Giving Sense to and Making Sense of Justice in Postmerger Integration

The objective of this paper is to elucidate how justice in general and distributive justice in particular is given sense to and made sense of in post-merger integration. Drawing on a longitudinal real time analysis of a recent merger, we identify a pattern where the focus moved from equality to equity to less emphasis on distributive justice. To understand the dynamics involved, we develop a process model that explains how actors reconcile pressures of value creation and socio-political concerns in dialogical sensegiving and sensemaking processes that lead to the enactment of specific norms of justice. This analysis adds to research on M&As by facilitating our understanding of the crucial role that norms of justice play in post-merger integration, of the way in which they change over time as integration processes unfold, and of the inter-group dynamics through which these norms of justice are enacted. By uncovering the micro-dynamics of dialogical sensegiving and sensemaking processes, we also contribute to research on organizational justice, sensemaking, and process studies.