THE LEGITIMACY OF ORGANIZATIONAL DOWNSIZING IN CANADA - AN ANALYSIS OF EXPLANATORY MEDIA ACCOUNTS

We track the cognitive legitimation of organizational downsizing over time through an evolution of explanatory accounts in newspaper reports of middle-management layoffs in Canadian companies from January 1988 to December 1994. We advance an integrative typology of accounts and a rgue that the form and content of accounts capture sense-making activi ty by the press. We find support for our prediction that the form and content of these accounts changes over time as managerial downsizing i s taken for granted as a legitimate business practice.