisitions. Zhao et al. (2019)

used 437 mergers and acquisitions transactions that occurred between 2003 and 2014.

Zhao et al. (2019) concluded that smaller firms perform better than bigger size firms in

the long run. Nkiwane and Chipeta (2019) posited that firms' financial performance

decrease after mergers and acquisitions.

Similarly, a survey by JP Morgan 2018 indicates that cross-border mergers and

acquisitions constituted 30% of the total volume of global mergers and acquisitions

(Morgan, 2019). However, according to researchers, over 50% of the deals fail to deliver

the expected return on investment (Liu et al., 2019; Renneboog & Vansteenkiste, 2019),

destroy shareholders' value (Shah & Butt, 2019), and not even when government

promotes the event will it achieve success (Tampakoudis et al., 2020). The objective of

mergers or acquisitions is to create value for stakeholders; however, most mergers and

acquisitions fail this objective (Aggarwal & Garg, 2022; Fotova Čiković Fotova et al.,

2022; Gonzalez-Torres et al., 2020; Olcay et al., 2019). Olcay et al. (2019) argued that

mergers and acquisitions are on a crescendo with a total aggregate of trillions of USD

despite the poor performance. Before purchasing, leaders need to undertake due diligence

to mitigate the negative impact on the acquisition performance (Wang et al., 2020).

Despite the available literature supporting mergers and acquisition failures, other

studies support the success of the mergers and acquisitions phenomenon. Cui and Leung

(2020) used data from U. S. A. between 2000 and 2012. Cui and Leng (2020) concluded

that firms with better managerial ability achieve better performance in mergers and

acquisitions in the long run, especially when the acquisition is horizontal. Similar studies

suggest that mergers and acquisitions have positively impacted the performance of

financial institutions in Nigeria (Boloupremo & Ogege, 2019). Available literature

concludes the phenomenon creates positive gains for investors, especially in the long

term (Aljadani & Toumi, 2019; Roa & Mishra, 2020; Teti & Tului, 2020). Majeed and

Kureshi (2019) argued that few mergers and acquisitions gain success because of the

change in the culture, management, and technology that positively affects employees'

motivation. However, the failure rate of investment in mergers and acquisitions continues

to be high hence the call for appropriate leadership skills to execute the mergers and

acquisition transaction.

Causes of Merger and Acquisition Failures

The causes of mergers and acquisitions failure have been a mix. Haspeslagh and

Jemison (1991) suggested some of the primary reasons for the high failure rate in mergers

and acquisitions as (a) a high premium paid by the acquiring company, (b) leaders’

inability to integrate the corporate cultures of the two organizations successfully, and (c)

inadequate due diligence. Haspeslagh and Jemison outlined some of the long-term causes

of failure as (a) employee integration, (b) job uncertainty, and (c) income security.

Mergers and acquisitions are a complex phenomenon that needs unique understanding

and skills to manage the process; therefore, the inability of the leaders to integrate the

entire process fails (Cui & Leung, 2020; Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991; Sarala et al.,

2019). The importance of the integration process is to address possible job strain,

employee absenteeism, increased employee resignation, and lack of job satisfaction (Cui

& Leung, 2020; Sarala et al., 2019). A better understanding of the mergers and

acquisition process and the right leadership skills may reduce the failure rate.

Leadership skills are critical in sustaining the post-mergers and acquisitions

process (Edi & Iravanti, 2019). The inability of management to have the requisite skills to

combine human and physical resources to achieve the intended synergy benefit result in

M&A failure (Cui & Leung, 2020; Sarala et al., 2019). An organization with good

leadership may sustain mergers and acquisitions into profitability because mergers and

acquisitions involve complex processes and vigorous integration of two or more

organizations.

Mergers and acquisitions failures extended beyond the integration process and

leadership skills. For instance, the literature suggested over-bidding pricing, the business

leader’s inability to harmonize revenue, and cost synergies as significant causes of

mergers and acquisitions failure (Aggarwal & Garg, 2022; Borodin et al., 2020;

Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991). In determining the bidding price, decision-makers can get

caught up in a bidding war (Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991). When leaders pay the correct

bid price, the acquisition might succeed (Borodin et al., 2020). To ensure good judgment

in the bidding price in mergers and acquisitions, Agarwal and Kwan (2017) suggested

that decision-makers should focus on the strategic states of the acquiring company and

decide whether the move to acquire is strategic rather than ego to ensure value for the

acquired shareholders. Gisella and Chalid (2017) used 143 mergers and acquisitions of

public data companies between 2005 and 2014 to determine the effect of biding price and

the success of mergers and acquisition. The researchers concluded that the method of

payment and inherent condition of the acquired company affected the abnormal

performance of the mergers and acquisitions (Gisella & Chalid, 2017; Tanna et al., 2019).

Quality leadership skills and ability is critical to the success of a merger and acquisition

and improves the attractiveness of the investment

The nature of the companies involved in the merger or acquisition may also affect

the performance. According to Olcay et al. (2019) similar size of the two companies,

different country environments, and relatedness can impact on mergers and acquisitions.

Therefore, a well-thought-out and carefully executed integration might yield mergers and

acquisition success (Sachsenmaier & Guo, 2019). Many mergers and acquisitions fail due

to the inability of the leaders to integrate the acquirer and the target firm successfully

(Khan et al., 2020). The ability of leaders to use leadership competencies and style may

enable them to integrate mergers and acquisitions successfully and improve outcomes.

Merger and Acquisition Integration

For a merger or acquisition to be complete, the managers of the companies must

put together a process called integration. The integration process is the most critical and

complex function in mergers and acquisitions but is difficult for business leaders to

accomplish (Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991). Most practitioners focused on transactional

planning strategy and the final transaction value, thus leaving the integration process that

unfolds after the closure of the transaction (Voth, 2020). When leaders start mergers and

acquisitions with a clear vision, they might achieve a seamless integration process (Voth,

2020). Haspeslagh and Jemison (1991) suggested that the transaction should create value

for the acquirer and target firm to benefit from integration. Still, leaders neglect the

importance of the uncertainties and complexities associated with the integration process

(Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991). The absence of leadership skills may be the cause of the

integration failure and failed mergers and acquisitions.

Haspeslagh and Jemison (1991) identified two methods of mergers and

acquisitions available for managers in the integration process. According to Haspeslagh

and Jemison (1991), a merger and acquisition can be for (a) preservation, (b) absorption,

and (c) symbiosis. The preservation method is where the acquired company can preserve

its culture. Therefore, integration is shallow, and absorption is where the acquired

company becomes fully integrated into the new structure (Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991).

Symbiosis allows for mutual changes in each of the organizational structures (Haspeslagh

& Jemison, 1991). In addition to human and task integration, successful mergers and

acquisitions are how leaders can put together two cultures from different organizations to

ensure positive outcomes (Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991; Voth, 2020).

Voth (2020) outlined five factors practitioners can combine to achieve postmerger

and acquisition integration success and deliver improved shareholder returns. The factors

are strategy, adoptive engaged leadership, comprehensive communication, mastering

cultural integration, and speed of the integration (Voth, 2020). The focus of mergers and

acquisitions practitioners has been the achievement of quick profit or shareholders' return

rather than a strategic approach that looks at the long-term path toward broader

organizational goals (Voth, 2020). Successful mergers and acquisitions begin with a well-

thought-through integration process. The inability of leaders to effectively migrate the

acquirer’s culture into the new entity may result in mergers and acquisition failure

therefore, leaders must acknowledge the importance of the integration process.

Mergers and acquisitions are the most preferred strategies for emerging

multinational companies when they are going abroad. Researchers support the view

mergers and acquisitions are a strategic vehicle to achieve business growth and

competitive advantage (Febriani & Yancey, 2019). According to Febriani and Yancey

(2019), despite the increase in the mergers and acquisition phenomenon, the success rate

is low due to problems leaders go through in the integration process. Leaders can

overcome institutional discrepancies by developing leadership capabilities for integration

and employing tools for control during the integration process.

There are no single approaches to successful integration in mergers or

acquisitions. The major hurdle confronting successful mergers or acquisitions is

differences in participant firms, especially when leaders hurry through the post-merger

integration process (Oh & Johnston, 2020). Research shows that a slower integration

reduces conflicts between merger partners, improves trust-building, and disrupts existing

resources and processes in both firms, which might benefit mergers and acquisitions (Oh

& Johnston, 2020). A quick integration that shortens the integration process may prevent

the combined entity from achieving the expected synergy at the post-acquisition stage

(Cheng, 2019; Oh & Johnston, 2020). Cheng (2019) examined the effect of culture in the

post-merger integration duration on an acquiring firm before and after a merger. The

study concluded that leaders should not rush through the integration because merging two

firms takes time to complete (Cheng, 2019). When leaders adopt the right skills to

examine a merger or acquisition process, the phenomenon may yield positive results.

Studies postulated that there are three phases of the merger and acquisition

process; (a) pre-acquisition involving the announcement and integration planning, (b)

early post-acquisition, that is, a drop in demand and crisis management, and (c)

postacquisition integration (Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991; Rouzies et al., 2019). Other

mechanisms like coordination, cohesion, disconnection, and alienation can hinder the

integration process and affect a good merger and acquisition success (Rouzies et al.,

2019). Hence leaders must pay attention in the process of merging two companies to

achieve synergy post-acquisition.

The integration process cuts across the entire merger and acquisition process

spectrum, whether within the target company, the acquirer’s existing business, or a new

business unit (Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991; Oh & Johnston, 2020). Integrating two

companies can occur immediately after the acquisition or gradually over a period, but the

aim is to combine resources and skills for the combined company to achieve synergy

(Bodner & Capron, 2018; Oh & Johnston, 2020). Similarly, post-merger integration is an

essential tool for firms to combine their resources, product lines, and business units to

meet the needs of the new environment (Bodner & Capron, 2018). When leaders manage

the integration process well, mergers or acquisitions provide a basis for business growth

and survival (Bodner & Capron, 2018). To achieve successful integration post-merger or

acquisition, Rodriguez-Sanchez et al. (2020) identified four main elements that leaders

must consider at the planning stage. The four elements are the due diligence process, the

integration plan, the communication plan, and the learning plan (Rodriguez-Sanchez et al.

