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African Journal of Business Management Vol. 5(17), pp. 7542-7556, 4 September, 2011<br />

Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM<br />

DOI: 10.5897/AJBM11.610<br />

ISSN 1993-8233 ©2011 <strong>Academic</strong> <strong>Journals</strong><br />

Full Length Research Paper<br />

Impact of locus of control, changes in work load and<br />

career prospects on organizational commitment of<br />

employees of life insurance companies during merger<br />

and acquisition<br />

Chiewei Hung 1 and Ker-Tah Hsu 2 *<br />

1 Feng Chia University, Department of Risk Management and Insurance, 100 Wen-Hua Road, Seatwen 407, Taichung<br />

City 40724, Taiwan.<br />

2 National Taichung University of Education, Department of International Business, 140 Min-Shen Road, Taichung City<br />

40306, Taiwan.<br />

Accepted 21 June, 2011<br />

This paper explores employee organizational commitment in the process of merger and acquisition. A<br />

case study of a life insurance merge and acquisition case in which the acquiring company was a local<br />

life insurance firm and the acquired company was a foreign-owned insurance company in Taiwan is<br />

used. The present study explored two issues: (1) whether employees of the acquiring company and the<br />

acquired company perceived changes in work load and career prospects differently during the process<br />

of absorption and exhibited different levels of organizational commitment to the surviving company;<br />

and (2) the structural relationships between organizational commitment, locus of control and the<br />

perceived changes in work load and career prospects for employees of the two companies. We found<br />

that work load change and career prospects change is perceived by employees of the two groups<br />

invariantly; employees of the acquiring company have higher level of organizational commitment than<br />

those of the acquired company; the direct influences of work load change and career prospects change<br />

on organizational commitment are statistically significant; the direct influences of locus of control on<br />

organizational commitment, work load change, and career prospects change are statistically significant;<br />

the indirect influence of locus of control on organizational commitment is statistically significant; and<br />

the moderating effect of locus of control is not statistically significant.<br />

Key words: Organizational commitment, locus of control, work load, career prospect.<br />

INTRODUCTION<br />

The International Financial Reporting Standards Bulletin<br />

IV (IFRS4) to which life insurance companies in EU are<br />

subject, came into force in 2005. It mandates more<br />

stringent financial norms than in other countries. Many<br />

life insurance companies in Europe have since decided to<br />

sell overseas assets in order to meet the dramatic<br />

increase in reserve requirement under IFRS4. In 2004,<br />

European life insurance companies began to withdraw<br />

from the life insurance market in Taiwan and to sell their<br />

*Corresponding author. E-mail: kthsu@ntcu.edu.tw. Tel: +886 4<br />

2218 3934; fax:+886 4 2218 3356<br />

subsidiaries and branches. Largely for this reason, the<br />

number of foreign-owned life insurance companies in<br />

Taiwan fell after 2007. Former subsidiary and branch<br />

companies of European life insurance companies were<br />

often acquired by Taiwanese life insurance companies.<br />

The case being studied includes two companies. The<br />

acquiring company was established in the 1990s and was<br />

the first new life insurance company established after the<br />

restrictions on the number of life insurance companies in<br />

Taiwan was lifted. According to the Life Insurance<br />

Association in Taiwan, through the end of September<br />

2008, the market share of the acquiring company was<br />

7.06%. After Taiwan opened its life insurance market to<br />

foreign firms, the acquired company was the first foreign

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