An Exploration of Korean Advertising Agencies After Integration into Global Communication Groups

초록

Although Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) have long been standard practice in the advertising industry, there has been a dramatic increase in their occurrence both in the United States and internationally in recent years. Korea, the seventh largest advertising market, has not been excluded from this global M&A trend. While much research has focused on M&As from the perspective of organizations, not much emphasis has been given to the human side of M&As, even though it is thought to be important for the success of the newly merged unit. This study focuses on the attitudes and perceptions of possible changes in work culture and tasks by professional employees from four Korean advertising agencies recently acquired by global groups. A total of 96 surveys were completed by professional employees from three departments (Account Management, Creative, Media). Comparisons are made between professionals from different departments, different agencies, and the number of years at an agency. In the results, it was found that many employees have been stressful regarding their English skill and newly initiated some efforts to improve their English proficiency. In addition, most of the participants answered that their loyalty to the companies has been comparatively decreased after the M&A. Finally, among diverse departments,Account managers have been taking advantage of the M&As most for ecruiting new clients who generally expect that they could get some extra benefits from Global networks.

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