The impact of hospital downsizing on registered nurses displaced from full-time employment

This research identified and explored the various responses often women Registered Nurses displaced from full-time elnployment as staff nurses in general hospitals in southern Ontario. These nurses were among the hundreds in Ontario who were displaced between October 1991 and October 1995 as a result of organizational downsizing and other health care reform initiatives. The purpose ofthis research was to document tIle responses of nurses to job displacement, and how that experience impacted on a nurse's professional identity and her understanding of the nature and utilization of nursing labour. This study incorporated techniques consistent with the principles of naturalistic inquiry and the narrative tradition. A purposive sample was drawn from the Health Sector Training and Adjustment Program database. Data collection and analysis was a three-step process wherein the data collection in each step was informed by the data analysis in the preceding step. The main technique used for qualitative data collection was semistructured, individual and group interviews. Emerging from the data was a rich and textured story ofhow job displacement disrupted the meaningful connections nurses had with their work. In making meaning of this change, displaced nurses journeyed along a three-step path toward labour adjustment. Structural analysis was the interpretive lens used to view the historical, sociopolitical and ideological forces which constrained the choices reasonably available to displaced nurses while Kelly's personal construct theory was the lens used to view the process of making choices and reconstruing their professional identity.

The Impact of Hospital Downsizing on Registered Nurses Displaced from Full -Time Employment

This research identified and explored the various responses of ten women Registered Nurses displaced from full-time employment as staff nurses in general hospitals in southern Ontario. These nurses were among the hundreds in Ontario who were displaced between October 1991 and October 1995 as a result of organizational downsizing and other health care reform initiatives. The purpose of this research was to document the responses of nurses to job displacement, and how that experience impacted on a nurse's professional identity and her understanding of the nature and utilization of nursing labour. This study incorporated techniques consistent with the principles of naturalistic inquiry and the narrative tradition. A purposive sample was drawn from the Health Sector Training and Adjustment Program database. Data collection and analysis was a three-step process wherein the data collection in each step was informed by the data analysis in the preceding step. The main technique used for qualitative data collection was semistructured, individual and group interviews. Emerging from the data was a rich and textured story of how job displacement disrupted the meaningful connections nurses had with their work. In making meaning of this change, displaced nurses journeyed along a three-step path toward labour adjustment. Structural analysis was the interpretive lens used to view the historical, sociopolitical and ideological forces which constrained the choices reasonably available to displaced nurses while Kelly's personal construct theory was the lens used to view the process of making choices and reconstruing their professional identity.

A decade of downsizing: Understanding the contours of change in Australia, 1990-99

his paper seeks to map a decade of organizational downsizing in Australia utilizing a comprehensive longitudinal data set of 4153 firms. Aggregate downsizing measures conceal extensive change within organizations. We seek to assess these processes by comparing a conventional downsizing measure with more specific occupational downsizing measures. The results show the contours of change in Australia over the 1990s; indicate that there are distinctive and contrasting trends; and raise significant issues for future theoretical and empirical research.

The paradox of managerial downsizing

Delayering and the flattening of organizational hierarchies was a widespread trend through the 1990s. Peters (1992) in the USA promoted flattening as an organizational strategy and Keuning and Opheij (1994) promoted the prescriptions in Europe. Despite these strategies and apparent structural changes, the number and ratio of managers appears to have grown. This paradox of managerial downsizing has not been adequately probed in the literature. The predominant explanation, that there has been a 'myth of managerial downsizing', is associated with Gordon (1996). However, this debate has been shaped by the US experience and data. There is a need to reassess the dynamics of the 1990s in relation to other economies. This article focuses on a semi-peripheral economy, that of Australia. A study of the population of firms over time is necessary in order to resolve the issues. The article utilizes a comprehensive range of data, including several national surveys and a longitudinal database of all larger private-sector firms in Australia during the 1990s. The results indicate that the 'myth of managerial downsizing' must be rejected. There were dramatic effects on managers through the course of the 1990s in larger Australian firms. The dynamics of the process are analysed, tracking 4,153 firms across the decade and the paradox explained. The theoretical implications are discussed.

