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When organizations with disparate cultures are merged, the culture of the acquired organization often represents a counterculture for the acquiring firm. Scholars and consultants frequently recommend avoiding integration of an acquired company if it has a sharply different culture. This paper presents a case study of a recent hostile takeover that disproves the conventional wisdom and shows that careful implementation processes enable the company, not only to overcome post‐merger integration barriers due to culture clash, but also to maximize strategic benefits from those cultural differences. It shows that integration can be achieved through a process in which only some specific cultural dimensions are integrated while others are preserved.

The study seeks to examine how a short intervention, aimed at enhancing occupational choice skills, influences turnover during the early stages of organizational membership. It seeks to explore two theoretical rationales for this effect: social exchange and self‐determination.

The study is a “constructive replication” of previous research, and it employed a similar field experimentation methodology. Groups of candidates in the Technical School of the Israeli Air Force were randomly assigned to experimental (Decision Making Training) and control groups. Perceived Organizational Support and turnover were measured at two points in time.

The results showed that the intervention reduced turnover (relative to a control group) as measured at two points in time – at the end of a technical training program and six months later into their military service. Perceived Organizational Support was not enhanced by the intervention. The experimental results were consistent with the self‐determination explanation more than with the social exchange explanation.

The practical benefits of Decision Making Training during early encounters with the organization are discussed. Decision Making Training is recommended as an effective tool during the career exploration phase, to facilitate the integration of self and environment awareness and to enhance self‐determined career goals.

Provides further evidence of the usefulness of a simple intervention that reduces early turnover.

Research on the relationship between pay for individual performance (PFIP) and work engagement (WE) is limited. The purpose of this paper is to present a model outlining a threefold association between PFIP and WE: a direct association, an indirect association via pay satisfaction and a joint indirect association via pay level and pay satisfaction.

Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping procedures were used to test hypotheses with regard to these associations based on data obtained from two independent studies: the author’s own research project, and the European Work Conditions Survey 2015.

In both studies, the author found the hypothesized direct association between PFIP and WE; indirect association between PFIP and WE via pay satisfaction; and a joint indirect association between PFIP and WE via pay level and pay satisfaction.

Given its limited cross-sectional design, future longitudinal research in this area is needed to test the model of relations presented in this paper.

The association between PFIP and WE is weak, and partially mediated by pay satisfaction; thus, it seems that to promote WE, it is not solely sufficient to introduce PFIP into remuneration systems, but that, in addition, PFIP should be aligned with employee pay expectations.

This study contributes to the career development literature by proposing and initially testing a model describing the three ways PFIP may be related to WE, one of the most crucial factors in achieving career success.