The human side of downsizing

Downsizing and Stakeholder Orientation Among the Fortune 500: Does Family Ownership Matter?

“…In fact, the majority of studies show that (mostly in the long-term) downsizing affects rather negatively the firms that have implemented it (Budros, 1999;Nixon et al, 2004;Vanderheiden et al, 1999). In the short run, it creates the illusion that decisions are being made and actions are undertaken (Cameron and Huber, 1997;De Vries and Balazs, 1996;Genasci, 1994;Glebbeek and Bax, 2004;Vanderheiden et al, 1999). In the long-term, Cascio (1993Cascio ( , 2002 showed that downsizing does not yield any performance gains.…”

An Empirical Investigation of a New Measure to Assess Abrasive Personality Disorder Traits

“…Abrasive Personality Traits Scale: The newly derived APT scale consisted of 33 items, which were gleaned from the personality literature about individuals with abrasive traits, e.g., Litvak, 1994;Millon & Birket-Smith, 1998;Levinson, 1978;Wepman & Donovan, 1984;Kets de Vries & Balazs, 1996;Matthiensen & Einarsen, 2007;Paulhus, 2014). Each item was rated on a Likert-type scale from 1 = Hardly ever, 2 = Sometimes, 3 = Frequently, to 4 = Almost always.…”

“…Wepman and Donovan (1984) described abrasive individuals from the perspective of psychotherapy, and they postulated them to be "difficult" with tendencies to be abrasive, irritating, aggressive, or annoying. Kets De Vries and Balazs (1996) suggested the behaviors exhibited by the abrasive individual are often a product of perceived rejection. Matthiensen and Einarsen (2007) found that people with abrasive personality traits were more likely to express aggression towards coworkers; however, they also found that victims of bullying were just as likely to express abrasive traits; therefore, abrasiveness might, at least partially, be a result of victimization.…”

Living on Both Sides of the Fence: A Phenomenological Study of Human Resource Development Professionals as Downsizing Survivors and Strategic Human Resource Development Facilitators

“…Other employees may view this involvement negatively causing downsizing agents to feel stigmatized within the organization (Clair & DuFresne, 2004;Clair et al, 2006). Other survivors might go so far as to blame downsizing agents for the emotional trauma they are experiencing, viewing them as grim reapers (Clair & DuFresne, 2004;Clair et al, 2006), angels of death (Sahdev & Vinnecombe, 1998), industrial surgeons (Foote & Robinson, 1999), terminators (Clair et al, 2006), and executioners (Grunberg et al, 2006;Kets de Vries & Balazs, 1996).…”

“…Organizations want employees to be less needy and dependent on them and take charge of their own careers; however, many persist in encouraging codependent relationships by keeping employees in the dark over organizational decisions that can have a profound negative impact on their lives (Kets de Vries & Balazs, 1996). Although downsizing will create discomfort for most people even when it is anticipated and even when the organization has carefully planned for the change, something that has been emphasized repeatedly in the practitioner and scholarly literature is the need for organizations to be as transparent as possible with employees (Noer, 1993).…”