This research studies how organizational culture and cultural change is viewed during mergers and acquisitions. Unlike the tribes studied by anthropologists, where culture grows organically out of necessity, an organization is put together intentionally to provide a specific service or product. Organizational culture is typically formed by the values of its founders and enhanced by the experiences brought into it by others. Cultural change within a corporation or other organization can happen at any time. However, it is often expedited during a merger or acquisition. The problematic that occurs is that culture is rarely given sufficient recognition during the integration process.

As described by Herda (1999) this dissertation uses critical hermeneutic theory as the basis of its inquiry. Paul Ricoeur (1984; 1991; 1992) and Richard Kearney (2003; 2004) provide the theory behind my research categories-Narrative Identity and Mimesis. Ethics, power, tradition, integration, and imagination emerged as themes within these categories and added essential layers to this study.

The data collected through conversations with individuals, across several industries, assists in bringing new understanding to the influence of mergers and acquisitions on corporate culture. The findings reveal an opportunity for further study into how organizational culture might become a more integral part of due diligence at the onset of the merger or acquisition discourse.

Critical hermeneutics also opens the occasion, through conversation, to continue to engage the attention of those responsible for integration and the imagined future.