Mergers and acquisitions and training and development in HP

Hewlett-Packard, commonly referred to as HP, is an information technology corporation based in Palo Alto, California. The company was founded by Bill and Dave Packard in a small garage on January 1, 1939.[1] As of 2010, HP is the largest technology company in the world in terms of revenue,[2] currently ranking 26 in the Fortune Global 500.[3] As of 2008, Hewlett-Packard has made a total of 116 acquisitions since 1986.[a][4] Its first acquisition was the F.L. Moseley Company in 1958. This move enabled HP to enter the plotter business, which was the predecessor to its printer business today.[5] In 1989, HP purchased Apollo Computer forUS$476 million,[6][7] enabling HP to become the largest supplier of computer workstations.[6] In 1995, the company bought another computer manufacturer Convex Computer for US$150 million.[8] In 2000, HP spun off its measurement, chemical and medical businesses into an independent company named Agilent Technologies.[9][10] The company's largest acquisition came in 2002, when it merged with Compaq, a computer manufacturer, for US$25 billion.[11][12] The combined company overtook Dell for the largest share of the personal computer market worldwide in the second quarter.[13] Since then, stream of acquisitions strengthened HP position in the software business. [14] The largest software company purchased during this time was Mercury for US$4.5 billion. This acquisition doubled the size of HPs software business by US$2 billion in annual revenue. [15] The majority of companies acquired by HP are based in the United States

Training and development:1. Introduction The introduction of market-driven business reforms in many developing economies has seen the emergence of growth-drivers that includes the search for new markets, increasing competition in local markets, and new investors interest in emerging markets. 2. Literature Review Most of the literature that focuses on the human side of mergers and acquisition processes has entirely or at least partially concentrated on the psychological and behavioral effect of mergers and acquisition on employees 3. Methodology - Data Collection. The survey approach was used in this study to obtain data. Since this study was organization-oriented, convenience sampling was used to select the study participants. In organization studies, the use of convenience sampling in selecting study participant is

a better alternative than statistically-based probability sampling since it allows for the theoretical generalization of the findings 4. Results and Analysis The survey investigated employees satisfaction with their organizations merger from the perspectives of their opinions and beliefs on the consequences of the mergerinduced organizational change process on work-life and productivity. The respondents scores from the questionnaire survey were computed by averaging across responses to the items for each answer option 5. Discussions Organizations merge for several reasons such as, to enhance corporate performance, ensure economies of scale, for expansion in size, reduces overhead cost of capital and enhancing earning per share and reduce tax payment. Merger activities present a different set of challenge for the human resource managers in both acquiring and acquired organizations. 6. Conclusion i). Instituting effective two way communication and increase in accountability and timely response to employees needs is one of the ways to help reduce stress and anxiety in the merger process. ii). Encouraging employees to participate in job redesign processes. This helps to reduce possible resistance and to maintain a positive attitude during the merger transition. This will also help to sustain or increase employees job satisfaction and organizational commitment. iii). Training employees to adjust to job changes as well as help develop new skills and capabilities to meet changing demands of the work requirement and improve performance to meet work expectations. iv). Fostering multiculturalism in which both organizational cultures are equally valued and integrated especially when both organizations have strong and distinctive cultures. v). Facilitating intercultural learning is another suggested approach to reduce acculturative stress and conflicts. Intercultural presentations and workshops have been considered as a useful method. vi). Handling very well the issue of organizational justice. First of all, perceptions of unfairness can be substantially reduced by allowing equal participation of employees from both organizations in making important decisions including employee

displacement and by using objective criteria in developing new human resource management procedures in the newly merged organizations in particular, handling displaced employees with fairness and respect.