Humanizing the Downsizing Process: A Review of a Recent Downsizing Process in Three Conservation Authorities

This paper examines the ways in which the negative effects of downsizing can be reduced based on a survey of stakeholders involved in the downsizing processes of three conservation authorities in Ontario – Ausable Bayfield, Saugeen Valley, and Upper Thames River. The findings reveal that the most important factor to consider with respect to downsizing is whether there are good human resource management practices in place long before the downsizing process is to occur

Talent Retention in Organizations Facing Staff Reductions via Layoffs

High voluntary attrition threatens the future of downsizing organizations. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how employee layoff announcements reduces the perception of organizational commitment to experienced, skilled workers in central Wisconsin. The conceptual framework integrated stress response theories including Cannon\u27s cognitive activation theory of stress. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 20 journeyman level artisans who had witnessed the layoff process within 50 miles of Wausau Wisconsin. These interviews were analyzed via the modified van Kaam method to code, cluster, and group the findings into significant themes. Nine themes emerged from the analyses suggesting layoff implementation strategies might reduce voluntary employee attrition. Among these 9 themes, job insecurity and mental and emotional stressors were the most prominent. A third theme, employee entitativity, defined as when members of a group share similar attributes and seen more readily as a distinct entity than as individuals, also emerged. These themes may be associated with employee voluntary attrition. Improving employee understanding of the layoff process might increase employee trust in leadership decisions, reduce voluntary attrition, increase knowledge retention, and improve organizational economic success. Employees who are equipped to endure the layoff process may suffer less stress, conceivably reducing the likelihood of drug, alcohol, and family abuse and their related social stressors

Effects of organizational communication on employee perceptions during organizational change

This research study examines the effects of organizational communication, a sub-dimensional construct on employee outcomes. It was proposed that organizational communication as indicated by timelines, reliability, and comprehensiveness of communication would predict the employee outcomes of intention to leave, job insecurity, and organizational cynicism in a negative direction. Participants, representing employees from several customer service organizations in Southern California experiencing orgaizational change, completed a questionaire consisting of multiple measurements in the areas of interest

The Impact of Outplacement on a Corporation\u27s Reduction of the Workforce

This thesis will focus on the study of outplacement in the corporate world. Global businesses in the decade of the nineties have been faced with increasing their profits and providing stock holders with an increase in dividends. In this situation the answer is often to decrease personnel. The purpose of the study is to investigate how companies handle restructuring and downsizings. It will show that companies should have a transition plan in place to handle such circumstances . Outplacement is a key to smoothly handle the process of the terminations that inevitably happen . This study examines the issues relating to the usage to outplacement firms, assisting the terminated employees, as well as the company . It helps the terminated employees to focus on the future rather than the traumatic event of a job loss . Companies gain benefits through reduced severance packages, lower legal costs, lower unemployment compensation costs, and improved public relations. Reduced productivity and poor morale among the remaining work force can be a high cost which outplacement counters. Career counseling helps the individual focus on their career goals immediately and learn new ways of securing employment, includi ng developing a network. Outplacement can provide a structured environment for support during this transition period. Because there is a focus, results are likely to be achieved more quickly. With professional guidance of career assessment, preparing a resume, fine-tuning interview skills, and preparing to market themselves, the individual can get on with the rest of their life more quickly. It is, therefore, hypothesized that outplacement is beneficial to both terminated employees and the company releasing them. Fifty companies responded to Survey I which was sent to human resources officials within the St. Louis area. The questions on this survey focused on whether the company had experienced a restructuring or downsizing and the recipient\u27s experience in managing it . Survey II was sent to executives of 89 outplacement companies in the United States. Twenty-four companies responded. Questions on this survey asked about the criteria that client companies used to select an outplacement firm, how long it took terminated employees to find new positions, and reasons outplacement is used. The data was analyzed calculating the mean, mode, median, variance, and standard deviation. Results showed that the hypothesis of outplacement being beneficial to both terminated employees and the company releasing them appears to be true. However, to actually prove or disprove this, additional research should be done asking the terminated employees, both ones that received outplacement, as well as those that did not, their opinions

