This study examines the deliberations of professional MBA students when presented with a dilemma that weighs the difference between commitments to profit-maximization against concerns for fired workers who would need to seek a new job during a recession. Using content analysis, accounting, economic, and ethically based rationales that differ from the profit-maximizing recommendation are categorized. Results also show that those who make non-profit-maximizing recommendations consider, but ultimately reject the profit-maximizing approach to layoffs.

This study analyses to what extend and under what circumstances layoffs are accepted in Germany. Principles of distributive justice and rules of procedural justice form the theoretical framework of the analysis. Based on this, hypotheses are generated, which are tested empirically in a telephone survey conducted between East and West Germans in 2004 (n = 3036). The empirical analysis accounts for the different points of views of implicated stakeholders and impartial spectators. Key findings are: (1) The management of a (...) company can increase the acceptance of layoffs if the employees get some participation rights. (2) For impartial spectators generous compensation for those made redundant leads to a higher degree of perceived fairness. But job alliances are not even preferred to layoffs without measures to soften the blow of job loss. (3) Implicated stakeholders accept job alliances and perceive wage cuts as more fair than layoffs. However, compensation does not have the expected impact. (shrink)

Abundant research exists on the restructuring operations of large, publicly listed firms. However, little is known about the antecedents of layoffs in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Building on the stakeholder salience theory and arguments on social proximity, this study posits that SMEs are less likely to dismiss employees than large firms. We argue that the existence of strong interpersonal ties between employees and managers makes it hard for SME owners and managers to dismiss employees. Empirically analyzing a large (...) sample of European Union firms, the results confirm that the likelihood of layoffs is lower in SMEs than in large firms, even when performance declines. (shrink)

The present study aimed to explore and map the views of Portuguese laypersons regarding the acceptability of downsizing and restructuring measures during a recession. Two hundred and seven participants with various levels of training in economics were presented with a number of realistic scenarios depicting various measures, and were asked to indicate the extent to which they considered them to be acceptable. The scenarios were created by varying three factors likely to have an impact on people’s views: the magnitude of (...) a company’s reduction in net sales, the magnitude of planned downsizing, and the way in which downsizing would be implemented, either through layoffs, job alliances or both. Six qualitatively different personal positions were found. Four of these following positions were expected: never acceptable, mainly depends on the magnitude of downsizing, mainly acceptable and job alliance. Two unexpected positions were also observed: drastic measures and undetermined. (shrink)

ABSTRACT. This paper considers two sets ethical obligations owed by a firm and its management to stockholders and employees with respect to layoffs. Literature and research from ethics and agency are used to frame ethical issues that pertain to age discrimination in layoffs. An actual court case provides an example for focus, analysis, and discussion. Points of discussion include management''s obligations to employees and factors of injustice related to prejudice against age.

Two major management philosophies of the 20th Century, scientific management and quality management, are often contrasted. Scientific management is seen as a system that focuses on task efficiencies whereas quality management is described as a collaborative, people-centered process approach to continuous improvement. This paper examines the ethical implications of these diverse approaches, particularly in the way information is used to decide which employees to lay off in times of economic difficulty. The paper uses case examples of quality management as teaching (...) tools to place the conduct of managers within utilitarian, deontological and justice approaches to ethical decision making. Finally, it suggests that a third system, open-book management, may help deal with this ethical dilemma, though not without risk. (shrink)

A layoff is a threatening yet common event which employees might face at some point in their working lives. In two scenario-based experiments, we investigated which actions of a layoff agent during a dismissal notification meeting may contribute to laid-off employees’ fairness judgments and negative attitudes toward the employer. In general, the extent to which layoff victims were treated with respect was consistently found to increase perceptions of interpersonal and procedural fairness and to mitigate negative attitudes toward the employer. Further (...) results showed that layoff victims preferred to be given an adequate explanation of the reasons for the layoff and to receive notice from the direct supervisor. Relationships between the layoff agent’s actions and layoff victims’ negative attitudes toward the employer were mediated by perceptions of procedural fairness. In addition, delegating the layoff agent’s task to an external consultant increased perceived psychological contract breach. Our findings have important implications for organizational justice research and for the managerial practice of implementing fair layoffs. In particular, small actions, such as treating employees with respect, might be of benefit both to humans and organizations. (shrink)

This paper investigates the layoff behavior, a typical people dimension of corporate social performance, of family firms from a place-based perspective. We theorize that a place-based culture within family firms ensures that all organizational members share a deep sense of connection with the place of operations which makes them inherently care about their impact on society. Using data on layoffs of 2000 largest US firms between 1994 and 2007, we find that family firms do indeed exhibit a lower tendency (...) to lay off employees in comparison to non-family firms; this relationship is particularly strong in ‘places’ with low population where the negative social externalities related to layoffs tend to be higher. Further post hoc analyses indicate that family firms have a strong place-based culture which can provide resource-based competitive advantages. (shrink)

In this paper, the issue of plant closings is analyzed from the perspective of halakhah (the Written Law of Judaism). Two levels of analysis in halakhah must be differentiated: the legal (enforced by courts) and the moral (not enforced by law, but rather framed in terms of duty to God). There is no legal mandate to keep an unprofitable plant open, but there are a number of moral imprecations (particularly "acting more generously than the law requires") that might influence an (...) employer''s decision making. Using analogical reasoning to infer moral and/or legal obligations may be a fruitful means for businesspeople to analyze business situations in terms of ethical implications. (shrink)

In this paper, the issue of plant closings is analyzed from the perspective of halakhah (the Written Law of Judaism). Two levels of analysis in halakhah must be differentiated: the legal (enforced by courts) and the moral (not enforced by law, but rather framed in terms of duty to God). There is no legal mandate to keep an unprofitable plant open, but there are a number of moral imprecations (particularly "acting more generously than the law requires") that might influence an (...) employer's decision making. Using analogical reasoning to infer moral and/or legal obligations may be a fruitful means for businesspeople to analyze business situations in terms of ethical implications. (shrink)

One of the most prominent aspects of the present labour markets is an increase in occupational transitions. Employees experience insecurity to a much larger degree than ever before. Under these circumstances, the questions of blame and responsibility – for job-loss or unemployment –, so far much too readily focused on the individual, have to be re-considered. Transitions will also have to be framed by company based or labour administration interventions.This situation forms the entrance to the scientific evaluation that is central (...) to the SOCOSE project. It aims at the formulation of an integrated European model for outplacement/replacement counselling. Thus, transparency will be added to the process of dismissal from the perspective of the individual employees, and they are assisted in re-entering the labour market at an early stage. This form of guidance will prevent long-term unemployment or might else prevent unemployment completely. (shrink)

In a weak economy, both managers and scholars may seek an ethical framework to guide decisions about layoffs and downsizing. Agency and stakeholder theories offer limited practical guidance about ethical norms. This paper looks to the Talmud, an ancient compilation of law, legend, and critical analysis for insights into the modern employment relationship. In its method of analysis and in its specific discussion of the treatment of employees, the Talmud provides an approach and a framework for assessing the ethical (...) standing of particular layoff decisions. The article introduces readers to elements of Talmudic analysis and then applies that framework to particular kinds of corporate downsizing decisions. (shrink)

Organizational restructuring involving mass layoffs is an integral part of the corporate strategic landscape. While aimed at increasing a company’s efficiency and profitability, it often falls short of desired objectives, partly due to negative consequences for remaining employees, the so-called “survivors”. As workforce reductions may jeopardize a company’s legitimacy, we develop a model that links the change in post-restructuring employee productivity to the factors that help mitigate legitimacy issues. By using a comprehensive and innovative dataset of restructuring announcements reported (...) by European companies over the post-crisis period, we analyze the moderating effect of the restructuring extent on the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and economic justification as legitimacy tools in counterbalancing the negative effects of job reduction measures. Our findings reveal that in reactive layoffs, induced by financial difficulties, initially high levels of CSR help lessen negative effects of restructuring on employee productivity in low-extent restructuring events; while in high-extent restructuring events employee productivity is supported by continuing investments in CSR. We provide evidence that both the level and dynamics of CSR practices play a significant role, and their effect on employee performance is conditional on the restructuring context. (shrink)

Research shows that after layoffs, employees often report decreased commitment and performance which has been coined the survivor syndrome. However, the mechanisms underlying this effect remain underexplored. The purpose of the paper is to show that reduced organizational identification can serve as an explanation for the survivor syndrome. We conducted a laboratory experiment, in which participants work as a group of employees for another participant who acts as employer. In the course of the experiment, the employer decides whether one (...) of his or her employees should be laid off or not. Mediation analysis supports a social identity-based explanation for the emergence of the survivor syndrome: downsizing causes lower identification with the employer which in turn relates to lower performance of employees. (shrink)

People are often involuntarily laid off from their jobs through no fault of their own. Employees who are dismissed in this manner cannot always legitimately hold employers accountable for these miserable situations because the decision to implement layoffs is often the best possible outcome given the context—that is, layoffs in and of themselves may be “necessary evils.” Yet, even in circumstances in which layoffs qualify as “necessary evils,” morality demands that employers respect the dignity of those whose (...) employment is involuntarily terminated. In this paper I argue that to preserve the dignity of employees who are involuntarily terminated, in most cases employers have a substantial reason to offer a special kind of unemployment benefit, “severance pay.” To support my claim I draw and expand upon Bernard Williams’s analysis of “agent-regret,” which I believe greatly helps to address and articulate employers’ obligations in the context of involuntary termination. (shrink)

This research on the ethics of meaningful work examined how types of job-related harm and their magnitude of consequences influenced components of ethical decision-making. The research also investigated the moderating effects of individual differences on the relation between the MOC and the ethical decision-making elements for each type of harm. Using a sample of 185 Chinese professionals, a between-subjects, fully crossed experimental scenario design revealed that physical and economic job-related harm were recognized as moral issues to a greater extent than (...) cognitive or emotional harm. Second, physical job-related harm stimulated a higher level of moral evaluations than economic and cognitive harm. Third, individuals intended to act ethically when MOC was high versus low. Finally, experience with layoffs and IMO helped explain the relations between MOC and moral evaluations for economic and cognitive job-related harm, respectively. Implications for research and management are discussed. (shrink)

Despite the ongoing need for managers to fire employees and the wide prevalence of downsizing and layoffs, little research has examined how the conduct of termination interviews affects employee reactions. The current research was designed to explore reactions to several commonly used termination interview practices. Two scenario-based experiments examined the effectiveness of having a third party (an HR manager or a security guard) present, mentioning the employee's positive characteristics and contributions, and using alone, discrete escort, or public escort modes (...) of exit from the interview. Perceptions of being treated with respect and empathy, levels of anger, and the likelihood of complaining to others and taking legal action were assessed. Support for the effectiveness of specific termination interview practices was mixed. Specifically, in Experiment 1, third party presence was viewed as demonstrating a lack of respect, whereas mentioning positive characteristics was generally viewed favorably. Experiment 2 showed the favorable effects of mentioning positive characteristics were eroded by a security guard escort from the interview, and actually reversed and became negative when that escort was public in nature. A public escort also produced the highest levels of anger. These results suggest that multiple aspects of the termination interview process should be considered carefully when developing managerial policies. (shrink)

Leadership and folIowership are unified in an interdependent relationship exemplified by the idea of teamwork. Ethical concems are among the valuational elements essential to developing loyalty and trust in this relationship. However, because of their need to maintain power and distance, self-serving leaders may become detached from how their actions are perceived and reacted to by followers. This pattern can be especially damaging to teamwork when leaders continue to receive disprortionate rewards despite their poor performance, especially when coupled with organizational (...) downsizing and layoffs. Implications are drawn regarding the ethics of equity, responsibility, and accountability in the exercise of authority and power. (shrink)

Golden parachutes are often viewed as a form of excessive compensation because they provide senior management with substantial payouts following an acquisition while other stakeholders are subjected to layoffs, disrupted business relationships and other negative externalities. Using a sample of S&P 500 firms, an economic and ethical justification for this type of contract is given. Golden parachutes ensure effective corporate governance that, in turn, preserve the firm's value for all stakeholders. Boards of directors enter into parachute agreements to protect (...) recently hired CEOs' human capital during periods of financial uncertainty and, thus, potential takeover activity. From an ethics viewpoint, golden parachutes are valuable to all stakeholders because they encourage merger or acquisition in lieu of bankruptcy. (shrink)

