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This paper offers an approach to deal with the value destruction caused when culturally incompatible organizations merge.

A field-tested Cultural Comparison and Integration Model is demonstrated. 10;

The model illustrates how managers can compare and integrate cultures of combining firms using “cultural levers”.

A case example of the model in practice is included.

The model has been tested in a large and medium size organizations in a variety of industries and nationalities.

Although M&A transactions often destroy shareholder value for corporate strategic buyers, PE firms, whose business model is predicated upon repeating M&A, have a better record of creating value for their investors.

The critical aspects that comprise the PE playbook are organized around the three main deal phases Pre-deal, Deal and Post-deal.

Research has found that 60 percent of surveyed strategic buyer executives indicated their companies do not have a comprehensive end-to-end M&A approach using a playbook.

Ample evidence exists demonstrating that corporate strategic buyers experience significant difficulty in creating value from their transactions.

Though many view PE firms as value-destroyers, various peer-reviewed studies have found that PE-backed firms have a surprisingly favorable record.

As the Covid-19 crisis recedes, struggling firms will be bought by bargain hunters and suffering industries will consolidate, giving rise to another wave of M&A transactions. But buyers beware! There is ample evidence that M&A creates significant post-deal performance issues for acquiring “buy-side” firms.

New research shows that effectively managing three processes of acquisitions can have an outsized beneficial impact on M&A success.

Recent research has identified three mission-critical tasks that stand out as being vital to creating M&A success: Process 1: Accurately valuing targets. Process 2: Proficiently managing post-merger integration. Process 3: Skillfully addressing the “big-three human factors” of M&A.

Robust talent retention and re-recruitment plans initially entail identifying key talent, defined as individuals and groups who are essential to retain and re-recruit during a transitionary period and those required for long-term value creation.

The articles describes best practices for post-deal M&A activities companies could perform better including operations and technology integration, communication, cultural analysis and integration, talent management and retention, senior leadership involvement and measurement and reporting.

The purpose of this article is to present a multidisciplinary model that can be used as both a road map for practicing managers to create a sustainability focused culture within their own organizations, and as a guide for future research into the relationship between organizational culture and sustainability.

A narrative synthesis approach is used to integrate extant empirical and practitioner literature spanning various disciplines to build a comprehensive model, including key propositions, to assist both practitioners and researchers alike. Case examples illustrating each component of the model in practice and implications for future research based on the key tenets of the model are also provided.

Building an organizational infrastructure that fosters a culture of sustainability results in positive employee- and organizational-level sustainability performance.

The model presented is an important advancement in the sustainability literature. It is applicable to various sustainability efforts, and it may be applied regardless of the industry or the size of the companies undertaking sustainability initiatives. The model provides a framework to guide research into the relationship between organizational culture and sustainability. Future research should focus on the relationship between the different organizational factors identified in the model, organizational culture and sustainability performance.

The multidisciplinary model presented can be used as a road map for practicing managers to create a sustainability focused culture within their own organizations.

A gap exists in both the empirical and practitioner literature regarding the development and assessment of the organizational factors that foster a culture of sustainability. Moreover, no clear model exists with the expressed purpose of helping leaders create such a culture, while providing a framework to guide research into the relationship between organizational culture and sustainability. In this paper, a comprehensive model, including key propositions, to assist both practitioners and researchers alike is presented. Case examples illustrating each component of the model in practice and implications for future research based on the key tenets of the model are also provided.

Although founders of start-up ventures seem to hold similar views about ethical, social, and environmental principles as those in large firms, entrepreneurs tend to be focussed on their immediate stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, and investors. The purpose of this paper is to compare founders’ views – “what they say” – about sustainable business practices to their described business models – “what they do.”

An opinion survey of prospective business start-up founders, along with a content analysis of their business plans, is used to compare founders’ views – “what they say” – about sustainable business practices to their described business models – “what they do.”

Findings suggest that prospective business founders do value sustainable business practices. However, the content of their business models does not reflect their espoused importance of sustainability.

