MANAGING POST-MERGER INTEGRATION: A CASE STUDY OF A MERGER IN CHINESE HIGHER EDUCATION by Yinmei Wan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctoral of Philosophy (Education) in The University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Professor Marvin W. Peterson, Chair Professor Kim S. Cameron Associate Professor Janet H. Lawrence Assistant Professor Michael N. Bastedo © Yinmei Wan 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this dissertation and this degree has been a long and arduous process, extending over more years than I initially expected. I am very fortunate to have so many people who have supported me through this journey. To them, I am forever grateful. First, the members of my dissertation committee: Marv Peterson, Kim Cameron, Jan Lawrence, and Michael Bastedo. I thank them all for their patience and their willingness to share their wisdom and experiences. Most of all, I would like to thank Marv Peterson, my committee chair. I thank him for being a teacher, advisor, mentor, and a friend to me for the last six or so years. His advice has been crucial to this project as well as to my entire academic pursuit at the University of Michigan. I consider myself extremely lucky to have been under his tutelage for all these years. I also would like to thank Zhejiang University that agreed to be included in this study. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Mr. Gu Jianmin at the Institute of Higher Education of Zhejiang University, who acted as my onsite coordinator for this study and offered me all other kinds of assistance and help during my field trip. I also want to thank all the informants I interviewed for this study and numerous other people at the university who were willing to sharing their views and stories with me. I also want to thank my fellow graduate students in the 2001 cohort in the Center for the Study of Higher and Post-Secondary Education, who have been a wonderful ii source of friendship, advice, encouragement, and support. I would particularly like to recognize my fellow Chinese students in the Center, Rong, Xu, Xinquan, and Zhengxu, for being such terrific friends and colleagues. I am also grateful that we have a small Chinese community here at the university (Michigan China Fellows) that has been a home for Chinese students in humanities and social sciences. Friends from this community, including Meilan, Bo, Juan, Jin, Ji and many others, never hesitate to offer a helping hand whenever needed. Finally, to my family, my parents, my parents-in-laws, my sisters Yinhong and Yinxia. Their love has been accompanying me through all these years in this foreign country. Most importantly I want to thank my wonderful husband Jing Zhao, for his emotional, financial support and most of all for his patience. Lastly, I want to give special thanks to my baby son Jonathan. He has made the completion of this project more challenging and more meaningful at the same time. I am the beneficiary of these and many other caring people, and with them I share this accomplishment. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................ii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................vii LIST OF TABLES..........................................................................................................viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................1 Rationale for the Study...............................................................................................2 Purpose of the Study ..................................................................................................6 Overview of the Study................................................................................................8 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW...........................................................10 Studies on Merger ....................................................................................................10 Merger in Higher Education.....................................................................................13 Defining Merger in Higher Education ............................................................18 Approaches to Studying Mergers in Higher Education ..................................19 Factors Affecting Merger Process...................................................................22 Impetuses ................................................................................................22 Effective leadership ................................................................................24 The human side of merger ......................................................................25 The importance of culture.......................................................................27 Merger Outcomes............................................................................................28 Administrative and managerial efficiency..............................................29 Academic outcomes................................................................................30 CHAPTER THREE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...................................................................................................................33 A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Post-Merger Integration...................33 Why Integration ..............................................................................................33 Defining Integration........................................................................................34 Organizational integration ......................................................................36 Human integration ..................................................................................37 External Factors ..............................................................................................41 Organizational Factors……………………………………………………….42 Strategic Factors..............................................................................................43 Integration Design...........................................................................................44 Decision Making.............................................................................................45 Integration Outcomes......................................................................................46 Research Questions ..................................................................................................48 iv CHAPTER FOUR METHODS.................................................................................50 Case Selection ..........................................................................................................51 Gaining Access.........................................................................................................54 Data Collection.........................................................................................................55 Interviews and Informants ..............................................................................55 Documentation................................................................................................58 Observations and Other Ethnographic Materials............................................59 Data Management ....................................................................................................60 Data Analysis ...........................................................................................................60 Concerns about Validity ...........................................................................................64 Generalizability...............................................................................................65 Limitations of the Study...........................................................................................66 Methodological Challenges for Doing Research in the Chinese Setting .................68 CHAPTER FIVE FINDINGS (I) SETTING THE STAGE .................................71 Introduction..............................................................................................................71 The External Context ...............................................................................................72 Changes in the Environment...........................................................................72 Institutional Responses ...................................................................................76 The Internal Context ................................................................................................79 Historical Background ....................................................................................79 Organizational Conditions ..............................................................................83 Champions for the Merger ..............................................................................90 Pre-merger Planning ................................................................................................95 Making the Decision to Merge........................................................................95 The New Leaders ............................................................................................99 Setting a Vision .............................................................................................102 Developing an Integration Strategy ..............................................................104