Preview

Effects of Downsizing on Employees

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2768 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Effects of Downsizing on Employees
Effects of Downsizing on Employees

Statement of Problem
Downsizing is a major problem faced by employees during tough times of recession. Apart from the economic reasons, they also have severe psychological effects on the employees. This project is about comprehending the effects of cut backs on employees. Employees suffer from severe self-esteem issues, due to which it’s very hard for them to jump back into the same mental stableness.
The structure of this study is to assess the effects of downsizing on employees. Employees tend to be less effective after a downsizing procedure took place in their organization. Dedication towards their jobs decline as a result of downsizing. Depression is one of the major issues that are targeted by this study and there are a couple of scenarios that pertain to this topic which are going to be evaluated. The scenarios are as follows:
• Depression suffered by employees during downsizing.
• Downsizing’s ill effects on surviving employees.
• Employees losing self confidence due to termination.
• Treatment of employees during termination.
Definition of Terms
The concept of downsizing is commonly known as the lessening of labor force in a business. There are multiple ways of looking at this particular term, as employees and employers look at this from different angles. Organizations believe that they would become more productive and successful due to downsizing. Employees on the other hand look at downsizing as the management’s weapon to implement more control over the employees, as employees would always be on their toes when work is considered because they would be scared of losing their employment. Employees face severe problems of job insecurity. Employees suffer from severe depression, low self esteem and a lot or emotional trauma. To maintain a stable life, they have to try to cope up with all these psychological issues. Downsizing thus defined, falls into the category of management tools for achieving desired change, much



References: Kivimaki, M., Vahtera, J., Pentti, J., Thomson, L., Griffiths, A., & Cox, T. (2001). DOWNSIZING, CHANGES IN WORK, AND SELF-RATED HEALTH OF EMPLOYEES: A 7-YEAR 3-WAVE PANEL STUDY. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 14(1), 59. Reinardy, S. (2010). DOWNSIZING EFFECTS ON PERSONNEL: THE CASE OF LAYOFF SURVIVORS IN U.S. NEWSPAPERS. Journal Of Media Business Studies, 7(4), 1-19. The author describes the organizational developmental theory by this study Mayton, S. M. (2011). Survivor Coping. OD Practitioner, 43(1), 42-47. Kumar, M. (2009). "Downsizing" on Retainers ' Behaviour. SCMS Journal Of Indian Management, 6(3), 93-103. Obilade, S. (2009). Motivating Downsizing Survivors in Small Businesses. Southern Business Review, 34(1), 19-35.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The effect of mismanaged LAYOFFs on the remaining workforce and the effects, lack of management preparation, the human condition, and lack of mitigation strategies. We think that the problem with this article is that not enough managers or HR personal, know how to let a person go from their employment effectively. They sometimes don't realize the impact that it has on the other employees morals. Also, that sometimes companies don't take a closer look to make sure downsizing will be the answer to cutting costs like they think that it will. Every HR or manager should be let go in their lifetime so that they know what it feels like. I believe that this statement holds tremendous merit because the best lessons in life are learned through personal experience. In order to adequately communicate life changing messages of sorts, it should be done by a seasoned manager. I will be very surprised if any company has a potential layoff learning path that will coach and train the management staff for these kinds of things. It is imperative to be sensitive to the individual being laid off as this will impact their livelihood significantly. I do agree that other options much is explored such as relocating or wage cuts before making the decision to lay off people.…

    • 660 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory 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
  • Powerful Essays

    Hrm/531 Week 4

    • 4355 Words
    • 18 Pages

    9. Downsizing turnover is a reflection of a staffing level mismatch in which the organization actually is, or is projected to be, overstaffed.…

    • 4355 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The problem presented in article by Bouw, Mismanaged Layoffs can go 'Horribly Wrong, is the lack of proper and well-managed policy around employee lay-offs. Most managers are trained to handle a corporate crisis. Employers should approach any job losses with caution and always be respectful. Companies should consider whether job losses are necessary and the impact on operations internally, and how clients and contractors view it externally. Companies need to make sure they are following the law when it comes to laying off staff, including paying out severance as required by each province based on an employee's years of service. (2013)…

