Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are common among financial institutions. This process often exerts immense pressure on employees of these institutions. Hence, this study touches on the significant but neglected human angle aspect of M&A. Therefore, the study examined psychosocial predictors of emotional labour among employees of merged and acquired banks in Ibadan. The study design is cross-sectional, which involves using a quantitative data collection method to elicit responses from the participants. Furthermore, the convenience sampling method was used and selected four hundred, and twenty-two employees acquired or merged during the consolidation and post-consolidation eras in South-Western Nigeria. A structured questionnaire that measured job satisfaction, acculturation, attitude to M&A and emotional labour was used to collect data from the respondents. Data analysis was done using SPSS software window 10.0. The mean age of respondents was 32 years, with a standard deviation of 7.31. The results showed that attitude towards M&A (β = 0.39; p < .05) and acculturation (β = 0.36; p < .05) were significant independent predictors of emotional labour. Furthermore, attitude towards M&A (β = 0.32; P < .05) and acculturation (β = 0.28; p < .05) were also significant independent predictors of emotional labour per se, personal efficacy, and for false face, respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that employees' emotions and job satisfaction should be factored into the management's strategic plan during M&A because the success or failure of this undertaking rests on them. Therefore, it was recommended that bank managers pay adequate attention to acculturation and the attitude of employees during a major organisational change to enhance emotional labour performance.
Keywords: Acquisition and merger; Banks; Emotional labour; Employees; Job satisfaction; Psychosocial factors.
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.