Preview

The Decision to Downsize a Company 1

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1806 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Decision to Downsize a Company 1
Cover Page 1
Contents 2
Introduction 3
Discussion
Rules for Rebuilding 5 Share the Scaled-Down Resources 6 Use Ad Hoc Task Forces to Solve Especially Tough Problems 6 Improving Communications Among Survivors of the Downsizing 7 Understanding the Organization Down Cycle 8
Conclusion 9
Reference 10
Introduction
Downsizing is no longer seen as a last resort or a response to crisis. Instead it has become a vital tool for shaping an organization to meet new challenges and circumstances. By now, few organizations have not been through this process. The benefits are clear, but it can also bring problems. Those employees who continue to work for an organization may experience “survivor syndrome”. This paper offers organizations a model for preventing effect of downsizing.
Downsizing is the conscious use of permanent personnel reductions in an attempt to improve efficiency and/or effectiveness. Due to the recent slump in overall business, many businesses are considering to downsize their operations in order to minimize their losses and save themselves from further losses in future.
The top management of any company should consider the consequences of shutting down its several operations and lay off employees, on the employee morale and the motivation to work among employees. Companies not only downsize at the time of recession but they usually lay off employees for several other reasons as well. It is usually claimed that downsizing is done in order to quickly improve profits, a company in trouble identifies its largest expenses, which is in most of the cases payroll and starts lay off. The reasons mostly used as a basis for downsizing by companies are organizational restricting, a slump in business and business process reengineering.
The decision to downsize a company is sometimes justified when it becomes necessary for an organization to save itself from bankruptcy. Some experts



References: Brown, T. (1996, August) “Sweatshops of the 1990s.” Management Review, 85, 13-18 Bumbaugh, M. (1998, February) “Moving Beyond Survival After Downsizing.” Nursing Management, 29, 30-33 Cameron, K. (1998) “Strategic Organizational Downsizing.” Research in Organizational Behavior, 20, 185-229 Cassidy, J. (1996, April 22) “All Worked Up.” The New Yorker, 51-5 Ciccotello, M. & Green, M. (1995, July) “Industry 's Downsizing Lessons.” Government Executive, 27, 59-60 Connelly, J. (1994, November 28) “Have We Become Mad Dogs in the Office?” Fortune, 130, 197-9 Downs, A. (1995, October) “The Truth About Layoffs.” Management Review, 84, 57-61 Luthans B. & Sommer S. (1999, March) “The Impact of Downsizing on Workplace Attitude.” Group & Organization Management, 24(1), 46-70 Mishra A. (1994) “The Role of Mutual Trust in Effective Downsizing Strategies.” Human Resource Management, 33(2), 261-279 Ryan L. & Macky K. (1998) “Downsizing Organizations: Uses, Outcomes and Strategies.” Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 36(2), 29-45

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Choi Discourse

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When downsizing was widespread, it means there are more people was layoff. Therefore, these people will spend lesser than the time when they had job. Additionally, the rest of employee will also spend lesser than normal because they also get rid of laying off like their peer. Finally, spending less will affect the wider economy.…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Qantas International

    • 2259 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Litter, C. C. And P. Innes. 2001. Does Downsizing Improve the Skill- base of Organisations? Downsizing: Is it Working in Australia? Australia: The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.…

    • 2259 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Downsizing is a strategy to improve an organization’s efficiency by reducing the workforce or changing and restructuring the systems of the organization (Belcourt & McBey, p. 260). There are multiple factors that are forcing Stonewall Industries to make the ultimate decision to downsize. Environmental factors play a vital role in effective Human Resources Management, impacting the strategy of any organization, including the decision to downsize. If Human Resource Planning is not adaptive to relevant environmental factors and change, then the organization can seriously suffer.…

