Strategic Management Paper-Mental Health Care

Strategic Management Paper

Sandy Duncan

HCS/427

August 2, 2010

Strategic Management Paper

Early this year, Mental Health Care, Inc. announced plans to join forces with Achieve Tampa Bay Inc. to create an exemplified model for other nonprofits faced with reduced public funding. Under the merger, Mental Health Care will pick up Achieve’s back-office work, such as accounting, IT and human resources functions, keeping about 150 staff members employed and continuing health care services for about 1,700 children, adults, and families (Manning, 2010). Neither the administrative director of human resources for Mental Health Care, Inc., Bob Sleczkowski, nor the HR official heading the project, Sue Barbaree, were available for an interview about the merger. The director of media relations, Susan Morgan willingly answered questions about the new partnership and how it can help other Hillsborough County nonprofits that rely on public funding (S. Morgan, personal communication, July 28, 2010).

Mental Health Care is one of the largest nonprofits in the Tampa Bay area. The company proposed the merger with Achieve after Achieve could not repay the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County part of the funds Achieve obtained from a $6.9 million agreement (Manning, 2010). The merger deal obtained the green light to move forward after two audits of Achieve uncovered no problems with administration of funds. As merger activity is heating up, the companies are aligning HR at the negotiation table to ensure that their deal is a successful one.

HR Recruitment and Retention

The greatest obstacles for the merger’s success are HR-related. They include a loss of productivity, a loss of key talent, and aligning incompatible cultures. Because of this fact, Morgan says that Mental Health Inc and Achieve Tampa dealmakers are relying on HR in critical pre-deal and due diligence merger process steps (S. Morgan, personal communication, July 28, 2010).

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