Increasing commitment after downsizing: the role of involvement and voluntary redundancies

ABSTRACT

Workforce reduction is often found to have a negative impact on the remaining workers. This study examines a case where organizational commitment increased among the remaining workers after a workforce reduction programme. Following the process in which the workforce reduction programme was implemented, the paper identifies several elements in the way the workforce reduction was implemented that may have contributed to the increasing commitment among the remaining workers. More specifically, the involvement of workers’ representatives, the way the workforce reduction was communicated, how the future of the workplace was framed and how workers were offered a choice to leave voluntarily, were identified as important for the remaining workers’ reactions. The paper thus contributes to previous research by adding to our understanding of how involvement and the nature of voluntary redundancies can affect the remaining workers, and can therefore also provide more specific recommendations to change managers of how to manage redundancies in a way that does not reduce the capability of the company in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Downsizing
• voluntary redundancy
• involvement
• survivors
• commitment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ola Bergström is Professor in Management and Organisation at the Department of Business Administration at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Göteborg, Sweden. He obtained his doctorate at the University of Gothenburg in 1998. He has published articles and books on a wide range of topics such recruitment, corporate social responsibility, and temporary agency work, restructuring and labour market policy. He is chairman of the centre for Global Human Resource Management.

Rebecka Arman is Assistant Professor in Management and Organisation at the Department of Business Administration at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Göteborg, Sweden. She obtained her doctorate at the University of Gothenburg in 2010 and has since then published several books and articles in the field of management, leadership and change.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Vinnova [grant number 2009-03062].