The purpose of this qualitative single-case study is to understand how communication content, media type, and timing influence emotions for acquired employees during the post-acquisition integration. The theoretical foundations are Lasswell’s model of communication and Lazarus’ cognitive appraisal theory of emotion. The overarching research question was: How does communication influence emotions for the acquired employees during the post-acquisition integration? Four research sub-questions were developed from the theoretical foundations and included communication content, media type, timing, and managers/non-manager emotion comparison. Convenience sampling was used to select 22 participants from a privately held company located in the United States. Data collection included three data sources: on-line survey, one-on-one semi-structured interviews, and two focus groups (managers and non-managers). Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inductive thematic analysis. The analysis resulted in nine themes within the four research questions: “the why and the context of messages”, “acknowledging feelings and what’s important”, “transparency with positive and negatives”, “setting expectations with updates on change”, “inclusivity and investment”, “combined media types”, “feedback mechanism”, “timeline with frequent updates”, and “trusted managers”. An important implication of this study is a new communication model for influencing emotions. The practical application is to use this new model as a communications guide during post-acquisitions integrations to enable positive emotions.

.