国有企业管理者裁员决策特征及其对留岗者心理影响的研究

In China, orgnizational change and downsizing are the primary topics studied in I/O psychology and Human Resource Management. Due to the great need in reality, both theorists and practitioners raised the same questions: Does downsizing increase the organizational performance? What is the relationship between organizational downsizing strategies and survivors' psychological reations? Which factors influence managers' downsizing decision-making most? How can managers manage the process successfully? The purpose of this study is trying to answer these questions, and then to establish the downsizing decision-making model of China's SOE (State owned enterprise) managers. The hypothetical model of SOE managers' downsizing decision-making was put forward, based on a tremendous amount of literature on downsizing decision-making, especially on the downsizing decision-making model built by B. Shaw, and also based on the results of the interviews conducted to the SOE managers who have the downsizing decision-making experiences. In order to test and verify the model, 322 SOE managers were investigated by a questionnaire study. And the statistic results supported the hypothetical downsizing decision-making model. Further, 259 survivors (those who are still working in the SOEs) from 7 downsized SOEs and 1 non-downsizing SOE, were also investigated by a questionnaire study. The statistic results also supported the hypothetical downsizing decision-making model. A subsequent case study was performed upon one downsized SOE; and a deliberate focus group interview study within 6 SOE mangers from another downsized SOE was also conducted. Both fundings from the two studies surported the hypothetical model again. Thus, China's SOE managers' downsizing decision-making model was established. This China's SOE managers' downsizing decision-making model suggests the following: Firstly, the characteristics of managers'downsizing decision-making were the center of the model. Those characteristics displayed during the process of the downsizing decision planning, the participation of downsizing decision-making and the communication concerning downsizing events, were influenced by managers' sense of crisis, controlling factors out of the organization and the managing experience within it. Especially, the latter two factors were more important. Secondly, in downsizing decision-making problems, the perceived crisis of China's SOE managers was mainly influenced by the outer factors, esp. the controlling factors from the government or the high authorities, but not by the inner factors including manufacturing management, HRM skills and organizational competition strategies. Thirdly, survivors'psychological reactions (including job satisfaction, job motivation, team working cooperation, etc) were mainly influenced by the characteristics of the managers' downsizing decision-making, at the same time, also by the outer factors (including controlling and social security factors) and the inner factors (including competition strategy and HRM skills). Finally, according to the model and the results from this study, the conclusions were reached in the followings: The stronger the controlling effort upon the SOE managers, the worse the effect displayed during the downsizing process. And in order to improve the effect and quality of downsizing decision-making, SOE managers need a lot of training to ameliorate their competencies such as competition strategies and HRM skills.

Epidemiología y perdurabilidad empresarial en Colombia: Grupo Éxito

La muerte empresarial es un proceso que se ha venido presentando en compañías de las diferentes industrias a nivel nacional. La causa son los diferentes factores externos que impactan directamente las operaciones y estructura de estas. Con base en lo anterior es importante resaltar que existen diferentes tipos de muerte empresarial que para efectos de este trabajo se encontraron importante referenciar, pues son el marco del análisis de caso sobre Almacenes Éxito S.A. perteneciente al sector retail, donde se buscaba determinar cuál fue el tipo de cesión que tuvo, como consecuencia de la venta de acciones a la Compañía Francesa Casino Guichard-Perrachon S.A. Además del marco teórico empleado, se encontró importante realizar una reseña histórica de las diferentes empresas que han integrado el sector con el fin de entender posibles generalidades que se han venido replicando y que han llevado a la muerte empresarial de importantes compañías. Este trabajo permite la comprensión de las diferentes transformaciones que pueden tener los entes económicos a lo largo de su vida empresarial, no solo con lo que puede entenderse como el cese de operaciones sino también como apertura a nuevas estrategias de crecimiento y expansión.