(2020). The style of the leaders enables them to galvanize the available resources to

achieve successful integration.

Mergers and acquisitions have been characterized by integration complexities,

especially if the merger or acquisition is cross-border (Al Hosani et al., 2020;

RozenBaker, 2018; Voth, 2020). Rozen-Baker (2018) examined 68 public firms engaged

in cross-border mergers and acquisitions from 13 countries to determine whether

premergers or acquisition performance could predict integration success. The results

show that a more significant target leads to a complicated integration process that fails at

the integration stage, whilst a smaller target decreases the risks of the integration process

(Rozen-Baker, 2018). Business leaders who are trained in the use of appropriate

leadership styles may sustain mergers and acquisition processes into profitability because

of mergers and acquisitions integration complexities. Leaders with the right leadership

style can combine human and physical resources to achieve a synergy that may result in

success in mergers and acquisitions (Cui & Leung, 2020; Sarala et al., 2019).

In mergers and acquisitions, leaders consider combining resources that are either

similar or complementary in both organizations. Li et al. (2019) suggested that the

acquirer must use the right post-merger integration strategy. The increasing number of

mergers and acquisitions has emphasized the importance of post-merger and acquisition

integration in harmonizing the processes of the two organizations (Schonreiter, 2019).

Therefore, the leader must understand the importance of harmonizing the human

resource, culture, and technology of the two organizations to achieve mergers and

acquisition success.

Human Resource Integration

Human resource management is a critical factor in the success or failure of the

merger and acquisition process. As companies face challenging environments due to

globalization, talent management becomes a problematic element in human resource

management during mergers and acquisitions (Rao-Nicholson et al., 2020). Despite the

importance of human resources in mergers and acquisitions, leaders consider them only at

the integration stage (Rodriguez-Sanchez et al., 2020). Thus, they face difficulties in

managing talent acquired during the merger or acquisition. The retention strategy must be

a focal point in mergers and acquisition implementation during post-acquisition

integration (Beraud et al., 2020). Rodriguez-Sanchez et al. (2020) proposed a human

resource model for leaders to consider at the integration stage to include leadership and

integration teams, change and restructuring process, human resource resistance, and

valuable human resource retention. The success or failure of mergers or acquisitions will

depend on the leader’s ability to consider organizational learning, knowledge integration,

technological capabilities, and technology-relatedness at the planning stage (Dhir et al.,

2019). A firm’s post-merger or acquisition success will depend on whether leaders have

carefully planned the integration process.

Mergers and acquisitions have an impact on employees and human resource

management. Human resource challenges associated with mergers and acquisitions

emanate from inferior communication, cross-cultural management, and leadership

(Cooke et al., 2020). These challenges create employees’ mistrust, workforce resilience,

and lack of attention, especially post-acquisition (Cooke et al., 2020), which produces

high employee turnover rates during mergers and acquisitions, especially for employees

of the acquired firm (Addai et al., 2022). Leaders must understand the psychology of

employee-related issues to enable them to retain them during mergers and acquisitions

(Degbey et al., 2020). The management of employees, successful communication, and

understanding of the effect of change and its impact on employee trust are critical to

successful mergers and acquisitions (Bansal & King, 2022; Cooke et al., 2020),

especially from the inception (Bansal, 2020).

Human resource integration challenges in mergers and acquisitions involve

national and organizational cultures, political constraints, and movements of key

personnel across the two organizations. Combining these challenges makes the

integration more complex and requires extra managerial attention (Chang-Howe, 2019;

Rao-Nicholson et al., 2020). The role of the leader is to define the outcome of the

business interactions and recognize human capital as a primary asset in any mergers and

acquisition transactions. The retention of critical human resources in the post-merger

period may impact the success of the merger or acquisition (Chang-Howe, 2019). In

mergers and acquisitions, it is possible for the employees of the acquired company to feel

isolated. However, organizational justice, employee commitment, organizational trust,

perceived effectiveness of human resources, and employee communication strategy

during the post-merger integration process mitigate the extent of the isolation (Al Hosani

et al., 2020).

One of the reasons for mergers and acquisitions is to take advantage of some

specialized skills in the acquired organization to create value for the new company.

However, studies show that most mergers and acquisitions do not generate value because

leaders cannot transfer the knowledge they intended to acquire due to integration

difficulties critical in the mergers and acquisitions process (Dhir et al., 2019;

RodriguezSanchez et al., 2020). In most cases, most of the targeted skills exit the

organization before the leaders complete the merger or acquisition due to an inadequate

strategy (Beraud et al., 2020). To mitigate the exit rate, Rodriguez-Sanchez et al. (2020)

proposed three stages of knowledge transfer in mergers and acquisitions that leaders

should not ignore at the implementation stage; the pre-merger stage, the transfer

knowledge stage, and integrated knowledge in the post-merger stage.

Mergers and acquisitions may cause employee disaffection during and after the

integration, affecting employee performance. To mitigate against alienation in the

integrated organization, Al Hosani et al. (2020) suggested that leaders must ensure the

presence of organizational justice, employee commitment, organizational trust, perceived

effectiveness of human resources initiatives, and employee communication during and

post-merger. These elements help the organization build trust among employees in

mergers and acquisitions to reduce employees’ laxity (Al Hosani et al., 2020).

Sachsenmaier and Guo (2019) explored trust development in the cross-cultural

integration process in an emerging country firms’ acquisition in an advanced economy.

Sachsenmaier and Guo (2019) concluded that the factors that foster trust development are

economic and emotional factors, including mutual understanding, reliability, familiarity,

and emotional bonding. The inspirational motivation characteristic skills of the

transformational leader may mitigate employees’ alienation post-merger and acquisition

integration.

Mergers and acquisitions create employee anxiety and mistrust during the

integration stage. Consequently, during the integration process, employees become

emotional, generating mixed feelings because of job insecurity (Bansal, 2020). The

apprehension and job insecurity result in employee resistance to the merger and

acquisition process leading to adverse outcomes (Khan et al., 2020). Leaders with

transformational leadership skills are to understand the use of a reward system to

contribute to the success or failure of the new organization (Khan et al., 2020; Sanchez &

Criado, 2019), to gain employee commitment and satisfaction in the full mergers and

acquisition outcome (Bansal, 2020; Hassan & Lukman, 2020). Management's ability to

handle employee responses may address employee perception of fairness and justice for

the merged organization (Bansal, 2020). Lack of individual consideration and idealized

influence skills of managers of mergers and acquisitions leads to the leader's inability to

manage personal anxiety, low morale, and apprehension, causing low productivity.

Therefore, the process will be successful when the management explores the right

leadership skills to support the implementation of mergers and acquisitions.

Cultural Integration

Companies operate with values, which, over time, translate into organizational

culture and belief. Cultural integration by leaders becomes essential for the success of the

merger and acquisition. Studies attest to the importance of cultural integration in mergers

and acquisitions (Liu et al., 2019; Samal et al., 2019). While some employees are ready to

change during the integration, others show resistance and apathy in fussing the two

cultures (Liu et al., 2019; Samal et al., 2019). Cheng (2019) suggested that cultural

clashes and work disruption in mergers and acquisitions lead to a decline in employee

satisfaction and a loss in performance. Majeed and Kureshi (2019) intimated that cultural

clashes affect the acquirer's employees' motivation. According to Cheng (2019), a slow

integration process affords the leader time to reduce the risk associated with cultural

differences due to the merger or acquisition. Similarly, the ability of leaders to manage

cultural change may impact the success of the acquisition (Majeed & Kureshi, 2019).

Febriani and Yancey (2019) observed that, despite all the changes that occur

during the integration stage of mergers and acquisitions, challenges bordering on human

resources featured, including challenges in integrating the cultures of the acquirer and the

acquired. Cultural integration may negatively impact the employee if leaders fail to

smoothen the gap between the two companies (Febriani & Yancey, 2019). Even though

the transformational approach may be considered the appropriate integration approach,

Febriani and Yancey (2019) believed that mergers and acquisition practitioners should be

careful because the transformational process can lower employee attitudes.

In planning, the leaders must carefully consider the appropriate integration

approach to avoid the potential conflict between the two cultures (Febriani & Yancey,

2019; Voth, 2020). For the mergers and acquisitions process to be successful, leaders

must consider the following at the planning stage: (a) organizational cultural assessment

at the beginning of a merger or acquisition, (b) leaders identify and address the emotional

impact that will arise as a result of the changes, (c) prioritize human resource initiatives

concerning employee advocacy, (d) internal communication must be clear, transparent

and continuous, (e) fairness of decision for all groups of employees, (f) provide

opportunities for competencies, and (g) the project must be realistic considering the

resources and capabilities available (Febriani & Yancey, 2019). Before the closure of the

merger or acquisition transaction, the leader must identify the organizational culture of

the target firm and look for the best cultural fit between the two companies (Voth, 2020).

Leaders must access and improve their knowledge and skills to handle the cultural

challenges of mergers and acquisitions.

The transfer of knowledge plays an essential role in the success or failure of

mergers and acquisitions. However, to achieve a seamless transfer of knowledge, Bansal

(2020) suggested that there should be effective management by leaders to ensure

employee retention. According to Bansal (2020), leaders must consider in the planning

process the impact of knowledge transfer on the merger or acquisition success and

provide the necessary support and resources for smooth knowledge transfer. Second,

management should consider employee retention in the acquiring firm to sustain

knowledge transfer and improve acquisition success. Since cultural unity is essential to

employee retention, leaders must prioritize the onset of the merger or acquisition

integration process.

Summary

As strategic growth initiatives, the number of mergers and acquisitions deals will

continue to increase. Practitioners should develop leadership skills with the ability to

implement the mergers and acquisitions transactions to improve the realization of

postmerger and acquisition performance expectations (see Renneboog & Vansteenkiste,

2019). A successful post mergers and acquisitions performance will mean leaders should

consider human resource integration, the merger or acquisition value, cultural integration,

communication planning from the onset, and leadership involvement from the beginning

of the transaction (see Cheng, 2019; Oh & Johnston, 2020; Teti & Tului, 2020;

Vanwalleghem et al., 2020).

Transition

In Section 1 of the study, the goal was to offer a comprehensive literature review

grouped under main themes. Included was the introduction to the foundation of the study

addressing the problem and purpose statement, research question, conceptual framework,

and significance of the study. Furthermore, in Section 1, the focus was on exploring the

leadership skills needed to implement mergers and acquisitions in Ghana.

Section 2 will focus on the role of the researcher, the qualitative research method,

the case study design, the population, the sample size of the study, ethical research,

viability, reliability, data collection process, analysis, and organization techniques. In

Section 3, the purpose will be to present findings from the research, application to

professional practice, and implications for social change. The section further covers

recommendations for action and further study.

Section 2: The Project

In Section 2, I provide a detailed project review for this single qualitative case

study to explore leadership skills some banking leaders use to implement mergers and

acquisitions. I incorporate discussions about the role of the researcher, the participants,

the research method and design, and ethical considerations. I further discuss the

arrangement of the study design with existing qualitative case study methods. Finally, I

describe the data collection method, analyzed method, research reliability, and validity to

complete the section.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore leadership skills

used by some banking leaders to implement mergers and acquisitions successfully. In this

study, I used semistructured interviews with eight banking executives in Accra, Ghana.

The population consisted of general managers, group managers, department heads, and

branch managers employed before, during, and after a financial institution's merger. This

study's results may affect positive social change by creating new job prospects, sustaining

employment, and enhancing the economy for the community, customers, and other

stakeholders.

Role of the Researcher

In qualitative research, the researcher is the principal means of data collection

(Denzin & Lincoln, 2011), and the aim is to seek participants’ consent to collect reliable

data while protecting them (Yin, 2018). In this study, I acted as a principal means of data

collection. I have worked in the banking industry for over 25 years and have participated

in a similar acquisition process in the management role of a target company. In this study,

I was the primary source of data collection, transcription, and analysis. To avoid bias

based on my previous role and experience, I followed the same procedure for each

interview by asking each participant the same questions in the same order (see Yin,

2018). For this study, the selection included participants from other departments where I

had no relationship with the participants. I used member checking to employ the

participant to validate the interview transcription (see Berger, 2015; Marshall &

Rossman, 2016).

As a researcher, I was responsible for the ethical treatment of all selected

participants to ensure their privacy, confidentiality, and protection of the company and

participants (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011; Rashid et al., 2019; Slettebo, 2020). According to

Yin (2018), the researcher must (a) provide informed consent for every participant, (b)

protect participants from harm, (c) protect participants’ privacy and confidentiality, (d)

protect vulnerable groups, and select participants fairly. The United States Government

and the International Community have issued guidelines outlined in the Belmont Report

(1979). The Belmont Report includes guidance on (a) respect for persons, (b)

beneficence, and (c) justice (National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects

of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 1979). Respect for participants includes

respecting their ability to make independent decisions (National Commission for the

Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 1979).

Beneficence demands that researchers follow the approved research protocols throughout

the study process (National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of

Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 1979). Justice requires the fair, moral selection and

treatment of participants in the study (National Commission for the Protection of Human

Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 1979).

Participants

In this study, I used a sample size of eight participants from a bank in Ghana that

went through an acquisition. The sample size meets the needs of this study because

banking is a specialized industry and, therefore, requires participants with the requisite

skills, experience, and knowledge to respond to the research questions. In qualitative

research, what matters is the concept of saturation (Alam, 2021; Braun & Clarke, 2021;

Guest et al., 2020). In the opinion of Alam (2021), a sample size of five to 30 meets the

needs for qualitative research. To qualify as a participant in this study, the person should

have been in employment before, during, and after the acquisition. The participants were

in management positions comprising one of the following: general manager, group head,

department head, and branch manager. The management staff played a significant role at

every stage of the acquisition process and, therefore, had the experience to contribute to

the study.

Carefully selected individuals received telephone and email where possible. After

the initial contact, I sent the participants letters detailing the study's objective and

assured the participant protection of their identity (see Appendix A). Yin (2018) noted the

importance of researchers in protecting the participants in a case study. Using the letter, I

sought individual formal consent to participate in the interview and informed participants

that the interview was voluntary. A member who did not respond to the interview letter

received a follow-up through an email or telephone call. After the follow-up, the

participant refused to return; the researcher removed the person’s name from the group.

In the study, I used a face-to-face semistructured interview to collect data from the

participants, and each interview took between 45 minutes and 90 minutes (Dai et al.,

2019). I used Zoom to cater to participants who were out of the country or within reach.

Lobe et al. (2020) advocated that Skype or Zoom has the advantage of reaching the

member face-to-face when the researcher cannot gain access to the participant because of

distance, pandemic, or inclement weather. Phone use was not an option for this study

because the telephone is not reliable in Ghana. The study involved recording the

interviews using a Sony tape recorder with the member's written consent and transcribed.

I protected the identity of all the members by not disclosing their names, company names,

and locations. To ensure the protection of the rights of the participants, I did not include

duplication of any document or data collected. I scanned the documents to an external

hard drive and will keep the hard drive in a locked fireproof safe under control for 5

years.

Research Method and Design

Three different methods exist for research studies: qualitative, quantitative, and

mixed methods. In a qualitative research method, the researcher focuses on existing

phenomena in a lived situation (Gioia, 2021; Yin, 2018). A researcher explores an

existing complex problem not easily understood without inquiry in a single qualitative

case study, using participants and time (Morgan, 2022; Yin, 2018). In this study, I used a

qualitative single case study to explore leadership skills needed to implement mergers

and acquisitions in Ghana.

Research Method

The three research methods are qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. I

used the qualitative research method for this study. In qualitative research, the researcher

uses an exact method of sampling data collection, analysis, and interpretation within the

context of scientific inquiry (Aspers & Corte, 2019; Lester et al., 2020; Levitt et al.,

2021). According to Levitt et al. (2021), in the qualitative method, the researcher builds

theory. The qualitative approach presents a thorough and systematic understanding of

social dynamics and offers additional probes into themes to enhance the experience of a

phenomenon (Aspers & Corte, 2019; Lester et al., 2020; Tracy, 2019;). The use of the

qualitative method assists me in working within natural settings and draws on methods

that respect the participants of a study (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011; Yin, 2018).

In qualitative research I explored the research question and brought out what the

individuals and the group experienced and observed over time (see Morgan, 2022).

Therefore, the goal is to know how that happened with a qualitative method that uses

theories to explain behavior and not statistics to establish a relationship between events

(Levitt et al., 2021; Morgan, 2022). A qualitative design has five general hallmarks: (a)

occurs in a naturalistic setting, (b) draws on multiple methods that represent the humanity

of the participants in a study, (c) focuses on context, (d) continues to emerge and evolve,

and (e) fundamentally includes interpretive settings (Marshall & Rossman, 2016).

Mergers and acquisitions affect the culture and perception of employees in the new

organization. Researchers suggest that the qualitative approach enhances leaders' and

academicians' academic knowledge and organizational settings (Levitt et al., 2021).

The flexibility of the qualitative method is to allow researchers to incorporate in a

study critical and unpredicted happenings and findings; to provide data collection in

words, images, and observations that ensure thorough and detailed descriptions of

complex behavior, processes, relationships, settings, and systems (Aspers & Corte, 2019).

Qualitative research includes exploring the meaning humans assign to the phenomenon

(Marshall & Rossman, 2016) and individual lived experiences (Aspers & Corte, 2019).

The quantitative method was not suitable for this study because researchers use

quantitative methods to test theories through numbers (see Cortina, 2020). In the

quantitative method, researchers use prepared instruments to answer many research

questions (Burkholder et al., 2020; Johnston et al., 2020; Kuehn & Rohlfing, 2022). I

could not use statistical numbers to explain the leadership skills needed by banking

leaders to implement mergers and acquisitions. The study is about their lived experiences;

therefore, a quantitative design was not be appropriate. The mixed method includes both

the quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques (Dawadi et al., 202q; Palinkas

et al., 2019; Stoecker & Avila, 2021). However, I could not use both quantitative and

qualitative methods to explore a phenomenon because the study had no hypothesis to test

and would not give reliable results.

Research Design

There are five research designs in the qualitative method. The designs are case

study, ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenological, and narrative (Morgan, 2022;

Yin, 2018). In this study, I used a qualitative single case study design. Case study

research can happen in three situations; (a) understanding the how and why, (b)

understanding real-world context, and (c) evaluating the data results (Bhatta, 2018;

Rashid et al., 2019; Yin, 2018). Denzin and Lincoln (2011) believed that case studies

should focus on units bounded with time. A detailed investigation of a single case study is

essential to explore the leadership skills needed to improve mergers and acquisitions

success and a complete examination of one organization to obtain a professional opinion

of the phenomenon (Yin, 2018). A single case study was suitable because I used the

design to provide perceptive experiences of leaders, reveal leadership skills, and ways to

help improve the likelihood of success of mergers and acquisitions.

According to Yin (2018), a researcher will use a case study to understand the

reallife experience of individuals or groups. In a case study a researcher can obtain a

multiplicity of data from various techniques to help broaden the knowledge of best

practice skills required for mergers and acquisitions implementations (see Bhatta, 2018;

Rashid et al., 2019; Thomas, 2021). In this study, I used the staff of a bank with

experience in merger syndrome.

In phenomenology design, the researcher focuses on the individual’s

understanding of their lived experience by investigating the person's meaning attached to

that experience (Neubauer et al., 2019; Williams, 2021). I did not use phenomenology

design because the focus of the study was on the impact of a process on an organization

instead of the individual experience of a phenomenon (Neubauer et al., 2019; Williams,

2021).

Ethnography design includes examining a shared pattern of behavior, belief, and

language within a cultural group or community setting (Haven & Grootel, 2019; Koskull,

2020). In ethnography, the researcher explores those under investigation's day-to-day

social lives or culture (Ploder & Hamann, 2021). This study was not about the pattern of I

did not use the narrative because it was not about telling a past event or individuals

sharing their lived experiences (Andrews, 2021; Gang, 2022; Surangi, 2022).

Population and Sampling

The population for the study was a purposive sampling of eight participants

selected from a universal bank in Ghana with experience as part of a merger

phenomenon. Studies include the recommendation of purposive sampling when the group

is identical in attitude, experience, sound knowledge regarding the research topic, and

views to represent the entire population (Hennink & Kaiser, 2022; Levitt, 2021; Yin,

2018). Hennink and Kaiser (2022) identified four approaches that determine sample size

in qualitative research. These are (a) rules of thumb, based on a combination of

methodological considerations and experience; (b) conceptual models, based upon

specific characteristics of the proposed study; (c) numerical guidelines derived from the

empirical investigation; and (d) statistical formulae, based on the probability of obtaining

a sufficient sample size (Alam, 2021). Alam (2021) supported a single case study of five

to 30 as an ideal number for interview participants in the qualitative case study research

approach.

The population sample of this study is based on expediency and availability (see

Hennink & Kaiser, 2022). The sample size is not a fixed number but depends on what the

researcher wants to explore and the resource available for the study (Alam, 2021; Hennink

& Kaiser, 2022). To be eligible for this study, the participant should have lived experiences

and appropriate knowledge; be in employment before, during, and after the acquisition at

a senior management position; and willingness to be part of the population to give the

experiences acquired in the merger and acquisition process (see Levitt, 2021).

The interview is one of the most critical and traditional data collection methods in

the qualitative method (Dai et al., 2019; Husband, 2020; Yin, 2018). I used

semistructured face-to-face interviews to collect data from the participants for this case

study (see Dai et al., 2019; Gravlee et al., 2018; Husband, 2020). The interview was a

guided conversation to ensure a fluid flow of information (Yin, 2018). Dai et al. (2019)

suggested that researchers use an interview to collect data to understand opinions,

attitudes, experiences, processes, behavior, or predictions.

Ethical Research

The experience and engagement with participants often establish ethical and

personal issues in the research process (Rashid et al., 2019; Slettebo, 2020). The

researcher must ensure that the participants are fully aware of their participation and role

in the study (Ngozwana, 2018; Rashid et al., 2019). Rashid et al. (2019) suggested that

the researcher must protect the privacy and confidentiality of the firm and individuals

during and after the research. The researcher needs to obtain the participants' consent by

giving them consent forms to complete (Ngozwana, 2018; Rashid et al., 2019).

The consent form contains detailed information about the participants' work to

make an educated choice to participate in the research. After, the goal was to assure the

participant about the confidentiality of information and data provided for the study.

Furthermore, all recordings and documents are stored on the USB drive, and I will lock

them in a fireproof cabinet for five years. The cabinet will only be accessible to me. I will

destroy the data after five years. I conducted each interview on different dates, according

to the schedule of the participants, digitally recorded the conversation, and labeled each

file with a code. After delivering the consent form, I informed the participant verbally

that their participation in the study was voluntary. Participants could withdraw from the

study at any stage of the process without recourse to the participant as per the consent

form (see Appendix B). Communication to the participants was included that the study

was voluntary and devoided any identifiable risk associated with participating in the

study. The participants of the study were not compensated or received payment of

benefits from the study.

My responsibility was to protect the participants' dignity, integrity, privacy, and

confidentiality (Ngozwana, 2018; Rashid et al., 2019). I have completed the National

Institutes of Health (NIH) certification to show proficiency in ethical research (Appendix

D). Before starting this study, I sought the Walden University Institutional Review Board

(IRB) approval (IRB approval number 04-07-22-0324022). After approval, participants

received a consent form (see Slettebo, 2020) via email for review and signature (see

Appendix B).

Data Collection Instruments

The researcher is the primary instrument in data collection in qualitative studies

(Barrett & Twycross, 2018; Lester et al., 2020). The most commonly used data collection

methods in qualitative research are participant observation, interviews, and focus group

discussions (Alam, 2021; Yin, 2018). In this qualitative single case study, I was the primary

data collection instrument. I gained access to the financial institution through my previous

engagement with the bank. The potential participants identified by me received an

informed consent letter before scheduling the interview.

In qualitative research, the researcher uses the interview to collect data from

participants regarding a particular event. The interviewer tailors the interview to the

research question and the characteristics of the participants (see Barrett & Twycross,

2018; Yin, 2018). I conducted a semistructured interview using predefined, open-ended

interview questions in an isolated venue. A private venue helped to eliminate disturbances

and noise, more importantly, when the interviews were online following the COVID-19

pandemic (Lobe et al., 2020). The use of open-ended questions allowed the participants

to share their lived experiences and understanding of the phenomenon (Barrett &

Twycross, 2018). I collected some of the data face-to-face and through Zoom, where

there were geographical barriers, and in the advent of COVID-19 and the need to

maintain social distancing (see Archibald et al., 2019; Barrett & Twycross, 2018; Lobe et

al., 2020). Lobe et al. (2020) advocated for video conferencing and telephone as against

face-to-face interviews. I sought each participant's preference before interviewing to give

the participant assurance of privacy.

I measured the data collected based on the information on the interpretation of the

experiences and views of the participants. I took notes during the interview to summarize

the information provided by members. Following the interview process, l used transcripts

and notes to prepare the research. I transcribed the data provided by the interviewees and

sent a summary to the participant for confirmation of the accuracy, completeness, and

correctness of the information gathered from each participant. I employed the data

interpretation method and the coding process. Only I will lock the information in a

fireproof cabinet accessible for five years.

A qualitative method often comprises a small population size, typically creating

generalization concerns (Marshall & Rossman, 2016). However, a researcher can

generalize a qualitative result where the sample size covers a fair representation of the

population under investigation (Hays & McKibben, 2021; Marshall & Rossman, 2016;

Maxwell, 2021). The selection of participants with diverse backgrounds and perspectives

from different departments in both the acquired and acquirer ensured the generalization

of the results and provided external validity to the study (Marshall & Rossman, 2016;

Slettebo, 2020).

In data triangulation, the researcher uses multiple data sources to enhance a

study's reliability (Fusch et al., 2018; Jentoft & Olsen, 2019; Renz et al., 2018).

According to Renz et al. (2018), triangulation involves using multiple external data

collection methods regarding the same phenomenon to confirm the data collected. Yin

(2018) suggested the use of multiple sources of evidence to ensure data validity. The use

of multiple data sources allows the researcher to confirm the result of the study

(Skaaning, 2018). For data triangulation, I reviewed the institution’s internal documents,

including 3 years of annual reports, website information, and publicly available records,

including articles and press releases, to add validation to the study.

Data Collection Technique

The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore transformational

leadership skills needed to implement mergers and acquisitions in Ghana to guarantee

shareholders' return on investment postmerger or acquisition. The six primary case study

sources outlined by Yin (2018) are documents, interviews, archival records, direct

observations, participant observation, and physical artifacts. Researchers use interviews

to collect rich data regarding a particular event from a participant in a case study (Fusch

et al., 2018; Oliveira & Figueira, 2018). According to Yin (2018), gathering evidence

sources from participants’ lived experiences through interviews is the most important

case study. In this study, I used predefined open-ended questions.

Semistructured interview techniques enabled the participants to disclose their

knowledge, in-depth information, and real-life experiences concerning the research topic

(Alam, 2021; Barrett & Twycross, 2018; Yin, 2018). In this study, I developed an

interview protocol to create uniformity in the interview process (Yeong et al., 2018). The

purpose of the interview protocol is to ensure that the researcher has secured the

necessary research approval procedures before recruiting potential study participants. The

required approval protocols for this qualitative single case study were approved by the

Walden University IRB, providing a consent letter to the participant to partake in the

interview, receiving consent from each participant, and a letter to the organization to use

some of its materials for the research.

I conducted face-to-face interviews and remotely through Zoom in line with the

existing COVID-19 protocol (see Lobe et al., 2020). I assured the participants' privacy

under the social distance protocol arrangement and recorded the interview with the

interviewees' consent. Recording the interview allowed me to listen attentively to the

interviewee during the interview conference rather than document the interview by hand.

Yin (2018) suggested that recording interviews provide an accurate record of each

interview. I recorded each interview using a Sony audio recorder and transferred the

recorded data to an Apple MacBook, which was later transcribed. I followed the

interview protocol throughout the interview process and conducted semistructured

interviews using Zoom and face-to-face to the interviewee's choice. The interview

questions were open-ended and predefined. The researcher asked follow-up questions to

get clarity where necessary. I used a similar protocol by Yeong et al. (2018).

After the interview, I sought assistance transcribing the data using Microsoft

Word. An interview transcript constitutes a significant data source for research (Alam,

2021; Lester et al., 2020). To familiarize myself with the data, I read and reread the

transcript carefully to understand the research question. I used member checking with

each participant to increase the data's validity, credibility, and trustworthiness. The

importance of member checking is to increase the reliability and credibility of the

research by allowing the participant to validate the transcribed data (Iivari, 2018;

Marshall & Rossman, 2016). The participant received the transcribed summary of each

interview question through their email.

Data Organization Technique

I used semistructured interviews with transcribed recorded interview data and

analysis in this single case study. A recorded interview session assists the researcher in

accurately transcribing the proceedings (Takahashi & Araujo, 2020; Yin, 2018).

Researchers have an ethical responsibility to guarantee participants’ privacy,

confidentiality, and protection (Ngozwana, 2018; Shafi, 2020; Talbert, 2018; Yin, 2018).

According to researchers, using codes to disguise interviewees is one way of

safeguarding participants' privacy (Husband, 2020; Kanygin & Koretckaia, 2021; Shafi,

2020). Before the interview, I received a signed consent form from each participant,

consenting to their voluntary participation in the interview process.

The data organization technique for the proposed study involved creating an

electronic folder for data files for each participant. The electronic folder for the

participants included participants’ interview forms, transcribed notes from recordings,

and file notes for the interview, including field observation notebook and archival

records. I adopted pseudonyms with codes like P1, P2, and P3 to conceal individual

participants' identities and ensure confidentiality and protection (Kanygin & Koretckaia,

2021).

I stored the participants’ informed consent, internal documents, and the

interviewer's notes in a locked, fireproof safe. Electronic records like interview

recordings, data transcriptions, and data analysis files are password-protected and stored

using password-protected electronic files stored on a digital hard drive and kept in a

fireproof safe. I have stored all data and will destroy them after five years.

Data Analysis

Data triangulation involves using multiple external analysis methods to confirm

the data collected and enhance the reliability of the study (Fusch et al., 2018; Jentoft &

Olsen, 2019; Natow, 2019; Renz et al., 2018). According to Natow (2019), researchers

may derive multiple data sources from different periods, locations, or perspectives.

Jentoft and Olsen (2019) suggested another form of triangulation that involves using

various methodologies. For example, a researcher uses more than one qualitative data

collection method, including collecting data through interviews, observations, and

documents. The purpose of this qualitative single case study focused on methodological

triangulation using semistructured interviews for inquiry, member checking for accuracy

and saturation, and data triangulation using internal and public documents available. The

internal documents included financial statements, internal newsletters, and other human

resource information available. Public records consisted of the company websites and

market data from news journals,

Different methods exist to analyze qualitative data (Aspers & Corte, 2019; Yin,

2018). The focus of this qualitative single case study was to utilize an inductive analytical

strategy. I used a tabular format to transcribe the interview data collected from the

participant, synthesize the data, and develop themes relating to the problem statement. I

completed the data analysis using an inductive analytical approach for open coding of

groups and subgroups using NVivo 12 software. The findings were then integrated into

the conceptual framework of transformational leadership skills to complete the study. The

inductive analytical procedures are tools for grounded theory; however, according to Yin

(2018), the underlying idea is suitable for case study design.

A researcher performs an in-depth examination of the data using open code. The

researcher identifies similarities and relevant dissimilarities. The qualitative analytical

software NVivo 12 aided the facilitating of data coding to enable the identification of

emerging patterns. Before employing codes, I imported all data, including memoirs and

the interview transcripts, into a Word document into NVivo 12 software. The NVivo 12

software generated themes to help assign meaning to participants' responses. The NVivo

12 software assisted in facilitating the task of organizing and analyzing data. The

software provided an effective mechanism for performing qualitative data analyses to

ensure data accuracy, credibility, and reliability (Linneberg & Korsgaard, 2019; Maher et

al., 2018; Parameswaran et al., 2020). I reviewed the notes to ensure I had addressed each

interview question and replayed the recorded interviews to refresh my memory of the

interview. Yin (2018) suggested diverse starting points for data analysis, including

contrasting data within a matrix, the use of visual graphics like flowcharts, and taking

notes. In the initial stages, I attempted to use visual graphics.

Reliability and Validity

Reliability and validity are the two quality standards to evaluate qualitative

research (Takahashi & Araujo, 2020). In a qualitative research, reliability is arriving at

the same conclusion when the researcher uses the same data and protocol as the original

case study (Hayashi Jr. et al., 2019; Yin, 2018). Validity in qualitative research is for the

researcher to total view of how the study methodology, design, sampling, and study

conclusion fit the studied event (Hayashi Jr. et al., 2019; Yin, 2018). Validity means

credibility, confirmability, and transferability in a qualitative study (Takahashi & Araujo,

2020; Yin, 2018).

Reliability

In qualitative research, the reliability of a study is the ability of another researcher

to replicate the study's findings using the same or similar methodology, data, tools, and

study design for another study (Hayashi Jr. et al., 2019; Yin, 2018). Another name for

reliability in quantitative research is dependability (Takahashi & Araujo, 2020). In

qualitative research, data saturation (Sechelski & Onwuegbuzie, 2019), member checking

(Iivari, 2018), and the researcher’s audit trail of decision-making (Marshall & Rossman,

2016) enhance the reliability of the research. This study reached data saturation when the

interviewees provided no new information through the interview and member checking. I

developed a detailed audit trail using notes during the interview and data analysis stage,

built an interview journal during the interview process, and clarified interviewee

responses. In a case study, the researcher relies on a small number of participants to

obtain in-depth and detailed answers. To achieve reliability, I documented every step of

the research design and eliminated any departure from the research method selected for

this proposed study. I followed a methodical data collection process to help in achieving

trustworthiness and reliability throughout the proposed research (see Hayashi Jr. et al.,

2019). Throughout the data analysis, I used notes to assist me recognized the relationship

between data groups, subgroups, and themes.

Validity

Qualitative validity is the degree to which a researcher concludes because the

research accurately describes what happened (Hayashi Jr. et al., 2019; Rose & Johnson,

2020; Yin, 2018). Takahashi and Araujo (2020) outlined three concepts for considering

the validity of qualitative research and offered them in place of the traditional

quantitatively-oriented criteria validity. The concepts are (a) conformability, (b)

credibility, and (c) transferability (Takahashi & Araujo, 2020).

Confirmability in qualitative research is based on the connection between the

research findings and the study conclusion and has no relationship with research biases

(Hayashi Jr. et al., 2019; Takahashi & Araujo, 2020). However, prejudice allows

researchers to collect essential data from interviewees, but interpreting prejudiced data

can lead to researcher bias (Aspers & Corte, 2019; Kern, 2018). Researcher bias borders

on credibility in qualitative research (Hayashi Jr. et al., 2019; Houman et al., 2018; Kern,

2018). Researchers enrich confirmability by maintaining field notes, developing audit

trails, using member checking, and data triangulation (Fusch et al., 2018; Jentoft &

Olsen, 2019; Renz et al., 2018). To improve confirmability in this study, I created an

audit trail by recording interviews, member checking, data transcriptions, and developing

research notes. I used methodological triangulation to confirm the study outcome and to

ascertain any deviation from the results.

Member checking is a necessary procedure to enrich the validity of the research

(Iivari, 2018; Marshall & Rossman, 2016). By member checking, participants can

confirm, clarify, or augment the accuracy of the data captured (Marshall & Rossman,

2016). The importance of member checking in qualitative inquiry enables the researcher

to ensure dependability, credibility, reliability, and validity in the recorded interview

(Iivari, 2018; Marshall & Rossman, 2016). Providing transcripts to participants to check

for accuracy and data confirmation will also ensure the proposed study's credibility and

validity (Marshall & Rossman, 2016). Credibility measures trust that the researcher has

properly conducted all study aspects, including the accuracy and completeness of the

outcomes (Takahashi & Araujo, 2020; Yin, 2018). I provided participants with a

transcription of the in-depth interview for review to confirm all data. Participants'

opportunities for feedback and clarification increased and improved the credibility and

validity of the proposed study (Takahashi & Araujo, 2020). I utilized methodological

triangulation.

Transferability

Validation of research findings comprises generating and comparing the different

data and perspectives on the topic under investigation (Houman et al., 2018). The

objective of this qualitative research helped identify reliable, dependable, and transferable

factors to support the design concept, thus reducing any bias or incorrect interpretations

(Peach et al., 2018). Qualitative researchers depend on findings identified as transferable

to future research or a similar organization. Transferability is the degree to which the

outcome of qualitative inquiry can be generalized or transferred to another setting (Levitt,

2021). I included the detailed research, data analysis, and interview process protocol to

ensure transferability. A trustworthy study should be transferable to assure readers of a

qualitative study’s results (Cloutier & Ravasi, 2021; Peach et al., 2018).

Transition and Summary

The section begins with a qualitative case study design to explore the leadership

skills needed to implement mergers and acquisitions in Ghana. I reviewed the data

collection, analysis, instruments, techniques, reliability, and validity of the research. The

research method and design are in line with established case study research. Section 3

focused on the data collection, analysis, and interpretation. I included in this section the

study results and the implication for business in Ghana. The study concluded with a

recommendation for action for further research and will give a summary of the result of

the study.

Section 3: Application to Professional Practice and Implications for Change

Introduction

This qualitative single-case study aimed to explore leadership skills needed by

banking leaders to implement mergers and acquisitions successfully. I interviewed eight

executive and senior-level managers from a merged financial institution in Ghana. All the

participants interviewed were in senior management positions and were present before,

during, and after a merger of two financial institutions. I conducted semistructured

interviews with open-ended questions to answer the overarching research question for

this study: What leadership skills do some banking leaders need to plan and implement

mergers and acquisitions? The participants answered nine open-ended interview

questions and followed questions for clarity of responses. After I transcribed interview

data, developed the interview summaries, and finalized member checking, I imported the

data into NVivo 12 analytical software to adapt data coding. I also reviewed relevant

documents, including the financial statements of the two banks before the merger and the

consolidated financial statements two years after the merger, internal newsletters, external

journals, and other public documents. I used my reflective journal with my observations

and notes on each participant, as suggested by Yin (2018), to triangulate and confirm the

interview data. I used inductive analysis to identify four main interrelated themes relevant

to the research question. The themes are (a) idealized influence, (b) inspirational

motivation, (c) individual consideration, and (d) intellectual stimulation. The initial

research findings for this study matched the attributes of transformational leadership

skills proposed by Burns (1978) and expanded by Bass (1985).

Presentation of the Findings

The central research question for this qualitative single-case study was: What

leadership skills do some banking leaders need to implement mergers and acquisitions

successfully in Ghana? Using open-ended interview questions relevant to the overarching

research question, I interviewed nine senior-level management members from two

individual commercial banks that merged in Ghana with the head office in

Accra. I recorded the interviews, which required transcriptions. After the transcriptions, I

summarized the completed interviews and used member checking to ensure the data were

complete. I reached data saturation with no new information offered after the eighth

participant. For data triangulation, I reviewed relevant internal documents, information

on the corporate website, and publicly available information to validate the data. I

imported the data into NVivo 12 Analytical Software to assist in the data coding. Using

inductive analytics, I identified four interrelated themes and sub-themes relevant to the

skills needed to successfully implement merger and acquisition, the existing literature,

and the well-defined conceptual framework.

The themes that emerged regarding idealized influence were: (a) trust, (b)

personal commitment and teamwork, and (c) prioritization of employee needs. The

following themes emerged under inspirational motivation: (a) communicating the vision

and (b) motivating employees. The themes for individualized consideration were: (a)

employee focus, (b) guidance monitoring, and (c) mentoring and counseling. Intellectual

stimulation had the following themes: (a) empowerment, (b) creativity, and (c) culture.

Table 1

Occurrence Idealized Influence

Theme

% of Occurrence

Trust

100

Personal Commitment and Teamwork

Prioritization of employee needs

Note. f refers to the frequency of occurrence of the theme.

Theme 1: Idealized Influence

When the participants’ responses and other relevant internal data were analyzed,

the first theme was the idealized influence of transformational leaders. Responses to

Interview Questions 2 and 3 reflect the respondents’ idealized influence behavior. The

literature supports the emerging themes: trust, values, and prioritizing or focusing on

employees' needs (see Table 1). When a leader exhibits trustworthiness, prioritizes, and

focuses on employees’ needs as well as the value system of employees, it significantly

influences job performance (Hosna et al., 2021; Khattak et al., 2020). According to Gupta

(2020), when leaders exhibit idealized influence, employees appreciate, honor, and trust

the leader when implementing a change process like a merger. All the participants related

idealized influence leaders to employees' workplace performance. The participants agreed

that leaders who effectively apply idealized leadership skills enhance job performance

after a merger integration process.

Trust

All the participants assented that trust in the leader must be the dominant skill to

cultivate in an important change like a merger of two banks. Trust supports the

relationship between idealized influence and job satisfaction (Khan et al., 2020; Siswanto

& Yuliana, 2022). For example, P5 stated, “Working with people I did not know, I had to

build trust and confidence to win the team's support.” According to P1, “the change

caused apprehension and therefore building employee trust was important in achieving

the goals set for the leader.” P3 pointed out, "I had an entirely new and difficult team

during the initial stages of the integration, and therefore building trust and confidence

was reciprocated with loyalty and with less supervision, the team gave their heart out

hence my initial success.” In a similar study, Mahmud (2022) concluded that trust has a

significant and direct role in applying knowledge in a change process. P7 believed that

trust imposed on the leader ensured team commitment, and this was pronounced

especially during the second year after the integration of the two institutions.

Employees’ apprehension during a merger is due to a lack of trust in the new

management, so the importance of a trusting relationship between the leader and the

followers fosters the employees’ organizational identity (Altunoglu et al., 2019; Khan et

al., 2020; Purwanto et al., 2021). According to Altunoglu et al. (2019), trust facilitates the

relationship between a transformational leader’s behavior and a follower's job

performance. Mahdikhani and Yazdani (2020) concluded that trust culminates in

interpersonal trust to drive team performance in mergers. Gupta (2020) intimated that if

there is a lack of trust among team members and leadership, the tasks assigned to the

team may fail. P1 confirmed that the lack of initial trust between employees and

management caused employees apprehension during the onboarding leading to the exit of

a third of the staff a day after the start of integrating the two businesses. P1 was in

agreement with Purwanto et al. (2021), that the absence of trust causes a lack of

employees identifying with the organization.

A review of some of the internal documents revealed a deliberate effort by the

management of the merged institution to enhance trust through the following: (a) putting

trust as part of the institution’s mission statement and displaying it at all the offices

throughout the country, (b) the company’s journals and newsletters depict pictures of

regular social bonding, and (c) town hall meetings to improve trust between management

staff and employees. It is, therefore, not surprising that an analysis of the consolidated

financial statement depicts a sudden acceleration of all liquidity performance two years

after the merger.

Personal Commitment and Teamwork

About half of the participants agreed that the leader’s commitment to the process

and collaboration were fundamental to achieving success beyond a merger integration

stage. P1 emphasized, "I spent about 70% of my time with the team throughout the

preintegration period, and most of the period, I was the last to leave the office.” P6 said,

“I was always telling the team about my achievement and the process I went through to

achieve my success.” P2 and P1 agreed that leadership by example was a significant

driver of the team's performance during the integration stage. P4 intimated that “I worked

hard and joined in the daily activities of my team.” P8 indicated, “In our team, it was

difficult to identify the boss and the subordinate. My staff emulated my hard work.”

Ibrahim et al. (2019) indicated that when the supervisor provides the necessary support to

the team, the quitting intentions of the employees in curtailed. P8 agreed with Ibrahim et

al. (2019) that the employee quitting intentions reduced one year after the integration

when management started providing all the support to the team members.

Al Hosani et al. (2020) suggested that the leader's commitment affects the team's

commitment, leading to team synergy and high productivity; leaders' commitment

ensures employee commitment, corporate trust, and the perceived effectiveness of staff

during the post-merger. About 50% of participants said they do what employees expect

from them. The leader's characteristics and personal behavior drive idealization

(Kasimoglu & Ammari, 2020). The idealized features of a transformational leader

measure the followers, perception of the leader’s exemplary achievements and values,

and the behavior measures the employee observation of the leader’s behavior (Afshari,

2022). All the participants confirmed they were punctual at their internal meetings and

the organization workshops organized after the integration.

Prioritization of employee needs.

Leaders with idealization characteristics consider the needs of their employees

(Dung & Hai, 2020; Owie, 2019). A review of the financial statement revealed an

increase in staff cost as a result of spending monies on staff priority areas, including the

provision of fuel for cars, rent, and upward adjustment in salaries after the integration. P1

and P5 said that with the limited resources available to their departments, the needs of

their staff were prioritized above their own, which generated enthusiasm in the team

toward work. P3 said, “I work for my staff, and their welfare is my primacy.” According

to P5, if the team members perceive you to be caring, sharing, selfless, and generous,

they respond with a high commitment to productivity.

The perception of workers regarding the selfless attitude of their leaders motivates

them to commit themselves to organizational goals and efficient performance (Khattak et

al., 2020). Leaders' selfless behavior and values inspire employees’ commitment to

organizational goals (Xie, 2020). Gashema (2019) agreed with other scholars that the

perception of leaders' idealized attributes is associated with improved workplace

performance and posited that idealized leaders win the trust of their employees for greater

employee productivity.

The attributes of idealized influence include charisma, moral values, and ethics

(Avolio et al., 1999; Williams Jr. et al., 2018). Idealized influence appeals to the values

and belief systems of employees and motivates the employees to admire leadership for

increased workplace productivity (Owie, 2019). A review of the consolidated financial

statements three years after integration, from 2014 to 2016, shows consistent growth in

profitability and deposit, higher than the first three years of consolidation. Leaders with

idealized influence motivate employees to identify with trust, which enhances

productivity (Alwahaibi, 2019; Khattak et al., 2020).

Table 2

Inspirational Motivation

Theme

% of Occurrence

Motivation

100

Communication 7 88

Note. f refers to the frequency of occurrence of the theme.

Theme 2: Inspirational Motivation

Inspirational motivation was the second theme predominant from the responses in

Interview Questions 2, 6, and 8. The two main themes that emerged were motivation and

communication (see Table 2). Interviewees shared their thoughts on essential leadership

skills needed to implement mergers and acquisitions; using verbal communication by

leaders to share vision and motivation was frequent under inspirational motivation.

Motivation.

Motivation relates to a human need and is indispensable in promoting employee

performance (Majid & Samsudin, 2021). Inspirational leaders motivate behavior where

the employees must use their various skills in the team (Kariuki, 2021; Thuan, 2020;

Yizhong et al., 2019). According to Al Harbi et al. (2019), inspirational leaders motivate

their followers to be effective and efficient to enrich job resources. Studies have

established that inspirational leaders impact organizations positively (Hosna et al., 2021;

Kariuki, 2021; Majid & Samsudin, 2021). Motivation is done through job demands, skills

direction, decision authority, and perceived organizational support (Majid & Samsudin,

2021; Yizhong et al., 2019).

Inspirational leaders understand the use of a reward system to contribute to the

success or failure of the new organization (Khan et al., 2020; Sanchez & Criado, 2019).

The participants agreed that inspirational motivators effectively communicate

performance expectations that inspire team members' commitment to work (Bansal &

King, 2022; Hassan & Lukman, 2020). The participants said they consciously tried to

motivate their employees using appropriate reward systems. P1, P2, and P4 believed that

giving more opportunities for team members for job empowerment plays a significant

role in enhancing employees’ performance. All the participants agreed that they used

motivating communications and emotional appeals to stimulate employee performance

and productivity. Inspirational motivation is the approach leaders adopt to inspire team

members against integration exit (Beraud et al., 2020). P1 and P3 believed the team

achieved its targets at the later stages of the merger implementation because the team

members were motivated to take on additional tasks despite losing some of the key team

members at the initial stages of the merger. A similar study by Afsar and Umrani (2020)

using 35 firms in Pakistan's service and manufacturing sectors concluded that

transformational leadership positively impacts employees’ innovative work behavior and

motivation to learn more tasks.

Communication.

All the participants agreed with the role of communication skills in implementing

a change like mergers and acquisitions. All the participants said they reminded their team

of the objective and vision of the merger at village and team meetings. P1 said, “ I

communicated the entire vision and plan of the merger to my team members to energize

them for commitment and result.” Available studies by Agnetha and Hidayat (2021) and

Bansal and King (2022) concluded that effective communication is a tool for every

merger or acquisition transaction stage. According to Bansal and King (2022), team

members better understand the merger or acquisition process's expected outcome when

managers focus on communicating useful, timely, accurate, and sufficient information

throughout the process. P8 believed the communication process must be thought through

before starting the merger or acquisition process. According to P1, managers should

concern themselves with the type of meetings (town hall, breakfast, or lunch), message to

deliver, transfer of employees, and employee placements. Without effective and timely

leader communication, employee morale and job performance are affected, resulting in a

high attrition rate and poor workplace performance (see Bansal & King, 2022; Cooke et

al., 2020). P1 stated, “The lack of timely communication between the project team and

the department heads caused a high attrition rate in the first two years of the integration.”

P8 intimated that in a particular department, almost the entire team resigned on the first

integration day because of information delay.” P5 said, “I communicated the vision of

the merger to my team but did not get their buy-in because it was late and the team

members had made up their minds to leave.” P7 stated, “On several instances, I consulted

with my staff by holding frequent team meetings and briefing the team members on the

general vision of the merger.” P2 intimated that effective communication is the ability of

the manager to engage team members on job expectations openly. According to P1, a

conscious effort was made to openly engage all staff across the organization before the

onboarding of staff onto the new institution; however, P1 intimated that there was a gap

in the information flow that nearly derailed the project. P1's assertion agrees with

Rodriguez-Sanchez et al. (2020) that the engagement of employees is only considered at

the integration stage, making it difficult to manage talent during a merger or acquisition.

P4 stated, “During team leaders' meetings, all the leaders were involved in reviewing the

implementation rollout and the goal of the merger. One of the characteristics of a

transformational leader is the leader’s ability to communicate organizational goals

effectively and offer specific expectations for employee performance ( Bansal & King,

2022).

All the participants confirmed the use of several internal mediums of

communication, including face-to-face and team, for communicating the merger

objectives to their employees. Some of the study participants believed there needed to be

more effective communication between the project and the implementation teams. By the

time the onboarding started, most staff had made up their minds on what to do. P7 and P8

stated they were not surprised that the delay in communicating the merger caused staff

apprehension and anxiety, resulting in high staff attrition in the first year of integration.

P1 said, “The initial communication before the merger was focused on administrative

integration by defining the future processes and procedures of the merged entity, the

available opportunities, and employee apprehension.” Bansal and King (2022) agreed that

communication should be continuous throughout the entire merger or acquisition process

to enrich organizational strength and employee satisfaction after an acquisition or merger.

The remaining employee has confidence in the information being communicated, and this

was evidenced in the employee's commitment to the new institution to enhance

postmerger performance (Agnetha & Hidayat, 2021; Cooke et al., 2020). Effective

communication reduces employee apprehension and resistance to the merger and

acquisition processes (Al Hosani et al., 2020). P8 stated that “ communication provided

the team members the opportunity to discuss the vision of the merger and provided

feedback to address the team concern and operational improvement.” According to P5,

organizing a ‘time out’ for a social event helped gain the team members' trust and

confidence.

Table 3

Individualized Consideration

Theme

% of Occurrence

Employee Focus

100

Guidance and Monitoring

Mentoring and Counseling

Note. f refers to the frequency of occurrence of the theme.

Theme 3: Individualized Consideration

The themes that emerged under individualized consideration were: Individual

employee focus, support and monitoring, and mentoring and counseling (Table 3). The

participants linked individual reviews to workplace performance. The themes aligned

with existing literature by Bass and Avolio (1997).

Employee focus.

The participants were of the view that the majority of the employees in their team

had unique skills. P5 said, “I monitored my team members to develop their skills to

enrich job objectives.” Leaders with individualized consideration skills mentor their

followers, training them to perform well (Cahyono et al., 2020). P1 intimated that

focusing on the individual employees created a stage to improve their growth. P8 added

that to know the unique personal and career challenges, I met my team members face to

face on a regular basis. All the emerging themes aligned with the existing literature on

individualized consideration of the transformational leader and workplace performance

(Alwahaibi, 2019; Avolio et al., 1999; Xie, 2020). All participants agreed with Bass and

Avolio (1997) that individualized consideration encompasses the leader being

compassionate and caring regarding individual skills and talents of individual employees

for job innovations and personal creativity. About 63% of employees concurred that

leaders’ support for individual creativity improved job innovations and productivity.

Guidance and monitoring.

Monitoring and supervision are essential transformational leadership strategies to

enhance employee performance (Cahyono et al., 2020; Eliyana & Maarif, 2019). Almost

all the participants agreed that practical support and an effective monitoring system were

helpful as both improved employee performance. According to the literature, the leader’s

approval and effective monitoring strategy are essential in improving employee

performance, which aligns with the study outcome (Cahyono et al., 2020; Eliyana &

Maarif, 2019).

My review of some of the institution's programs and participants' feedback

indicated that adequate support and monitoring played an essential role in enhancing

employee performance. About half of the participants agreed that they implemented

effective support systems and monitoring to improve team performance during the

merger integration process. P1 and P5 stated, “Regular visits to branches and

participating in team weekly performance meetings prompted the staff to review their

performance regularly to avoid putting them on the spot.” P4 stated, “I supported the

individual team members to develop their weekly and monthly key performance

indicators to align with the corporate strategy.” According to P5, an employee seeing my

presence in the offices is enough to ensure order and discipline. Most participants agreed

that extending support to the team members helped leaders design appropriate employee

training and development needs after the merger integration. P8 stated, “I support the

team by providing on-the-job training to new staff on the job.”

The transformational leadership theorist supports the importance of monitoring

and supervision as a strategy to enhance employee workplace performance during a

change like a merger (see Eliyana & Maarif, 2019; Kariuki, 2021). P6 stated, “I

conducted weekly and monthly performance reviews for all employees in my team, and

those behind were given regular support to achieve their set targets. I observed that the

rationale for the monitoring and approval was for (i) reward and promotion, (ii) building

team spirit, (iii) leader-subordinate relationships, and (iv) building employee

selfconfidence. Researchers concluded that when leaders support and monitor team

members, their creative skills are enhanced to improve job performance and productivity

(Cahyono et al., 2020; Eliyana & Maarif, 2019; Ibrahim et al., 2019).

Mentoring and Counseling.

The participants agreed that employee productivity depends on the leader’s ability

to mentor and counsel employees who have undergone significant changes, like mergers

or acquisitions. P1, P3, and P8 indicated that a day before the integration announcement,

they had taken their team members through counseling and mentoring against any

surprises expected from role changes due to movements across departments, new roles,

and transfers. P1 stated, “I mentored new employees who were transferred to my

department to get accustomed to how we do our things.” According to the

transformational leadership theorist, individualized consideration behavior includes

mentoring and counseling team members to increase workplace performance (Avolio et

al., 1999; Bass, 1985; Liu et al., 2021). P1 and P8 agreed with Bass (1985) that leaders

with high individualized consideration demonstrated care through attention to team

members to provide challenging performance at the workplace. Scholars believe that

individualized consideration entails attending to the individual team member's needs,

rewarding their performance, and paying attention to their welfare (Kariuki, 2021; Seitz

& Owens, 2021).

Table 4

Intellectual Stimulation

Empowerment 6 100

Theme

% of

Occurrence

Creativity 7 50

Culture 8 50

Note. f refers to the frequency of occurrence of the theme.

Theme 4: Intellectual stimulation

The three common themes from Questions 2 and 8 were employee empowerment,

innovation, and culture (beliefs). Words like culture and beliefs were used

interchangeably. From the interview questions, all participants believed that their creative

skills are developed when employees are included in the decision-making process and

problem-solving from the beginning.

Empowering employee.

Employee empowerment was a regular occurrence in participants’ responses to

the interview questions regarding experience sharing, problem-solving, and

decisionmaking. Yizhong et al. (2019) suggested that transformational leaders improve

employees’ employability through job demands, skill discretion, decision authority, team

member exchange, and perceived organizational support. P7 and P8 intimated that they

always prefer creative employees closer to them. In a similar study, the researchers

concluded that there is a relationship between transformational leadership, organizational

citizenship behavior, and employee empowerment (Bose et al., 2021; Purwanto et al.,

2021; Saira et al., 2021).

Participants in the study described sharing experiences among employees and

greater meaning attributed to the internal task. About 75% of the participants agreed that

involving team members in decision-making during and after the integration increased

their knowledge and commitment. Ambad et al. (2021) and Bose et al. (2021) suggested

that when employees are empowered, they put in extra work effort and are creative in

executing their tasks, which tends to increase performance at work. P1 stated, “I gave the

team members some independence to develop their strategy after we have set our

objectives. This empowered the employees and gave them some sense of ownership.” P4

stated, “I allowed my team members to have input during most team meetings. I,

therefore, achieved their commitment to rolling out the overall strategy of the merger.”

P8 said, “My team members always walk to me because of my open-door policy.”

Participants connected teams' performance and empowerment to the intellectual

stimulation of free-associating with the team members. In a study by Magasi (2021), the

researcher used 325 banking sector employees to examine the role of transformational

leadership on employee performance based on employee empowerment. Magasi

concluded that intellectual stimulation had a positive relationship with employees’

performance in the banking sector. However, the relationship is enhanced by effectively

empowering employees (Magasi (2021). P3 and P7 said reasoning with my team

members improved their individual and organizational learning skills. When leaders

empower and coach employees, it helps them to develop strategies to handle new

challenges (see Al Harbi et al., 2019). P4 stated, “Even though I knew the benefit of

employee empowerment, the integration time was too short to give room for individual

decision-making.” “P1 said, “lack of adequate empowerment may have been one of the

causes of high staff turnover in the initial stages of the integration.” P 2 said, "I did not

think alone but involved my team for most of the decision at the implementation stage,

and I got their buy-in.” Leaders in the banking sector have to empower employees and

create an environment that encourages learning, creativity, and innovation for enhanced

performance (see Magasi, 2021). When leaders are empowered, their creative

performance is enhanced to achieve higher productivity (Thuan, 2020).

Creativity.

Scholars postulated that transformational leadership intellectual stimulation skills

impact employees’ creative performance (Kasimoglu & Ammari, 2020; Mahmood et al.,

2019; Thuan, 2020). Most participants mentioned the importance of employee creativity

to the survival of implementing a change like mergers in a financial institution. P1, P2,

and P4 said they had a series of meetings before the integration to brainstorm strategies to

implement successful integration. According to Mahmood et al. (2019), employee's

perception of the leader's vision of creativity regulates employees' achievement on the

job. P1 and P2 mentioned that all their team members were allowed to develop creative

ideas about the new work process as part of their strategy. P1 postulated that the team

instituted a special award for individual employees who successfully achieved

extraordinary performance using their creative ideas to execute the integration plan. A

careful review of the institution’s public journal confirms individual meritorious awards

given by the institution one year after the merger for individual extraordinary creativity

performance. The findings from the study are consistent with the study by Al Harbi et al.

(2019) on the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity.

The work of Gashema (2019) and Al Harbi et al. (2019) on creativity and employee job

performance indicates that leaders who practice transformational leadership inspire team

members' creativity and innovation for an effective workplace.

Culture.

Culture is a tool leaders use to shape behaviors in organizations (Poturak et al.,

2020). According to Hofstede (1980), culture is the programming of the mind to

individualize the members of one group from the other. Poturak et al. (2020) postulated

that intellectual stimulation enhances employee awareness about beliefs, problems, and

values within the organization. The leader’s awareness of cultural differences was critical

in Interview Questions 6, 7, and 8. All participants alluded that culture shaped the

behaviors of the employees to conform to the new organizational goals and determined

the performance of the individuals. P1 stated, “From the onset, I knew how differences in

culture of the two organizations were going to impact the employee's performance, so I

developed a strategy of staff engagement to outline the new culture to team members

during the onboarding.” P2 said, “even though I understood how cultural differences can

affect the attitude of the team members, I never estimated that the cultural differences

between the two organizations were wide apart so that, by the time of the onboarding I

have lost most members of my team.” Al-Shibami et al. (2019) suggested that there is a

relationship between transformational leadership intellectual stimulation and

organizational culture. P4, P5, P7, and P8 believed that the speed of the integration gave

little time for the team members to be carried along at the initial stages of the integration

and therefore lost some of the experienced staff. The reaction of staff confirms studies by

Cheng (2019) and Samal et al. (2019) that cultural clashes in mergers lead to a decline in

employee satisfaction and a loss in performance. All the participants agreed that some of

the employees showed resistance and apathy during the onboarding (see Samal et al.,

2019). The participants' feedback agreed with Voth (2020) that transformational leaders

study the cultural differences between the two organizations and use their intellectual

stimulation skills to drive team members with the best cultural fit for the new

organization.

