An Evaluation of Change Management Practices in Public Service Organisations Resulting from a Merger: A Case Study of the Forestry Commission of Ghana

The Forestry Commission is the body responsible for the sustainable utilisation, conservation and management of forest and wildlife resources in Ghana. The Commission was created by the merger of the Forestry Department, the Game and Wildlife Department and the Timber Export Development Board / Forest Products Inspection Bureau. Often, corporate institutions struggle to embrace organisational change, particularly mergers. Also, mergers, when not managed, may cause a breakdown in communication, which in turn disrupts management and performance. Hence, this study evaluates change management resulting from the merger of independent institutions to create the Forestry Commission through a phenomenological research approach. Nine participants were purposively selected and interviewed to generate data to answer the research questions of the study. The findings revealed that cost reduction, organisational efficiency and effectiveness, overcoming challenges, policy alignment, and political considerations were the main rationale underpinning the merger of the state institutions into the Forestry Commission. Also, the results indicated that employee and external stakeholder resistance, cultural clashes, poor communication and cultural integration were serious challenges encountered before, during and after the merger. Moreover, the study revealed that employee and stakeholder engagement, performance, enhanced service provision, and achieving strategic objectives were crucial strategies that were adopted to ensure the successful merger of the agencies. Furthermore, robust planning, managing organisational change and cultural diversity, building capacity, and anticipating and addressing challenges proactively were key change management factors that were learned from the process. The study concludes that prudent change management is essential in supervising organisational mergers. The study recommends that organisational change through a merger should be made transparent to all stakeholders of the various public sector agencies being merged.