Layoffs, Equity Theory, and Work Performance: Further Evidence of the Impact of Survivor Guilt.

Brockner, Joel; Greenberg, Jeff; Brockner, Audrey; Bortz, Jenny; Davy, Jeannette A.; Carter, Carolyn

doi:10.2307/256193

Cited by 154 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This may be explained by employees feeling trapped in their jobs, perceiving few employment opportunities elsewhere in the context of rising UK unemployment, seeing co‐workers lose their jobs, and perhaps leading respondents to react to psychological contract violations through increasing service efforts and demonstrating their value through service to the public. This argument is supported by research suggesting that anxiety about layoffs can increase performance in the short term (Brockner et al ., ). But how will this set of circumstances play out in the longer term?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Doing More with Less? Employee Reactions to Psychological Contract Breach via Target Similarity or Spillover during Public Sector Organizational Change

Conway

Kiefer

Hartley

et al. 2014

British J of Management

117

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many countries are facing the twin pressures of austerity and recession following the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. This paper uses the UK public sector and a major national announcement of budget cuts signalling extensive organizational cutbacks as its setting. We examine (a) whether organizational changes following the national announcement affect public sector employees' psychological contract breach, (b) whether employee reactions to psychological contract breach are consistent with the target similarity model and vary across foci, namely the organization, co-workers and public service users, and (c) whether some of these relationships are moderated by job insecurity or public sector commitment. We collected longitudinal survey data before and after the announcement of budget cuts, using a sample of 340 employees from a range of public organizations and locations. Results largely confirm the hypotheses. Increases in organizational change predicted psychological contract breach, which in turn predicted decreases in contributions towards the organization; however, contributions towards co-workers and public service users were unaffected, which can be explained with a target similarity, rather than a spillover, model. Furthermore, the relationship between breach and employee behaviours directed toward the public was moderated by job insecurity and public sector commitment.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Doing More with Less? Employee Reactions to Psychological Contract Breach via Target Similarity or Spillover during Public Sector Organizational Change

Conway

Kiefer

Hartley

et al. 2014

British J of Management

117

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many survivors report that it is more difficult to get work done in a post-layoff environment (Corum, 1996). Among survivors who perceive the layoffs as random (no clear explanation why one person was laid off over another), the quantity of their work increases, while the quality of their work suffers (Brockner, Greenberg, Brockner, Bortz, Davy, & Carter, 1986;Probst, 2002). However, some evidence suggests that, through the redistribution of work, if one's work becomes more interesting and intrinsically satisfying, survivors experience an increase in work effort (Brockner, Grover, Reed, & DeWitt, 1992).…”

Section: Procedural Justice Perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employee Age and Reactions to Downsizing

Lahner

Hayslip

McKelvy

et al. 2014

Int J Aging Hum Dev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present study explored the career development concerns among employees varying by age who had worked for organizations that either had or had not engaged in downsizing within a 1-year timeframe. The sample consisted of 72 layoff survivors and 92 non-survivors (employees whose organizations had not downsized). Each completed an online survey assessing career concerns framed in the context of Super's Life Span Life Space theory of career development, as well as measures assessing perceptions of loss, job insecurity, distress, social support, loss history, religiosity, and job satisfaction. Younger employees reported more job dissatisfaction, as did survivors, and younger survivors reported more such dissatisfaction relative to older survivors, and saw the downsizing as less equitable than did older survivors. Among non-survivors, age effects were minimal. Younger employees reported more concerns about Crystallization, Specification, Implementation, Innovation, Stabilizing, Consolidating, Advancing, and Updating, as did survivors. For Crystallization, and to a lesser extent for Innovation, younger survivors reported more such concerns than did older survivors, while among non-survivors, these differences were minimal. A similar age by survivorship pattern was found for psychophysical health, career-recycling tendencies, and for concerns at Super's career stages/maxicycles of Exploration, Establishment, and Maintenance. These findings suggest that young survivors appear to be less vocationally adaptable, more vocationally and personally vulnerable to downsizing, and more impacted in seeing downsizing as unfair, perhaps due to unrealistic career trajectory expectations. In contrast, older employees, perhaps due to increased job and/or layoff experience or the perception that downsizing was handled more equitably via greater loyalty to the organization, appear to be more resilient in these respects.

show abstract

“…In one study, Brockner found that survivors worked harder when they believed the firing was based on a random process rather than on merit (Brockner, 1986). In another study, he reported that those who remained were more likely to work harder (that is, to make reparations as if they were "guilty") if they suffered from low self-esteem.…”

Section: Experimental Studies Related To Altruistically Based Guiltmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpersonal guilt: The development of a new measure

O’Connor¹,

Berry²,

Weiss³

et al. 1997

J. Clin. Psychol.

130

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We describe the development of a new measure to assess guilt related to concern about harming others. The two versions of the Interpersonal Guilt Questionnaire, a 45-item and 67-item version, include theoretically-based and clinically relevant categories of guilt: survivor guilt, separation/disloyalty guilt, omnipotent responsibility guilt, and self-hate guilt. Preliminary reliability and validity studies for both versions are presented, based on clinical and nonclinical samples of subjects. Subscales on both versions show good internal consistency; however, the second version, which expanded on the first, is more psychometrically sound overall. Both versions demonstrated predicted correlations with previously published measures of guilt and related affects, such as shame and depression, and with attributional style. Differences between clinical and nonclinical samples are reported and the relevance of survivor guilt and shame to psychopathology is noted.

show abstract

Layoffs, Equity Theory, and Work Performance: Further Evidence of the Impact of Survivor Guilt.

Cited by 154 publications

References 9 publications

Doing More with Less? Employee Reactions to Psychological Contract Breach via Target Similarity or Spillover during Public Sector Organizational Change

Doing More with Less? Employee Reactions to Psychological Contract Breach via Target Similarity or Spillover during Public Sector Organizational Change

Employee Age and Reactions to Downsizing

Interpersonal guilt: The development of a new measure

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About