You should consider ways in which you can attenuate (or might unwittingly exacerbate) the psychological costs for workers and reputation costs for your organization. Indeed, you should be thinking about these things as you debate whether to downsize at all. The key here is the process of downsizing.

Perhaps the most important way to attenuate the psychological costs is implicit in what we said above about the \”moral from the data\”: By tying downsizing to a broader and sensible change initiative, a firm gives its workforce a sensible and credible reason for why this pain must be inflicted, a vision of what sort of better future beckons after the suffering is over, and a broader purpose around which the survivors can rally.

The research literature, as well as assessments from practitioners who have lived through downsizing, suggest some further conditions that can help minimize the adverse effects of layoffs on the attitudes and work performance of those that stays:

– The process should be well understood by workers: There should be extensive communication before, during, and after.

– Because of the enormous costs imposed by layoffs, it should be clear to employees that you have given due consideration to alternatives. This doesn\’t mean that you have to try every alternative first. But downsizing, if not necessarily a last resort, certainly shouldn\’t be perceived as the first thing you thought of and then decided to try. And to the greatest extent possible, employees who will be affected by the downsizing-if it comes-should be co-opted into the process of analyzing alternatives.

– The process should be perceived as embodying distributive and procedural justice. Both communication and a willingness on the part of management to avoid downsizing are a good start in this direction. Employee input should be solicited and incorporated into the planning process. When the layoffs come, there should be fair and clearly stated criteria to determine on whom the decision will affect. Those terminated should have the right to appeal the decision.

– The process should be kind. In particular, there should be maximum advance notification and generous buyout, severance, and outplacement benefits. This is more than simple benevolence; Those that stays will grieve less and be more ready to adjust and adapt if their former colleagues and (perhaps still) friends are well treated. The need for this, of course, depends on the pre-layoff culture and implicit contracts at the firm. If the firm had a dog-eat-dog, highly competitive culture, it can probably get by with less than is advisable for companies that previously had employee-welfare, clan like cultures.

On balance, believing that kindness is a good idea and the existing evidence supports that view. But we hasten to reiterate a point we made earlier: The greater the employer\’s largesse, the more one must be concerned about inducing \”voluntary\” departures that will be drawn (adversely) from the more able employees.

– There should be support services for the \”survivors.\” Perhaps the best support service available is a good sense of where the firm is headed after the lay-offs are done. When the survivor\’s new role is less ambiguous, she is more likely to move on, presumably because she will find it easier to envision and control her work life after the layoff. In addition, when the downsizing is accompanied by re-engineering and redefinition of roles and tasks, intensive retraining and re-socialization of the survivors is likely to be critical, both so that the survivors know what is now expected of them and have the competencies to succeed in the new milieu, and so that they understand the firm\’s commitment to the new way of doing business

http://www.arturvictoria.info/
http://sites.google.com/site/cliptheschoolbeginning/
http://sites.google.com/site/arturvictoriasite
http://adesg-europa.blogspot.com/

http://www.arturvictoria.info/
http://sites.google.com/site/cliptheschoolbeginning/
http://sites.google.com/site/arturvictoriasite
http://adesg-europa.blogspot.com/

Author Bio: http://www.arturvictoria.info/
http://sites.google.com/site/cliptheschoolbeginning/
http://sites.google.com/site/arturvictoriasite
http://adesg-europa.blogspot.com/

Category: Business Management
Keywords: Organization, behavior, human, information, career, responsible, planning, human resources, leader,