Effect of Mergers and Acquisitions on Health Care Essay

Effect of Mergers and Acquisitions on Health Care - Essay Example This dissertation will discuss the impact of Mergers and Acquisitions on the Healthcare services using specific examples. It will also focus on the impact it has had on the workforce, patients and the organizations themselves. Mergers and acquisitions or M&A as it is popularly called, come to influence the organizations that undergo the process as there are numerous changes especially at the top levels such as in the ownership, in mode of operation, and also in the way the business is done. Of the three strategic assets that have been listed above, the degree of cultural cohesion is found to be the most important asset in the ultimate outcome of the deal. In fact, cultural cohesion also happens to be the one that impacts the extent to which qualitative talent retention can be achieved. It is a common practice for companies in the modern days to publish their cultural heritage and values. However, it has always been found that whatever is mentioned does not always mean that it exists there in the existing culture of the place. Anthropologists have always believed that the procedure for knowing about a particular group's culture does not necessarily begin by asking members to identify the specific traits. In fact, in most instances, the cultural traits of the surroundings are not easily identified by the members belonging to the social group. As such, gaining an insight into the nuances of cultural influences that are practiced over time within a specific group or organization involves a thorough process and means studying over prolonged periods of time and observation. This observation is used to form important questions about practices, disciplines and the techniques used to define and solve problem using well-formed strategies (K. Conner, 1991). Cultural Cohesion The amount of cohesion within a company's cultural domain is dependent on the proper identification of the organization's cultural components, which can be mapped directly to the structural components of the building such as the foundation, walls, beams etc. therefore, it is extremely necessary to carry out a thorough inspection of the whole area, identify and assess the walls of a building so as to be able to arrive at possible conclusions on the integrity of the space before the entire place can be restructured or renovated. Despite the fact that a company may have been acquired given the positive opinion on attributes such as brands, competencies, stocks and assets, the real success for a merged enterprise depends on whether the necessary steps have been initiated to identify and retain the organization's predominant cultural attributes that sustain and support the necessary inherent valuable resources (R Grant, 1991). Impact of Mergers and Acquisitions on the organizations involved To begin with, it should be understood that healthcare services has in itself become an industry due to several factors, the major one being the rapid rise in population over the last couple of decades. It's a well known fact that increase in population implies increasing demand for health care services. Changing environmental factors and the proliferation of new diseases arising out of them also has been a major factor towards commercialization of health care services. Also the improving lifestyles of the people seeking healthcare servic