Coaching als Instrument zur Kulturintegration bei Fusionen

Three very different cultures, which were distributed over many legal units, have been merged into one division of a large conglomerate, in a process of migration and integration that has taken over a year. Pooling the personnel from three different cultures and in addition at different points of time, seemed to the responsible management to be a critical factor for success. Changes had to be made during the ongoing operations. The challenges laid in consciously influencing the adaptation of the cultures during the very dynamic developments which were taking place in the workforce of each culture. A total of 13 coaching processes at various management levels of the three cultures, with intertwined schedules, supported the merge process in a defined core unit of the division at a cultural and interactive level. This contributed to a great extend in preventing conflicts. The increase in efficiency of the newly established company was the focal point of the consultancy. The range of very different and sometimes conflicting methods of working was big and manifested in completely different processes, quantity of regulations, conceptions of cooperation and varying perceptions of one-self and others.The following contribution consists of two sections. The first section gives the scope and the context of the assignment, upon which a plan was developed that uses the psychodynamic coaching as a targeted intervention in a turbulent environment. The second section describes a concrete process with microscenes from a team coaching program.