The present study aims to assess employee emotional responses of organizations undergoing Mergers and Acquisitions and middle-level manager role in managing these emotional responses in the post-acquisition phase. The study is empirical in which a total of 215 responses from middle managers, involved in six Mergers and Acquisitions, were considered. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire containing standard scales of employee emotions during change, and middle manager role tested in other change contexts. The psychometric properties of the measures are established before testing the hypotheses. The results indicated that middle managers involvement in the strategy could enhance their commitment, which can reduce resistance to change and smoother integration. The results highlighted the importance of leveraging the middle manager role, given the post-merger phase's criticality to achieve the desired synergies. One of the fundamental strengths of the paper is the rigors undertaken in selecting the companies representing an apt radical change context to test the theory of emotional balancing. The application of the concept of emotional balancing in the radical change context of Mergers and Acquisitions and its empirical validation is an original contribution to the field of knowledge in change management.

中文翻译：

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员工情绪对并购结果的影响：中层管理者的中介作用

本研究旨在评估进行并购的组织的员工情绪反应，以及中层经理在收购后阶段管理这些情绪反应的角色。该研究是实证研究，其中考虑了涉及 6 项并购的中层管理人员的 215 份回应。数据是使用结构化问卷收集的，其中包含变革期间员工情绪的标准量表，以及在其他变革背景下测试的中层经理角色。测量的心理测量特性在检验假设之前建立。结果表明，中层管理人员参与战略可以增强他们的承诺，从而减少变革的阻力并使整合更加顺利。结果强调了利用中层经理角色的重要性，鉴于合并后阶段实现预期协同效应的关键性。该论文的基本优势之一是在选择代表适当的激进变革背景的公司以测试情绪平衡理论时所采取的严谨态度。情绪平衡概念在并购的激进变革背景下的应用及其实证验证是对变革管理知识领域的原创贡献。