The COVID-19 outbreak wreaked havoc on the hospitality business, resulting in significant layoffs, salary cuts, and unpaid leaves globally. This study uses the sensemaking theory to investigate how COVID-19 induced unfavorable human resource practices affect the link between perceived corporate social responsibility and employee identification and commitment. We tested this model using the data collected from 392 hospitality sector employees in Pakistan. The results reveal that “cut in salaries” and “work from home” positively moderate CSR’s impact on employees’ identification (...) and commitment. On the other hand, employee layoff and leave without pay do not impact the positive relationship between CSR and employees’ attitudes. Furthermore, the study finds that CSR during this pandemic has a significant positive impact on employees’ attitudes. However, this relationship becomes insignificant for employees who reported unfavorable HR practices in their organizations. The finding further reveals that CSR’s impact during COVID-19 on employees’ attitudes is moderated by the different levels of CSR importance in employees’ minds. This evidence is significant since HR practices implemented during this crisis need to be identified and framed to understand the effects of CSR on employee commitment and identification. CSR involvement in the pandemic can help managers keep their employees committed to organizations; only if this charity begins from their internal stakeholders first. (shrink)

One of the most important methods in dealing with the optimization of large, complex systems is that of hierarchical decomposition. The idea is to reduce the overall complex problem into manageable approximate problems or subproblems, to solve these problems, and to construct a solution of the original problem from the solutions of these simpler prob lems. Development of such approaches for large complex systems has been identified as a particularly fruitful area by the Committee on the Next Decade in Operations (...) Research (1988) [42] as well as by the Panel on Future Directions in Control Theory (1988) [65]. Most manufacturing firms are complex systems characterized by sev eral decision subsystems, such as finance, personnel, marketing, and op erations. They may have several plants and warehouses and a wide variety of machines and equipment devoted to producing a large number of different products. Moreover, they are subject to deterministic as well as stochastic discrete events, such as purchasing new equipment, hiring and layoff of personnel, and machine setups, failures, and repairs. (shrink)

What should maximin egalitarians think about seniority privileges? We contrast a good-specific and an all-things-considered perspective. As to the former, inertia and erasing effects of a seniority-based allocation of benefits from employment are identified, allowing us to spot the categories of workers and job-seekers made involuntarily worse off by such a practice. What matters however is to find out whether abolishing seniority privileges will bring about a society in which the all-things-considered worst off people are better off than in the (...) seniority rule's presence. An assessment of the latter's cost-reduction potential is thus needed, enabling us to bridge a practice taking place within a firm with its impact on who the least well off members of society are likely to be. Three accounts of the profitability of seniority privileges are discussed: the “(firm specific) human capital”, the “deferred compensation” and the “knowledge transfer” ones. The respective relevance of “good-specific” and “all-things-considered” analysis is discussed. It turns out that under certain circumstances, a maximin egalitarian case for seniority privileges could be made. Senior: Do you know that they are planning layoffs? Of course, it is only fair that they lay-off the newcomers first! After all, I have been loyal to the company for many years. Junior: Did I choose to be a newcomer? Footnotes1 Many thanks to two anonymous referees, to P.-M. Boulanger, B. Cockx, C. Fabre, L. Jacquet, E. Lazear, I. Robeyns, G. Vallée, Y. Vanderborght, Ph. Van Parijs, V. Vansteenberghe and J. de Wispelaere for their help and critical comments. Earlier versions of this paper were presented in Louvain-la-Neuve, Ghent, Montevideo and London. I am very grateful to these audiences. Special thanks to G. Brennan for his extensive and extremely valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper. The usual disclaimers apply. (shrink)

Introduction -- 1. General obligations. Conflicts of interest -- Uncompensated work -- Community service -- Pro bono work -- Living conditions -- Working conditions -- Layoffs -- Unequal pay -- 2. Obligations to the public. Repressive governments -- Corrupt politicians -- Public officials -- Public opinion -- Public bailouts -- Public reviews -- Public health -- Cultural differences -- 3. Obligations to the client. Self-destructive behavior -- Distrustful behavior -- Dishonest behavior -- Deceptive behavior -- Spendthrift behavior -- Solicitous (...) behavior -- Unrealistic expectations -- Manipulative situations -- 4. Obligations to the profession. Greed -- Insensitivity -- Jealousy -- Betrayal -- Treachery -- Unfairness -- Uncertainty -- Cheating -- 5. Obligations to colleagues. Office affairs -- Working hours -- Labor law violations -- Crediting coworkers -- Accommodating disabilities -- Firm bankruptcy -- Firm loyalties -- Untrustworthy colleagues -- 6. Obligations to the environment. Environmental hypocrisy -- Environmental conflicts -- Contextual conflicts -- Social justice -- Future generations -- Other species -- Reducing waste -- Reducing consumption -- Why ethics matters now. (shrink)

Downsizing remains a topic of great interest to both academics and practitioners. Yet, the impact of layoff decisions on perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has hardly been studied. We examine the impact of responsibility of business leaders making these layoff decisions, and characteristics of the downsizing implementation on convergence and divergence in (1) CSR perceptions, (2) victims’ perceptions of fairness, and (3) survivor commitment, in four countries. Using an experimental design, sixteen scenarios were distributed to (1) 163 managers in (...) Estonia, (2) 152 MBA students in India and 125 MBA students in France, and (3) 186 (non-traditional) undergraduate students in the USA. Results suggest that when top managers are attributed with the responsibility for downsizing, the resulting perceptions of CSR are negative. A similar pattern of results is obtained for victims’ perceptions of fairness and survivor commitment. In addition, although there are differences in effect-size based on differences in power distance, these results hold good (are similar) across the four countries, from four different society clusters. We discuss implications, limitations, and future research directions. (shrink)

This mixed-methods case study describes the experiences of a rural health organization in Canada that was a pioneer in undergoing institutionally driven radical change. This change was advocated by senior managers and physicians with the strong backing of the government. The senior managers and physicians made a strong case for the radical change and argued that a focus on efficiency and wellness would lead to improved service and quality of patient-care. However, this radical change initiative was resisted by nurses and (...) support staff who perceived that these changes were being driven by market-based institutional logics and questioned their ethical appropriateness in a public system. They also expressed a lack of trust given the large-scale layoffs in a prior restructuring. These findings run counter to extant theory by highlighting the role of agency despite institutional pressures. Specifically, change implementers not only face the burden of justifying ethical appropriateness of institutional logics, but also are required to engage in persuasive discourse that these institutional logics protect the interests of the members. (shrink)

Using a sample of over 700 business people and students, this study tested the premise of promise-keeping as a core ethical value in the work place.The exercise consisted of in-basket planning for layoffs within an organization. Only one of the five employees within the group had been given an express commitment/promise of continued employment for a two year period. The layoffs were being considered six months after the two year promise had been made. All five employees were performing (...) their jobs adequately, and each had either personal or work attributes representing competing values that would have made it difficult to choose among them. (shrink)

The financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic have caused many enterprises to suffer great losses. Thus, companies have to take measures such as pays cut, furloughs, or layoffs, which caused dissatisfaction among employees and triggered labor disputes. Therefore, this study explores the service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior based on the decomposed theory of planned behavior in order to understand the behavioral intentions of employees through their mental states, job attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. This study conducted (...) questionnaire surveys for employees in different industries, collected 281 valid questionnaires, and applied Structural Equation Model for the analysis. The results show: employees believe organizational justice in the organization is important, and when they feel treated fairly, their job attitudes and beliefs are enhanced. Employees’ job attitudes and beliefs support service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior, in other words, they have positive job attitudes and beliefs and will actively provide better service to customers. When employees are treated reasonably and fairly by the organization and have positive job attitudes and perceived behavior control, their spontaneous service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior is stimulated, thus increasing organizational development. (shrink)

As a mono-energy-economy, Russia’s fortunes are closely linked to the price of energy. That same link explains why when energy prices hit record highs, there was such strong public support for Vladimir Putin. But when energy prices plummeted in late 2008, Russia found itself with an economic downturn which brought with it, factory closings, worker layoffs and political grumbling. Because of Russia’s inexperience with economic upheaval, Russia is likely to go through greater turmoil and political uncertainty if not unrest, (...) than more traditional market economies which over the years have had to learn how to deal with economic cycles of this sort. (shrink)

Using a sample of over 700 business people and students, this study tested the premise of promise-keeping as a core ethical value in the work place.The exercise consisted of in-basket planning for layoffs within an organization. Only one of the five employees within the group had been given an express commitment/promise of continued employment for a two year period. The layoffs were being considered six months after the two year promise had been made. All five employees were performing (...) their jobs adequately, and each had either personal or work attributes representing competing values that would have made it difficult to choose among them.Clearly, promise-keeping does not matter most in the workplace: subjects overwhelmingly ignored their promises even when legally bound to keep them. Further, promise-keeping consistently was found to rank last in a hierarchy of workplace values. The legal system was suggested as a viable mechanism for encouraging promise-keeping in the workplace. Although the possibility of legal sanctions increased the frequency with which promises were kept, overall fewer than one-third (30%) of the subjects kept their word. Of those respondents who expressly were told that the promise was legally enforceable, the number who stated that they would keep their promise increased to 57%. (shrink)

