Fridays Are Furlough Days

Abstract

Recently, many state and local governments have implemented furloughs as a major strategy to deal with budget crises. Furloughs are often used as a temporary tool by which organizations try to save costs and at the same time, minimize layoffs. It is little known whether furloughs have the same impact on management as other cutback measures. This study examines furlough issues in public organizations with a more holistic view, from formulation of policy, to implementation, to outcome evaluation. We employed a survey of 273 employees in six state agencies. We found that furloughs have a significant individual impact on job satisfaction, financial burden, workload, and career stability while individual work performance, basically, did not change. However, the impact on an organizational level seemed limited-employees were more likely to view furloughs as "reasonable." Keywords furlough, cutback management, budget constraint, HR managementThe recent economic crisis has promulgated the return of cutback management, a popular approach to public management during the early 1980s, one of the most critical recessions in recent history. In dealing with financial crises and the trend toward privatization, HR Practice

Climate, stress and satisfaction: a multilevel study in the public sector / Clima, estrés y satisfacción: un estudio multinivel en el sector público

“…Además, esta situación de crisis parece que persistirá en los próximos años. Los efectos más dramáticos sobre la administración pública se han concretado en un incremento de los recortes presupuestarios y la disminución de los efectivos para atender sus servicios al ciudadano (Lee & Sanders, 2013). Estas circunstancias han promovido que las administraciones públicas se enfrenten al reto de asumir un aumento de las demandas ciudadanas con menos recursos y personal, sin menoscabar la calidad en la prestación del servicio (Boyne & Chen, 2007).…”

“…Furthermore, this crisis seems fated to continue into the forthcoming years. The most dramatic effects on the public administration have been in the form of an increase in budgetary cuts and a reduction in the number of staff to deal with citizen services (Lee & Sanders, 2013). These circumstances have led the public administrations to grapple with the challenge of handling an increase in citizen demands with fewer resources and staff, yet without sacrificing the quality of the services provided (Boyne & Chen, 2007).…”

Managing furloughs: how furlough policy and perceptions of fairness impact turnover intentions over time

“…Organizational changes that are motivated by purely financial concerns may not sell as well with workers as changes aimed at efficiency and quality gains (Wright et al, 2013) or innovation improvements (Conway et al, 2014). Lee and Sanders (2013), in their study on the impacts of furlough policy implementation, asserted that employees whose leadership better communicates the fiscal reality behind the furlough policy are less likely to resist and reduce productivity.…”

“…number of furlough days required; procedural justice) affect perceptions of distributive justice and psychological contract breach (Adams, 1965;Folger & Cropanzano, 2001). These perceptions of fairness will, in turn, play a role in feelings of work overload (Lee & Sanders, 2013) which trigger (i.e. serve as a proximal driver of) turnover intentions (Hohman et al, 2013).…”

“…Furloughs can also be a more acceptable option for workers since this temporary solution may negate the need for large-scale layoffs or permanent across-the-board pay cuts. Lee and Sanders (2013) found that while furloughs did not have a significant impact on actual job performance, the implementation of these policies decreased job satisfaction, increased workloads, had a negative impact on morale, and created a financial burden for employees. Similarly, Badiru (2014) warned of program delays, negative effects on employee morale, reduced coordination, heightened ambiguity and uncertainty of expectations, increased work backlogs, and reduced productivity.…”