Stories of ambivalence : Australian executives' experiences of outplacement services

The increasing prevalence of organizational downsizing has been matched by growth in the provision of outplacement services. Yet there has been limited research on either the effectiveness of these programs or the experience of individuals undertaking them. Within a qualitative study investigating the experiences of Australian executives who had been made redundant, one of the focus areas explored was the experience of using outplacement services. Respondents' stories revealed a sense of ambivalence towards these programs. This paper discusses the conflicting experiences giving rising to this ambivalence, namely, positive outcomes with respect to the use of office services and the receiving of proactive support, and more negative aspects of an absence of counselling skills and impersonal treatment through the organizational exit process. It is argued that further research on the outplacement experience is required to determine the type and quality of services which will best serve those who have been made redundant.

Job uncertainty and personal control during downsizing: A comparison of survivors and victims

This study developed and tested a model of job uncertainty for survivors and victims of downsizing. Data were collected from three samples of employees in a public hospital, each representing three phases of the downsizing process: immediately before the announcement of the redeployment of staff, during the implementation of the downsizing, and towards the end of the official change programme. As predicted, levels of job uncertainty and personal control had a direct relationship with emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. In addition, there was evidence to suggest that personal control mediated the relationship between job uncertainty and employee adjustment, a pattern of results that varied across each of the three phases of the change event. From the perspective of the organization’s overall climate, it was found that levels of job uncertainty, personal control and job satisfaction improved and/or stabilized over the downsizing process. During the implementation phase, survivors experienced higher levels of personal control than victims, but both groups of employees reported similar levels of job uncertainty. We discuss the implications of our results for strategically managing uncertainty during and after organizational change.

Constructing Stability in Software Product Development during Organizational Restructurings

We all have fresh in our memory what happened to the IT sector only a few years ago when the IT-bubble burst. The upswing of productivity in this sector slowed down, investors lost large investments, many found themselves looking for a new job, and countless dreams fell apart. Product developers in the IT sector have experienced a large number of organizational restructurings since the IT boom, including rapid growth, downsizing processes, and structural reforms. Organizational restructurings seem to be a complex and continuous phenomenon people in this sector have to deal with. How do software product developers retrospectively construct their work in relation to organizational restructurings? How do organizational restructurings bring about specific social processes in product development? This working paper focuses on these questions. The overall aim is to develop an understanding of how software product developers construct their work during organizational restructurings. The theoretical frame of reference is based on a social constructionist approach and discourse analysis. This approach offers more or less radical and critical alternatives to mainstream organizational theory. Writings from this perspective attempt to investigate and understand sociocultural processes by which various realities are created. Therefore these studies aim at showing how people participate in constituting the social world (Gergen & Thatchenkery, 1996); knowledge of the world is seen to be constructed between people in daily interaction, in which language plays a central role. This means that interaction, especially the ways of talking and writing about product development during organizational restructurings, become the target of concern. This study consists of 25 in-depth interviews following a pilot study based on 57 semi-structured interviews. In this working paper I analyze 9 in-depth interviews. The interviews were conducted in eight IT firms. The analysis explores how discourses are constructed and function, as well as the consequences that follow from different discourses. The analysis shows that even though the product developers have experienced many organizational restructurings, some of which have been far-reaching, their accounts build strongly on a stability discourse. According to this discourse product development is, perhaps surprisingly, not influenced to a great extent by organizational restructurings. This does not mean that product development is static. According to the social constructionist approach, product development is constantly being reproduced and maintained in ongoing processes. In other words stable effects are also ongoing achievements and these are of particular interest in this study. The product developers maintain rather than change the product development through ongoing processes of construction, even when they experience continuous extensive organizational restructurings. The discourse of stability exists alongside other discourses, some which contradict each other. Together they direct product development and generate meanings. The product developers consequently take an active role in the construction of their work during organizational restructurings. When doing this they also negotiate credible positions for themselves

Doces práticas para matar : o papel de recursos humanos em downsizing e demissão

As transformações ocorridas a partir da década de 80 na economia, na maneira de administrar as empresas e nas relações de trabalho levaram à perda de emprego de milhares de pessoas. Downsizing e demissão passaram a ser comum tanto no Brasil como em outros lugares do mundo. Chama a atenção, entretanto, que a literatura na área de recursos humanos não contemple as atividades de gerenciamento das demissões. Fala-se dos quatro pilares da área de recursos humanos: recrutamento, seleção, avaliação de desempenho, desenvolvimento e remuneração, mas o tema da demissão parece estar discretamente omitido. O objetivo deste trabalho foi: a) apresentar uma revisão da literatura nacional e internacional com artigos sobre o tema e b) buscar como profissionais de recursos humanos e demissores descrevem as práticas de demissão, de modo a evidenciar o papel da área de recursos humanos (e de gestores) nestes processos. A retórica em Recursos Humanos, já descrita por Legge (1995), de que precisamos ser cruéis para amar, apresenta-se como uma ação fundamental na construção das práticas organizativas em demissão e downsizing.

