Change happens: Assessing the initial impact of a university consolidation on faculty

Mergers and acquisitions more commonly occur in the business and commercial domain, so details and data specific to the education arena are limited. In particular, very little quantitative research examines the sociocultural aspects of consolidating postsecondary educational institutions. This research intends to add to the literature with the initial results of a 5-year study examining the consolidation of a high-status, research-focused, health-oriented institution with a low-status, teaching-oriented, liberal arts college, each with quite different organizational cultures. Our findings show that consolidation increased stress levels and decreased levels of person-organization fit (PO fit) resulting in increases in turnover intention among all faculty members. As expected, moreover, the negative impact was much stronger among the liberal arts faculty than the health faculty.