Culture Integration: The Overlooked Key to M&A Success

Did you know that up to 70–90% of mergers & acquisitions fail?  

And one of the biggest reasons isn’t strategy or finances—it’s culture. 

M&A activity is booming. But too often, companies underestimate the cultural side of integration. The result? Declining engagement, lost talent, and stalled performance. 

If your organization is going through a merger or acquisition—or even just planning one—this quick guide will help you think differently about your culture as a key strategic driver of success and strengthen your people through change. 

Why Culture Is Make-or-Break 

Culture isn’t just a “nice to have.” It’s the foundation of engagement, trust, and long-term success. 

During an M&A, employees are on high alert. They’re watching leadership closely, trying to make sense of what’s changing—and what isn’t. If they see cracks in the culture, they start to question their place in the future. Productivity dips. Turnover rises. Trust fades. 

We once worked with a client where two merging organizations both said they valued “collaboration”—but meant completely different things. One group saw collaboration as real-time brainstorming and team input. The other saw it as structured updates and follow-through. You can imagine the friction. Without surfacing and addressing these hidden differences early, even shared language can cause disconnect. 

3 Ways to Protect and Maintain Culture During M&A 

1. Map the Cultures Early

Before any integration begins, do the work to understand the cultures on both sides.
What values are lived out in daily behavior? How are decisions made? What does “success” look like in each organization? 

Identify values in each organization and the support behaviors, compare-and-contrast, dig into real examples and understand where there are significant differences. Identify what aspects of the values and behaviors you want to keep from each organization AND what values and behaviors from each organization may need to change. Providing this level of clarity helps establish direction for the future, shows transparency and helps build trust – even if the teams question the change, they will appreciate the transparency in knowing what will evolve. 

Use employee listening tools, surveys, or leadership interviews to get a clear picture. Culture mapping reveals alignment—but more importantly, it exposes tension points before they explode. 

2. Appoint a Culture Integration Team

Don’t just hand this to HR. Create a cross-functional team that includes voices from different business units, functions, locations, and levels of leadership. This team should sit in on key business processes to understand how the newly merged teams are working together. What’s working well? What’s not? Where are the cultural differences making a positive impact vs. creating barriers or tension? 

Empower this team to name cultural clashes, recommend new rituals, and bring attention to red flags early. They can be your culture “translators” during a time when everyone is craving clarity. 

3. Communicate With Radical Clarity

You can’t over-communicate during a merger. 

Be clear about what’s staying the same and what’s changing. Share the “why” behind decisions. And most importantly, make space for two-way dialogue—especially with middle managers, who are often the bridge between strategy and execution. We have found it helpful to create a messaging framework for your organization – who are the different audiences? Who is communicating with who? What key messages are needed by the audience, timing, etc.? 

Middle managers will carry your culture forward (or not), depending on how informed and empowered they feel. 

Final Thoughts 

Culture isn’t a checkbox in your M&A checklist—it’s your strategic differentiator. In every decision, ask: Are we honoring the best of both worlds?