The downsides of downsizing: Communication processes and information needs in the aftermath of a workforce reduction strategy

This study explored the impact of downsizing on levels of uncertainty, coworker and management trust, and communicative effectiveness in a health care organization downsizing during a 2-year period from 660 staff to 350 staff members. Self-report data were obtained from employees who were staying (survivors), from employees were being laid off (victims), and from employees with and without managerial responsibilities. Results indicated that downsizing had a similar impact on the amount of trust that survivors and victims had for management. However, victims reported feeling lower levels of trust toward their colleagues compared with survivors. Contrary to expectations, survivors and victims reported similar perceptions of job and organizational uncertainty and similar levels of information received about changes. Employees with no management responsibilities and middle managers both reported lower scores than did senior managers on all aspects of information received. Implications for practice and the management of the communication process are discussed.

Job uncertainty and personal control during downsizing: A comparison of survivors and victims

This study developed and tested a model of job uncertainty for survivors and victims of downsizing. Data were collected from three samples of employees in a public hospital, each representing three phases of the downsizing process: immediately before the announcement of the redeployment of staff, during the implementation of the downsizing, and towards the end of the official change programme. As predicted, levels of job uncertainty and personal control had a direct relationship with emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction, In addition, there was evidence to suggest that personal control mediated the relationship between job uncertainty and employee adjustment, a pattern of results that varied across each of the three phases of the change event. From the perspective of the organization's overall climate, it was found that levels of job uncertainty, personal control and job satisfaction improved and/or stabilized over the downsizing process. During the implementation phase, survivors experienced higher levels of personal control than victims, but both groups of employees reported similar levels of job uncertainty. We discuss the implications of our results for strategically managing uncertainty during and after organizational change.

Countering the trend towards careerist orientation in the age of downsizing:test of a social exchange model

Predicated on the assumption that employee careerist orientation resulting from organizational actions to cut costs constitutes a potential threat to their long-term profitability and success, this study proposed and tested a social exchange model of careerist orientation in the People's Republic of China. Specifically, it was hypothesized that organizational justice and career growth opportunities will be related to careerist orientation, but the relationship will be mediated by trust in employer. Structural equation modeling results provided support for the model. Trust in organization fully mediated the relationship between careerist orientation and its antecedents.

The impact of organizational change on the perceptions of UK managers change

Redundancy, delayering, downsizing, and various other forms of organizational change have become increasingly prevalent. This article focuses on the impact of different forms of organizational change on managers' perceptions of the organizations they work within and the comparison between changes that involve redundancy and/or delayering and those that do not involve such changes. The literature has many accounts of the negative effects associated with redundancy and delayering, but are these effects unique to these types of change or are they a consequence of negative experiences of a range of organizational changes? Hypotheses were tested to assess, first, whether there are differences between different levels of management, notably between directors and nondirectors in the way they perceive organizational change, second, to assess how change has affected managers' perceptions of their organizations and their working lives, and third, to explore if different forms of change are associated with differences in managers' perceptions of their organizations “as a place to work”. Hypotheses were tested with data from a cross-sectional survey with 830 managers from the UK. Organizational changes include cost reduction and culture change programmes, delayering, mergers/demergers, outsourcing, redundancy programmes, and contract/ temporary workers. The analyses reported here indicate clearly that specific forms of change are associated with managers' reports of their experiences at work; some forms of change (notably redundancy and delayering) seem to have particularly damaging implications for managers' experiences in the workplace. The analyses also show that there is a difference in the way directors and nondirectors perceive the changes. Finally, the article considers strategies for ameliorating the effects of change including the role of HR.