    • 1014 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    All businesses at one time or another will have to deal with employee layoffs due to a re-organization or changes in the economy. Employee layoffs can have a damaging impact to the remaining employee and management staff. There are several solutions that can be done to alleviate the negative impact and the recommendation is to provide managers with the proper training on how to properly handle a layoff so there is a more positive impact on the remaining staff. Proper training prepares managers for delivering the message to both the employee being laid off and the remaining staff. This type of training has many advantages for the company and the employees.…

    • 759 Words
    • 3 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
  • Best Essays

    Home Depot Hr Role

    • 1930 Words
    • 8 Pages

    McKinley, W., Sanchez, C. M., Schick, A. G., & Higgs, A. C. (1995). Organizational downsizing: Constraining, cloning, learning [and executive commentary]. The Academy of Management Executive (1993-2005), 9(3), 32-44. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.georgetown.edu/stable/4165271…

    • 1930 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the past decade, different terms have been used for the concept of the reduction in workforce. These include downsizing, rightsizing, re-engineering, job separation and workforce imbalance correction. Scholars and human resource practitioners have not clearly documented the technical differences between all these terms but one thing that is common to all is that they all result to lay-offs. Employee lay-offs is not a new phenomenon, over the last decade the business world has witnessed tremendous amounts of changes with the most noteworthy been the technological developments and breakthroughs, deregulation, privatization and globalization (Hiatt & Creasey, 2003). Some of the changes have transformed the way organizations conduct businesses by interconnecting all the worlds’ economies. Dynamic environments like these require dynamic processes, people, systems and culture especially in managing the change successfully. According to Kandula (2003), if organizations are to develop, they often must undergo change at various levels in their development. There three types of organizational management changes that can occur; planned versus unplanned change, gradual versus transformational changes and organization wide change versus departmental change (Anderson & AcKerman-Anderson, 2001).. Key factors for success include planning the long tern strategic vision in advance, empowering people to make decisions at the operating level, optimizing the in formation communication to enable effective information management (Kotter, 1996). Change in the organization is a difficulty issue to manage due to internal resistance coupled with uncertainty on the part of the organization (Paton & McCalman, 2008). There are different change management models which can be utilized by the organization while implementing changes…

    • 2685 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Al Dunlap at Sunbeam

    • 1920 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Even though stakeholders do not invest any money the employees are the valuable resources which contribute to the company’s success. Sure hypothetically speaking we can say that by firing few employees he protected the jobs of other employees.But an employee working under the fear of losing his job is likely to work less efficiently. Employees nowadays represent a major…

    • 1920 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful 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
  • 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
  • Powerful Essays

    Motivational Methods

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Woodard, B., Fottler, M., & Kilpatrick, A. (1999). Transformation of an academic medical center: lessons learned from restructuring and downsizing. Health Care Management Review, 24(1), 81-94.…

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dismissal Meeting

    • 1712 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Johnson, D. W. (n.d.). The emotional impact of lay-offs and non-renewals. University of Minnesota. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www3.crk.umn.edu/humanresources/Documents/Emotional%20Impact%20of%20Layoffs.pdf…

    • 1712 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Topic of this assignment is focusing mainly on the Anxiety and Depression in the workplace; the possible and positive methods of dealing with such situations and the impact on the overall performance of the organization. The Topic is of critical importance from an organizational perspective due to the substantial link between the activities carried out by the organizations and the employees of those organizations. Most of the daily operations of any organization are either fully or partially run by employees, who constitute the key tool for any organization success or failure. Hence, any factors that affect or jeopardize the functionality of the employee’s in the workforce, whether health related or otherwise, will definitely have direct negative impact on the organization, its operations, customers, clients, stakeholders, directors and shareholders as well as its financial results.…

    • 3094 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Layoffs And Layoff

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Survivors’ of layoff or job loss are also coping with stress and may also grieve the loss of a co-worker. According to Brockner, “(the) layoffs may elicit anxiety produced by job insecurity that may in turn influence the performance of survivors. (Brockner et al, Layoffs, 373)” There may also be questions as to whether management made the decision on who to keep and who to let go, fairly, and not based on personal preference. Brockner explains that “(Survivors) may be worried or anxious that they too will be laid off at some future date, or angry, especially if they perceive the layoffs as illegitimate. (Layoffs 375)”…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays