When Air Liquide, the French industrial gases group, acquired two-thirds of its German rival
Messer Griesheim, the newly combined business was a breeding ground for cross-cultural
misunderstanding and resentment. Just beneath the surface, conflicting work styles, national
stereotypes and insecurity about the future threatened to undermine the new entity, Air Liquide
Deutschland, formed two years ago from the German operations of Air Liquide and Messer
Griesheim. The management team decided to take swift action to expose problems and address them
head-on. With the help of JPB, a specialist consulting firm, it interviewed employees and
identified 12 “emotional viruses” that could weaken the merger. “The main challenge was how
to get people working together and retain customers so that we didn’t lose business,” says
Markus Sieverding, Air Liquide Deutschland’s chief executive.
Mr. Sieverding’s challenge will be familiar to senior executives from many other companies.
Among the “viruses” discovered were a strong belief by both sides in their own superiority, a
fear of job losses at Messer and anxiety at Air Liquide that its flexible management style would
be deadened by German “rationality”.
Management appointed 35 employees across the merged business to raise awareness of the
“viruses”, spot outbreaks and prevent them spreading. The list was used as a light-hearted means
of airing anxieties at workshops where hundreds of employees were asked to help define a new
way of working together.
【題組】26. The word “undermine” in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to
(A) weaken
(B) put pressure on
(C) challenge
(D) investigate
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