Growing international trade has helped lift living standards around the world, and yet free trade is always under attack. Critics complain that trade forces painful economic adjustments, such as plant closings and layoffs of workers, and charge that the World Trade Organization serves the interests of corporations, undercuts domestic environmental regulations, and erodes America's sovereignty. Why has global trade become so controversial? Does free trade deserve its bad reputation? In Free Trade under Fire, Douglas Irwin sweeps aside the misconceptions (...) that litter the debate over trade and gives the reader a clear understanding of the issues involved. This third edition has been thoroughly updated to include the latest developments in world trade--including the practice of off-shoring services, the impact of trade on wages, and the implications of trade with China-based on the latest research. (shrink)

With the view toward improving the racial diversity in organizations, this work seeks to uncover the reasons why larger groups have an advantage in terms of job opportunities. Based on people’s preference for diversity in commodity selection, we propose a potential feature that may exist in human resource management and call it the isolated choice effect, which unconsciously affects the racial diversity of organizations. Specifically, when making selections in isolation, people are less likely to choose the one whose race would (...) increase group diversity than when making selections in collections. We set up eight experiments in which participants make hiring or firing decisions among choices that are more white people than black people. We find that participants in the isolated choice group are less likely to choose black people, the smaller group, than those in the collective choice group. Our results show a potentially important contributing factor to the underrepresentation of black people in many organizations because hires are often made in isolation while layoffs are often made in collections, which provides a starting point for improving racial diversity in organizations by avoiding the isolated choice effect. (shrink)

The domestic situation of the past few years shows the practices of employees’ unpaid leave and layoffs and the constant drain on capital, talent, and technologies in hospitality. Owners expect to reduce the losses to as low as possible by saving on human costs. Nevertheless, in face of such a changing environment, hospitality has to accumulate high-quality human capital through systematic investment, sensitive development, and continuous learning and growth to discover competitive advantages through the cultivation of human capital. The (...) pre-service education of new employees could accelerate their familiarity with the operations of the company and their understanding of their job role and duties. More importantly, with good planning, it could make employees feel emphasized with and respected with the result of largely changing their thoughts and working habits. Aiming at supervisors and employees in hospitality in Zhejiang as the research objects, a total of 420 copies of our questionnaire are distributed, and 357 valid copies were retrieved, with a retrieval rate of 85%. According to the results to propose discussions, it is expected to generate systematic and proper education methods for the pre-service education in hospitality, promote the education effectiveness, and promote employees’ capability and organizational performance. (shrink)

Artykuł podejmuje problematykȩ zwolnień pracowników przedsiȩbiorstw, która zyskuje na znaczeniu wraz z utrzymywaniem siȩ globalnego kryzysu gospodarczego na pocz¸a}tku XXI wieku. Kryzys prowadzi do dynamicznych zmian w otoczeniu organizacji i w wielu przypadkach wymusza decyzje o podjȩciu działań restrukturyzacyjnych. Restrukturyzacja przedsiȩbiorstw może obejmować zarówno ograniczenie kosztów prowadzenia działalności, modernizacjȩ procesów produkcji i świadczenia usług, zmianȩ rynków i partnerów biznesowych, jak również racjonalizacjȩ zatrudnienia. Zmiany w strukturze zatrudnienia mog¸a} prowadzić do kształtowania nowych, bardziej elastycznych relacji z pracownikami. W tym kontekście outplacement (...) jako koncepcja odpowiedzialnego zarz¸a}dzania zwolnieniami pracowników umożliwia zarówno złagodzenie negatywnych skutków utraty pracy i skrócenie okresu bezrobocia, jak też ochronȩ kompetencji istotnych przedsiȩbiorstwa. Opracowanie w oparciu o krytyczn¸a} analizȩ literatury przedmiotu przybliża: przesłanki do outplacementu jakimi s¸a negatywne efekty redukcji zatrudnienia w organizacji, stereotypowe i racjonalne kryteria zwolnień pracowników oraz koncepcjȩ kompetencji kluczowych i ich ochrony. ** Article undertakes issue of enterprises layoffs, which is becoming increasingly important along with persistence of the global economic crisis at the beginning of the 21st century. Crisis leads to dynamic changes in the organization environment and in many cases forces the decision to take restructuring actions. Restructuring of firms may include both reduction of operating costs, modernization of production and services processes, changing markets and business partners, as well as the rationalization of employment. Changes in the structure of employment can lead to the development of new, more flexible relationship with employees. In this context, the outplacement as a concept of responsible management of the redundancies can both address the possible negative effects of job losses and reduction of unemployment, as well as the protection essential company competences. Article on the basis of the literature critical analysis brings: evidence for outplacement which are the negative effects of downsizing in the organization, stereotyped and rational criteria for redundancies as well as the concept of key competencies and their protection. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on maintaining employment in the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises, which is crucial for the functioning of the economy. However, in an economic crisis, the changes in the area of employment of workers often become the foremost way of adapting to declining financial resources, which are the result of reduction of interest in the offer of the organisation by the customers. These actions had proven to be particularly evident in the case of global financial and economic (...) crisis, which also affected the Polish economy after 2008. The chapter suggests that the layoffs lead to rise in unemployment. Thus, there is a need to promote the outplacement, which is, a technique oriented on responsible dismissals in order to support a smooth transition of laid-off workers to new workplaces. In this way, both employees and companies increase their chances of maintaining competencies and better adapt to market competition requirements. This chapter explores the characteristics of the labour market policy in Poland, main features of the outplacement in the context of the crisis, examples of the outplacement implementation, plans for further development of the outplacement, and conclusions including directions for further research. (shrink)

In this article I examine how start-up capitalism recalibrates transnational ‘outsourcing’ or the work of so-called ‘cyber coolies’ to instead create labour as a site of innovation and experimental consumption. First, I draw on ethnographic fieldwork in India to theorise digital labour as a form of experimental mediation and temporal work oriented to the future. Second, I show how work is deeply embodied and centres on the racialised and gendered bodies of non-elite workers. Finally, I show how invitations to innovate (...) with work processes encourage workers to cultivate attachments of love and care for the company that ultimately privatise affect and conceal class and labour hierarchies. Tracing employees’ experiences through a period of automation and layoffs, this article argues for an understanding of how precarious feminised work creates the conditions of possibility for postcolonial and transnational technocapitalism to flourish. (shrink)

Museum workers have taken a massive hit during the pandemic when many museums closed their doors, cut staff hours, instituted layoffs and furloughs, and pushed more into precarity. For many workers, the effect of the pandemic has highlighted long-standing issues of racial, economic, gender and political inequality. This article engages with how workers are responding to this insecurity by highlighting worker-led feminist mobilizations for transformation in museums based in the United States and the United Kingdom. By focusing on efforts (...) for engaging with the Black Lives Matter movement, decolonizing the museum, unionizing workers and providing mutual aid, this article examines worker-led practices of transformation of the museum amid crisis. A special emphasis is put on how workers articulate the importance of feminist solidarity and collective action in envisioning a more just museum of the future. (shrink)

The paper studies the ethics of withholding information about an impending layoff and describes those situations in which managerial secrecy might be justified. It describes a layoff situation in which a manager has the latitude to decide what information to release and when, lists the reasons managers commonly give for withholding the information and analyzes each reason from a consequentialist and a Kantian perspective. The paper uses Sisela Bok''s analyses of lying and secrecy to create the prima facie case against (...) secrecy in the situation. (shrink)

Employees of large blue chip corporations in the 1950s through the mid-1960s demonstrated great loyalty to their employers. In return, those employers provided cradle to grave job security and benefits for their workers. During the 1980s, however, this social contract between employees and employers seems to have undergone a change. The norms of the organization man of the earlier period passed from use and a new normative framework seems to have developed. The norm of loyalty on the part of both (...) parties seems to have passed from practice. Employers would now terminate employees if it was in their short term interest to do so, while employees began to move from company to company, no longer making a career with one employer. Many writers have attributed this new employment relationship to the dynamics of the times, as we move from modern to late modern/early post-modern times. This paper reports the findings of a pilot qualitative study done with graduating seniors from an AACSB accredited business school. The subjects were asked to write self-reflective essays on the following themes: Given the nature of the new employment contract, are careers a vestige of the past? How do you feel about such concepts as career self reliance and career resiliency? Do you feel "at risk" in the new world of work? If so why, if not why not? If so, how do you plan to deal with it? The paper reports the critical response patterns of these graduating seniors and draws insights and conclusions from the literature illuminating the student reflections. (shrink)