Curing Expensive Mistakes: Applying Ism on Employees’ Emotional Behaviors in Environment of Mergers

Aim of the study is to apply ISM on disordered chaotic hierarchy of employees’ emotional behaviors that result in failed mergers. It is an exploratory research that uses in depth literature review for identification of behaviors, ISM for exploring causal relations, analyzing interactions & prioritizing them and MICMAC analysis for classifying them on the basis of their driving-dependence power. Findings revealed that: there are total eighteen employees’ emotional behaviors, having four levels hierarchy where job insecurity, feeling of degradation and jealousy occupy bottom of ISM model, hence, are most critical whereas, shame and compassion occupy top i.e. relatively less critical. MICMAC revealed that two behaviors are dependent, two are independent, fourteen are autonomous and no ambivalent. This study is useful for organizations which are in process of mergers or acquisitions. This study is unique as it takes the matter holistically and develops pertinence wise hierarchicalization of behaviors. The paper offers three main contributions: i) it provides comprehensive conceptual understanding of constructs of the phenomenon and underpins complex relationships among behaviors, ii) developed a model of hierarchicalization of emotional behaviors and iii) developed driving-dependence diagram on the continuum of weak-strong.