Summary

Four themes surfaced from the study on the leadership skills needed to implement

successful mergers and acquisitions in Ghana. These were (a) idealized influence, (b)

Inspirational motivation, (c) Individual consideration, and (d) Intellectual stimulation.

These themes are consistent with the attributes of transformational leadership theory by

Burns (1978), expanded by Bass and Avolio (1997). The themes align with the conceptual

framework of this study, the transformational leadership theory propounded by Bass and

Avolio (1997). The participants' accounts indicated a direct relationship between

transformational leadership style and employee workplace performance, as recommended

by (Cahyono et al., 2020; Mahmood et al., 2019; Palalic & Mhamed, 2020). The

outcomes from the study are coherent with existing literature on the transformational

leadership paradigm and employee performance. A plethora of literature suggests that

transformational leadership behavior is associated with employee productivity outcomes,

including (a) motivation, (b) job satisfaction, (c) performance, (d) emotional needs, (e)

workplace performance, and (f) employee turnover (Eliyana &

Maarif, 2019; Hosna et al., 2021; Khan et al., 2020; Ibrahim et al., 2019; Langat et al.,

2019; Seung et al., 2020; Siswanto & Yuliana, 2022). Participants asserted that their

inspirational skills and selfless attitude influence and empower their employees to

achieve high performance, especially after the integration. The literature available

suggests that transformational leadership inspires employee interest and commitment to

share objectives for higher productivity through (a) inspiration (Avolio et al., 1999), (b)

sacrifice (Al-Ghazali, 2020), and (c) teamwork (Alwahaibi, 2019; Han et al., 2020) to

empower and influence employee performance.

The findings of this study align with Rizwan et al. (2020) study of eight top

leaders of a bank that had gone through an acquisition. The participants were involved in

the integration process and, therefore, a witness to all decision-making processes. The

researchers concluded that leaders could influence employee performance and creativity

after the acquisition. Mahmood et al. (2019) posit that transformational leaders influence

employees’ creative behavior and performance. Dung and Hai (2020) suggested that

transformational leadership is essential to organizational change performance in an

environment facing significant organizational change. Dung and Hai (2020) collected

data from 475 employees who have undergone mergers and acquisitions from different

industries in Vietnam. The findings suggested that transformational leadership positively

influences job satisfaction and organizational commitment to change. The authors

believed that applying a transformational leadership style and the elements of idealized

influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized

consideration can positively impact the employee's mentality and behavior during

organizational change. Furthermore, leaders must improve employee job satisfaction

because it could help drive motivation and influence the employee's psychology, attitude,

and behavior toward organizational change (Dung & Hai, 2020). The results from this

study support the body of literature on transformational leadership study by Bass (1985)

and Bass and Avolio (1997), and the findings show that transformational leadership skills

of Banking executives in Ghana enhance employee performance.

Applications to Professional Practice

This study is essential to understand the practical leadership skills banking leaders

need to plan and implement mergers and acquisitions complexities and improve

performance in Ghana. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore

the leadership skills needed to implement mergers and acquisitions in Ghana. The

findings from the study and recommendations will contribute to senior managers'

understanding of the practical leadership skills needed to implement mergers and

acquisitions complexities and improve employee morale. The study results could guide

new banking leaders of Ghanaian banks going into new mergers and acquisitions to

exhibit appropriate leadership behavior to improve employees' commitment, innovation,

and productivity. The results from the study align with the nature of transformational

leaders by Rodriguez-Sanchez et al. (2020). The study findings suggested that leadership

strategies that brought new ideas and innovations enabled team leaders to enhance

employee performance and contribute to positive employee commitment (see Bansal,

2020). Transformational leaders influence employees to innovate and solve complex

problems to enhance productivity. According to Xie (2020), employees' performance is

enhanced when transformational leaders inspire and motivate their employees. Khattak et

al. (2020) suggested that a transformational leader overcomes mistrust by creating a

transparent communication channel during and after an organizational change. The trust

culminates into an interpersonal trust that drives performance (Mahdikhani & Yazdani,

2020).

The findings of this study are relevant to professional practice, for the leaders in

the Ghana banking industry will have practical solutions in future mergers and

acquisitions. Furthermore, the findings are a practical guide for banking leaders to change

their leadership styles and improve employee performance to increase growth and

business share. The study findings will help leaders create job opportunities because

successful mergers and acquisitions lead to business expansion. The findings in this study

and recommendations added to the knowledge of business growth by identifying the

needed leadership skills that enhance employee performance.

Effective Business Practice

Findings from this study are coherent with existing literature on effective business

practices, emphasizing transformational leadership's impact on employees’ performance.

Globalization has provided opportunities for rapid economic growth and business

expansion hence the need for effective leadership, which can change employees' attitudes

and behavior during an organizational change like mergers and acquisitions (see Faupel

& Suss, 2019). Consequently, Faupel and Suss (2019) established the proficiency of

transformational leaders in changing organizations into competitive businesses globally.

Faupel and Suss (2019) concluded that leadership skills promote employees’ readiness

and commitment to change and motivate them for higher productivity. The outcome of

the study supports effective business practice. Transformational leadership styles improve

(a) productivity, (b) leader-subordinate relationships, (c) employee commitment, (d)

turnover intentions, and (d) organizational citizenship. Findings from the study support

existing literature on transformational leadership and effective business practices.

Transformational leadership skills of banking executives in Ghana promote successful

implementation of mergers and acquisitions and enhanced work productivity.

Implications for Social Change

Mergers and acquisitions are business complexities associated with employee

anxieties and mistrust. The process results in emotional apprehension that causes

employee resistance (Khan et al., 2020). Effective leadership influences followers'

behavior regarding the organizational goal and strategy (Al Harbi et al., 2019). A study

has shown that effective leadership directly or indirectly affects team commitment and

productivity (Xie, 2020). Mergers and acquisition challenges need visionary leaders who

can provide safety and support for the new entity to meet the global challenges (Kuntz et

al., 2019; Page & Schoder, 2019). Transformational leaders have higher effectiveness on

employee performance and business competitiveness under global challenges than other

leadership styles.

The implication of positive social change includes the likelihood of developing a

leadership strategy by banking executives to implement mergers and acquisitions

complexities and improve employee morale in the banking industry (Rodriguez-Sanchez

et al., 2020). A successful merger or acquisition may improve profitability and economic

growth, meaning retaining skilled employees and reducing unemployment in the

Ghanaian economy (Bansal, 2020). The findings from this study may create new job

opportunities because when businesses expand, demand for labor may increase and

reduce unemployment.

Recommendations for Action

This study's findings demonstrate a relationship between transformational

leadership skills and employee workplace performance. I, therefore, recommend that

banking leaders revise their leadership approaches and adopt transformational leadership

behavior implementing a business change like a merger or acquisition. Transformational

leaders have effectively enhanced employee performance after integrating two merged

banks in Ghana. The human resource department should train its executives, regional

managers, departmental heads, and supervisors in transformational leadership skills.

Banking leaders who want to embark on a successful merger or acquisition to increase

productivity and market share may introduce their leaders to the transformational

leadership style. Opportunities exist to present the findings of this study at professional

conferences and the Ghana National Banking College. I will publish this study in the

ProQuest/UMI dissertation database and other scholarly journals. I intend to write a white

paper for the Ghana Association of Bankers to incorporate the findings in individual

banks’ programs.

Recommendations for Further Research

The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore leadership skills

used by some banking leaders to implement mergers and acquisitions successfully. The

limitation of this study was the sample size of participants. Future studies should include

a larger population and quantitative methods to produce findings that can be generalized

to a larger sample. Furthermore, the study is limited to one bank, the head office in Accra,

Ghana; I, therefore, recommend further studies with multi banks and participants from

other regional branches.

Reflections

I had the chance to interview banking executives who manage a bank that had

been through a successful merger for over 7 years. This project has widened my

knowledge and understanding of doctoral research, and my understanding of leadership

styles in banking has grown through this research. I accessed participants for this study

through purposeful sampling, which was relevant. All participants agreed to participate

willingly in the study.

Participants eagerly shared their lived experiences. After going through

the interview questions, I discussed general issues with the participants in the banking

industry in Ghana. I had friendly discussions with the participants as they briefed me on

corporate leadership practice in the banking industry. The findings from this research

have changed my perception of leadership and workplace productivity.

Conclusion

Mergers and acquisitions remain the most significant single investment globally

(Reddy et al., 2019; Schweizer et al., 2019). The banking industry in Ghana is growing

and becoming competitive, especially with the advent of international banks (Omoregie

et al., 2019). It has the highest number of mergers and acquisitions in Ghana (Musah et

al., 2020). The banking industry remains one of the single biggest employers of graduates

in Ghana (Addai et al., 2022; Affum-Osei et al., 2019). However, one major challenge is

the lack of appropriate leadership skills to manage mergers and acquisition complexities

(Addai et al., 2022). The focus of this qualitative case study was to explore leadership

skills for the successful implementation of mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector

in Ghana. The findings show that participants used transformational leadership skills to

enhance employee productivity after the integration process serves as a basis for

developing transformational leadership skills among Ghanaian Banking leaders to

achieve sustainable growth.

The results from the study indicated that transformational leadership behavior

contributes to the survival of Ghanaian banks. Designing a transformational leadership

program for the banking leaders will improve employee performance and the growth of

the banking industry in Ghana. Implementing the findings may help banking leaders

improve their transformational leadership skills to enhance workplace productivity.

Students also viewed