Managerial Sensemaking and Sensegiving in a Merger and Acquisitions Process: The Case of Konecranes, 2015–2019

Abstract

The dissertation is a historical and personal account of how I lead Konecranes in its merger and acquisition (M&A) and post-merger integration process between 2015 to 2019. In this case study, my study assists leaders to reflect their own managerial challenges and assess the transferability and repeatability from my study. The general aim is to provide a rich account and deep understanding of the M&A process as viewed from the CEO perspective, something that is often missing in extant literature.Leaders who face M&A and post-merger integration need to excel in managing organizational ambiguity, provide adequate fact-based legitimation for stakeholders and be able to modify and transform existing corporate cultures into integrated one. I have drawn on autoethnography using retrospection. My own personal diaries have been particularly useful in the process of writing the case description and the vignettes as well as analysing them in order to find discovered knowledge.