The main limitation of this study is that university students in a business-planning course were used as surrogates for actual start-up venture founders. That being the case, a small percentage (just under 5 percent) of the students indicated at the end of the course that they would like to continue pursuing the venture they helped develop a business plan for. To address this, future research should focus on actual founders of new ventures.

The content analysis of the business plans revealed a marked disconnect between the high-value founders reported to place on sustainability and the actual limited inclusion of sustainability in their business models. Therefore, more work needs to be done to educate, encourage, and coach start-up founders to raise their awareness of and desire to include sustainability as key parts of their business models.

To date, no studies have attempted to compare start-up venture founders’ views – “what they say” – about sustainable business practices to their described business models – “what they do.”

This paper aims to assess Vail Resorts’ sustainability activities by applying a well-substantiated framework titled the “Leading the Sustainable Organization” (LSO) model in order to systematically explore their efforts. Anecdotally the sustainability activities and accomplishments of Vail Resorts appear comprehensive and impressive. Corporate sustainability is a complex, multi-functional endeavor, yet guidance on the issue has tended to be single level, single stage and single disciplinary. Our multi-level assessment of Vail Resorts’ sustainability activities, including the stakeholder and financial impacts, develops a deeper understanding of sustainability and the effect it can have on profitability and value of a company.

Vail Resorts’ sustainability activities were assessed by applying a well-substantiated framework titled the “Leading the Sustainable Organization” (LSO) model.

The in-role and extra-role sustainability performance of employees at Vail Resorts demonstrates their engagement with the company’s sustainability efforts. Beyond employee sustainability performance, the company-level sustainability performance of Vail Resorts exhibits the payoff of the company’s sustainability efforts.

The LSO model was applied to only one organization. Future application to multiple firms would provide a broader assessment of the state of sustainability in organizations of various sizes and across industries.

By examining their sustainability activities through the lens of the LSO model, Vail Resorts provides a rich example of best practices relating to a company’s pursuit of sustainability efforts and their expected benefits. Vail Resorts’ wide-ranging sustainability actions, combined with the LSO model, provide managers with a well-defined road map to lead their own sustainable organization. Vail Resorts’ implementation of the various components of the LSO model, and the results achieved, demonstrate that “sustainability is not just doing good, it is also good business.”

Applying the LSO model offers both practicing managers and researchers alike a well-substantiated framework to assess organizational sustainability efforts, in order to identify areas of organizational sustainability strength as well as areas needing improvement.

A culture of candor can bring numerous benefits to any organization. Yet, candor is rare in most organizations. Despite the scarcity of its practice there is a need to develop leaders who value and use candor by demonstrating and practicing candor in the leadership classroom. A description of seven key actions that enable leadership instructors to build a culture of candor in the classroom is provided. Each of these actions is supported with prescriptive guidelines for implementing these practices in the classroom. The influence of the seven actions on the candid behavior of leadership students as well as leadership instructors is also discussed.

The application of positive psychology to the context of work has attracted enormous interest within both academic and practitioner domains over the past decade (e.g., Keyes & Haidt, 2003; Linley, Harrington, & Garcea, 2010; Luthans, 2002). From a practitioner perspective, there has been a proliferation of organizational development, human resource, talent management, leadership development, team development and coaching programs, initiatives, and interventions that have positive psychological principles at their core. The Gallup organization, for instance, has administered the Clifton Strengths Finder in thousands of organizations across the globe, aiming to help people learn about and build upon their talents and strengths to enhance all facets of their working experience (see Clifton & Harter, 2003).

The purpose of this paper is to provide the key dos and don'ts when integrating the people, processes, and systems of companies undertaking mergers and/or acquisitions.

The paper provides the current state of M&A integration across industries, integration dynamics and common pitfalls, integration best practices, and a section regarding how to conduct “merger repair” activities in order to correct integration efforts that have gotten off track.

The measurable impacts of well‐conducted M&A integration efforts is presented and discussed.

Key implications for management who are pursuing a merger and/or acquisition strategy are demonstrated throughout the key success factors described in this paper.

The value to the reader is found in the practical recommendations and tangible actions identified. Likewise, the section describing the need for and how to conduct “merger repair” is new to the literature pertaining to M&A integration.