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

The paper is based on a five year, UMIST‐Institute of Management study into the changing nature of the quality of working life and seeks to uncover differences in the incidence and impact of organizational change on the perceptions and experiences of managers in the public sector, the private sector and the (former public) utilities. The research indicates that there are significant differences in the impact of organizational change on managers in the three sectors with public sector managers and managers from the utilities having been more adversely affected. An analysis of managers’ perceptions of their “organization as a place to work”, prevailing managerial styles in their organization and managers’ perceptions of the “changing nature of their job” also reveals wide differences between managers in the three different sectors.

Purpose -The purpose of this article is to examine how the labour process of further education lecturers has changed as a result of legislative reforms introduced in the early 1990s. Design/methodology/approach -The paper draws on labour process theory and emergent perspectives on "the new public management" to provide theoretical frameworks. Evidence is derived from research carried out at three FE colleges in the English West Midlands involving interviews with managers and lecturing staff, documentary material and a survey of lecturing staff employed in the colleges. Findings -Market-based reforms in this sector have resulted in the intensification and extensification of work effort for lecturers. This paper argues that these changes have been driven by the ideological underpinning of the reform process. Individual and collective acts of lecturer resistance have been insufficiently strong to prevent change from occurring and worker alienation has increased.Research limitations/implications -The case study method renders generalisability of findings difficult. Comparative studies in other localities and sectors are needed. Practical implications -The research indicates that the "new managerialism" -which has developed in the public sector -has created an increasingly alienated workforce and that the processes of change in many institutions have had negative outcomes. Originality/value -The research demonstrates and application of labour process theory, supported by empirical evidence, as a means for examining the changing experiences of a group of public sector workers and assessing the effect of the "new managerialism" on workers' experiences.

Small firms' use of e-business is limited and little is known about what drives small businesses (SMEs) to embrace e-business. It first discusses different growth strategies adopted by SMEs and reviews Internet adoption in SMEs. Drivers and inhibitors of e-business are identified. Three research questions are derived-does strategic intent drive e-business adoption and is it a factor of market position or product innovation? Is this consistent across sectors? And how is strategic intent and industry adoption influenced by the enablers and inhibitors of e-business adoption? Using survey data from 354 SMEs in the UK West Midlands the paper investigates these. The research demonstrates that strategic intent influences decisions to invest in e-business. Those SMEs remaining in their existing markets are the least likely to invest, primarily due to the Internet not being seen as necessary for growth. Product innovation rather than market penetration drives e-business. e-Business drivers and inhibitors provide insights into this.

UMIST); BUPA Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health, Manchester School of Management, UMISTIn this paper, we examine the psychological effects of downsizing and redundancy on those remaining within organizations after large-scale redundancy programs. While there have been a number of studies of this type in the recent past, our task is to explore two separate studies which have investigated this phenomena. The first study explores the impact of redundancy in a recently privatized organization in the UK. This, we argue, is a particularly fertile area of study given the radical changes that have affected organizations in the UK that have been subjected to privatization. The results stem from an exploratory and qualitative case study which takes an individual perspective. The second study discussed in this paper explores the results of a survey conducted in the UK that examines the implications of change in both the public and private sector organizations. This survey takes a quantitative look at the implications of redundancy from an organizational perspective. By investigating these two studies, our research explores the impact of redundancy on two levels -the individual level and the organizational level. First, we examine the emotional, attitudinal and behavioral effects of redundancy on survivors and the resultant implications for management: in particular the changing role of line managers where delayering and redundancy has taken place. Second, we explore the impact of redundancy on the organization in terms of organizational morale, motivation, organizational loyalty and job security where redundancy has and has not been used as a method of downsizing.