M. Armstrongstassen, SURVIVORS REACTIONS TO A WORKFORCE REDUCTION - A COMPARISON OF BLUE-COLLAR WORKERS AND THEIR SUPERVISORS, Canadian journal of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, 10(4), 1993, pp. 334-343
This study investigated how management and non-management survivors re
acted to a workforce reduction involving across-the-board permanent la
yoffs. The participants included 50 supervisors and two groups of tech
nicians (n=200) employed in a telecommunications company. Supervisors
were significantly more likely to perceive the company's reason for th
e cutbacks as fair, and reported greater job security and higher organ
izational commitment than did the technicians. However, there were sig
nificant differences between the two groups of technicians in perceive
d fairness of the distribution of the layoffs, action coping, and orga
nizational morale. The results suggest that researchers investigating
survivors' reactions need to examine differences within as well as acr
oss occupational levels.