    • 1458 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Downsizing, no matter how it is done, creates stress and corporate discontent for employees, and proper human resources planning attempts to limit this negative impact. Employees who are discontent can display negative behaviours and performance issues may begin to arise. With issues in performance within the organization, productivity may begin to decrease, which means that the cost to produce goods once again increases, threatening the benefits that may have come from downsizing.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Managing a company’s finances can be very challenging and companies that find it difficult to conquer this challenge, experience a downturn, a decline in business, and when this occurs the need to find solutions to alleviate their financial issues becomes crucial. One solution that companies seem to implement and re-visit is layoffs but employers that are sensitive to the employees needs try to avoid this option by exploring other alternatives such as furloughs or transferring employees into new positions within the company.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Possible solutions at managing layoffs would include considering alternatives to reducing staff, properly training managers how to handle layoffs, or implementing a hiring freeze. Companies should consider whether job losses are in fact necessary. Too often organizations result to downsizing and don’t even consider the alternatives because they want to show shareholders they are trimming costs. Alternatives to layoffs include cutting wages in management as well as lower level positions, transferring employees to other departments, and using fewer contract workers. Also, training managers on the different type of…

    • 333 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Unit 4 P1

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Downsizing is when a business will fire some employees in order to make more space, or be able to focus on one place at a time. McDonalds has done this in November 2002 the business said that they wanted to close up to 175 restaurants and terminate up to 600 jobs and close down in three countries that were located in the middle east and northern America because it needed to get rid of some worldwide costs. But the consequences of this were that McDonalds missed its 2002 earnings forecast.…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout corporate America, downsizing is a common practice. The concept of downsizing as a strategic tool wasn 't introduced until the 1980 's, and today it is a well known system. This has been caused by the accelerated growth of international and global competition throughout the past two decades. Increasing competition is forcing companies to drive their costs as low as possible, and the quickest, easiest way to cut costs is to cut jobs. Top management within corporations is most worried about the impact downsizing will have on their costs, and they are usually less apprehensive about the influence on the employees affected. Two views on this topic are presented in Marc Street 's Taking Sides. The first will argue against downsizing for…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Palliser Furniture

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    -Weakness: Employees laid off at the Winnipeg factory. Downsizing activities such as this often decrease employee morale, impact employees’ perception of job security, and increase turnover rates.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Academic Advisor

    • 1566 Words
    • 7 Pages

    There are two terms of downsizing: downsizing by need and downsizing by preference. On the first case the company is obliged to reduce number of its employee without previous planning due sudden challenges like financial crisis, new technology revelation and market changes, In this case employees can lose there jobs permanently. On the second case, organizations have a stable situation in the market and there is no…

    • 1566 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Brockner, J. (1992) stated that “if the layoffs are mismanaged, thereby hampering survivors ' productivity and morale, then the organization stands to lose a sizeable portion of the savings it hoped to achieve by introducing layoffs.” Even though employee layoffs may allow organizations to cut jobs and safeguard relationships with the existing employee this can be create a challenge to the remaining employees in that, they may experience excessive stress of increase workload, lack of motivation and they may consider searching for a new place of employment to reduce redundancy. Heathfield, S, M (2010) stated that “employees experience an increased level of…

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This article discusses how corporations should aim to be responsible for more than just profit maximization. The author goes into the discussion of how downsizing a company violates the psychological and social contracts in the employer-employee relationship. The author seems to support the idea that employees should have a since of security in their job as long as he or she is productively advancing the goals of the organization. Downsizing productive employees harms the moral of the company and violates the trust that hard work makes an employee valuable.…

    • 2483 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The euphemism, downsizing describes the involuntary termination of a number of employees based on an employer’s decision to reduce staff or to cease operations all together (Walsh, 2013). Employers are often faced with tough decisions to reduce staff in response to many different factors. There are important legal issues that need to be considered as they will impact business owners if not addressed.…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is a well known issue in corporations when it comes down to downsizing. Corporate downsizing is that act of corporations cutting workers usually by closing whole plants or divisions to increase profits. This practice is often used today and is thought by some to be a moral practice to improve economy overall. On the other hand, some think that it causes the workers great suffrage from unemployment, which leads to loss of homes, depression, and crimes. Furthermore, it affects the economy by the decrease in money flow. Many believe that the people who invest their money in the corporation (shareholders) deserve to have the most interest from the managers to maximize their profits. One method of maximizing their profits is to downsize workers. Some people have a problem with that because they believe that the employees being cut at the expense of maximizing profits for the shareholder is morally wrong. John Orlando thinks that downsizing is often wrong. In his article, The Ethics of Corporate Downsizing, he gives both sides of the argument for downsizing then tells how to apply his finding in real corporations.…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays