Suppression on organizational culture in mergers and acquisitions: A case study in Turkish manufacturing industry Journal of Business Management Volume 3 Issue 2 2014 85 SUPPRESSION ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: A CASE STUDY IN TURKISH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY Abdullah Kiray abdullahkiray@gmail.com Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey Oktay Koç oktaykocalioglu@gmail.com Kocaeli University, Turkey Mesut Tok mesuttok88@gmail.com Yıldız Technical University, Turkey ABSTRACT It has been put forward by many researchers that cultural divergency at the time of mergers especially in the form of acquisition lead to serious problems. The current study aims to investigate cultural differences and their management during acquisition. To the end, a case of acquisition process in Turkish manufacturing industry in 2006 and afterwards is analyzed. The study reveals that cultural conflicts following acquisition have been managed by suppression. By analyzing data obtained from depth interviews, several main reasons for suppression orientation are found. These reasons are “focusing on profit”, “valorizing oneself and putting down the other one”. Suppression strategies are determined as “direct intervention” and “manager replacement”. The study is of importance in that, it contributes to literature by the identification of categories mentioned above. Keywords: organizational culture, cultural suppression, mergers and acquisitions INTRODUCTION Pfeffer (1972) discusses that companies use illegal ways such as price cartels or secret deals in order to cope with the uncertainties in the market. Companies also use legal ways to cope with uncertainties such as cooptation, long term deals and joint ventures as well as mergers and acquisitions. However, it should be noted that while cultural differences can be sources of value creation and learning, they can also be one of the major problems of the process (Stahl and Voigt, 2008). Yet, Marks and Mirvis (2011) stress that operational sides of mergers and acquisitions have come fore in the last three decades’ mergers and acquisitions and that cultural dimension stood at the background. They also think that this situation has changed in recent years and the managers have started to grasp the difficulty and significance of cultural