Organizational Justice in the context of downsizing: A case based study

Description

During economic downturns, downsizing or layoffs are often used by organisations as tools to manage costs and restore profitability. However, downsizing has increasingly come to describe permanent job cuts undertaken to improve operational efficiency, even in the absence of declining business performance (Cappelli, 2000). The manner in which downsizing is executed significantly influences employees’ perceptions of organisational justice. This paper explores the organisational justice dimensions of downsizing through three case studies, comparing poorly executed layoffs with more humane approaches experienced directly by the authors. Based on these cases, the paper proposes a model that explains how layoff decisions and their implementation affect employees’ perceptions of fairness, trust and organisational commitment.

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Publisher

National HRD Network

Keywords

Organizational justice, Organizational behaviour

Source Link URL

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0974173920140407?journalCode=nhra

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