How climate and leadership can be used to create actionable knowledge during stages of mergers and acquisitions

This chapter attempts to overcome the lack of theory development in the human side of mergers and acquisitions by synthesising key climate, knowledge generation and leadership frameworks. The chapter aims to identify the key roles that climate plays during M&A and how leadership can positively influence climate in order to improve M&A organisational outcomes. The chapter establishes that climate could be a key ‘systems variable’ during different M&A stages and influences the generation and transfer of actionable integration knowledge among individuals. The role of leadership and its relationship to climate's impact on M&A are developed. The chapter uses the concept or vision of ‘making fire’ or ‘kindling the flame of fire’ to assist leaders to conceptualise their role and the underlying processes at play. Finally, propositions have been developed to assist future research.