Assessing Survivor Syndrome During Economic Recession In New Zealand

The present study aimed to gain an understanding of and assess survivor syndrome during the time of economic crises among public service employees in New Zealand. This study also explored the relationship between fulfilment of psychological contract and trust and faith in management and the relationship these phenomenon have with survivor syndrome. An online questionnaire was completed by 231 members of the Public Service Association (PSA) of New Zealand. The participants were divided in two groups, those who knew someone who had been made redundant in the previous 12 months (affected by organisational restructuring) and those who did not know anyone in the organisation who had been made redundant (employees not affected by organisational restructuring). Findings suggest that, as in previous studies done in New Zealand, employees do not suffer strongly from survivor syndrome. However there were significant differences in the scores of those affected and those not affected by organisational restructuring in survivor syndrome, morale, job security, job satisfaction, fulfilment of psychological contract and trust and faith in management for both groups. Fulfilment of psychological contract and trust and faith in management shared a positive relationship with survivor syndrome. Research by Wisener, Vermeulen and Littler (1999) and Littler, Wisener and Dunford (2003) has had an influence on the present study by offering a definition of survivor syndrome and the model of assessing it. However in this study survivor syndrome is assessed on an individual level (employees) where it is experienced. Managers in organisations could benefit from extending their awareness of survivor syndrome and managing the most important resource post restructuring – the surviving employees

Revitalization, Reinvigoration and Motivation of Survivors in Changed, Restructured and Downsized Organizations: A Study of Leadership Challenges in Local Government

Over the past two-plus decades, corporate mergers, government consolidations, workforce downsizings and plant closures have increased dramatically; as a consequence, millions of workers around the nation have lost their jobs. Not surprisingly, researchers have begun to focus considerable attention on downsizing, restructuring and revitalization efforts as a means for understanding organizations undergoing major transformation. Although the studies that have been conducted have dealt with a wide range of issues associated with organizational downsizing and restructuring, there is an absence of research examining mid and upper level managers\u27 perceptions of the efficacy of their efforts to revitalize their downsized organizations and, in particular, their surviving subordinates. Likewise, empirical research into public sector downsizing and restructuring has been sparse. This study was designed to respond to these gaps in the literature. More specifically, the research studied fiscally driven change efforts in two cities over a period of four years. Both individual interviews with key participants and stakeholders and extensive analysis of government documents and newspaper accounts were used to reconstruct what happened in the financially stressed cities. The technique of narrative analysis, which involves reconfiguring data as a story complete with plot and literary-like themes, was used to analyze the data. The stories suggest that, in most instances, government officials in both cities did not so much downsize their organizations as find ways to avoid the need for downsizing. The methods ranged from convincing voters to approve a sales-tax increase to restructuring departments to decreasing the number of city employees by not filling positions when retirements or departures occurred. Despite the absence of substantial downsizing efforts, employee morale in each city suffered. The study documents leaders\u27 attempts to confront the morale problem. Strategies employed included leaders: keeping employees informed about the fiscal crisis and what was being done about it; soliciting employee input and feedback about what to do to respond to crisis situations; redesigning jobs and providing professional development opportunities related to an employee\u27s new responsibilities and long-term career aspirations; and articulating a positive vision of the future and the reasons that this vision would likely come to pass

COMMUNICATION AS A FACTOR IN THE SUCCESS OF DOWNSIZING

In recent years a large number of organizations, both public and private, have implemented downsizing, with the aim of improving productivity, efficiency and competitiveness. But studies show that the results are not always as expected, with firms reporting negative effects among their workers in terms of stress, uncertainty, insecurity and fear of losing their jobs. The current work investigates the relation between internal communication, job satisfaction and organizational commitment in firms implementing this change strategy. Results show that internal communication has a positive effect on job satisfaction, and that job satisfaction, in turn, has a positive effect on organizational commitment

Effects of downsizing strategies on survivors’ organizational commitment: the case of Ethio Telecom

The study sought to analyze the effects of downsizing strategies on survivors ’ organizational commitment (affective, continuous, and normative) at Ethio Telecom. This study used descriptive and causal effect type of study. It focused on both qualitative and quantitative approaches for collection and analysis of data. This research made use of both primary and secondary sources of data. The researcher employed simple random sampling technique to select 362respondents from each zone and headquarter offices. In this study, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed. As the findings depict that positive and significant effect of exogenous variables (organizational justice: procedural and distributive justice) with the standardized estimate for procedural justice on affective, continuous, and normative commitment effects were all significant but they are not that much strong (fi =0.22, 0.18, 0.17) while distributive justice had high effect on affective, continuous, and normative commitment0.97, 0.99, 0.98 and respectively. Based on the above findings the researcher inferred that there was organizational procedural injustice in the time of downsizing at Ethio Telecom. Consequently, these perceptions affected adversely survivors ’ organizational commitment. As a result, survivors are neither emotionally attached nor have feeling of continuous commitment to the company. Hence, the researcher recommends that the strategists should do the following in order to make it effective: plan the process properly, study the overall scenario prior to the attempt, do human resource planning industriously, set clear selection criteria, make the process transparent, communicate timely, conduct behavioral trainings, align each unit activity with company’s strategic objectives, and prepare victims for other jobs

Psychological contract experience of survivor first-line managers during organisational downsizing: the mediating influence of culture in Nigeria

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of PhilosophyPurpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of breaches psychological contract on survivor first-line managers during organisational downsizing in Nigeria. Secondly, the influence of national culture on their responses to such perceived breaches Literature: Psychological contract PC is an important concept in understanding work relationships, and the obvious impact the construt has on organisational outcomes (Zhao et al., 2007). It is described as a mental model or schema which helps individuals to understand and interprete employment relationships (Rousseau, 1989). The study of PC has increased in recent times because of increasing emphasis on lean management or cost cutting which usually result in perception of breach (Datta et al., 2010). In the past, researches on psychological contract have focused on the understanding of the conditions under which perception of breach arise; the conditions under which perceptions of breach are stronger or weaker; and the conditions that mediate the effects and feeling of breach (Zhao et al., 2007). Most studies on PC have focussed on victims and have been carried out in western context (Sronce and McKinley, 2006; Sparrow, 1998). Researchers have therefore advocated the need for a research to be carried in a non-western context as cognition and perception of PC is said to be influenced by culture. This informed the focus of this investigation, and to focus on survivor-managerial employees because paucity of research on survivors in Nigeria. Research Methodology: The research study adopted a qualitative approach using one-to-one interviews. The data were collected in two staged interviews process. The first started with review of extant literature in the subject area. Semi-structured interviews were used to interview seven participants of managerial cadre who survived downsizing exercise. The second stage equally employed Semi-structured interviews with identified survivor managers. In this stage 13 interviews were conducted. The two stages are complimentary in order to deepen knowledge and gain insight into lived experiences of surviving managers and how culture influences their attitudinal behaviours during downsizing. All data were analysed inductively using interpretative phenomenological analysis IPA Findings: Findings from this study had shown that emotional/psychological experiences and feelings such as anxiety, uncertainty, job insecurity, reduced motivation, and reduced effort/productivity as well as intention to leave experienced by survivor managerial employees consistent with findings from Anglo-American cultures are not cultural bound. The findings indicate that, although managerial survivors were unhappy and dissatisfied with events in the workplace, their work-related attitudes and behavioural responses such as commitment & loyalty were positive. This positive attitudinal response is said to be mediated or influenced by societal cultural values like religious beliefs, extended family obligations, the value of dependency, faith in God, spirituality and high level of unemployment. The findings also indicate the valence of religious beliefs, and faith in God when survivor employees face unforeseen, difficult and unpleasant situations including downsizing in Nigeria