Downsizing in Britain and its effects on survivors and their organizations

In this paper, we examine the psychological effect!; of downsizing and redu ndancy on those remaining within organizations after large-scale redundancy programs. While there have been a number of studies of this type in the re cent past, our task is to explore two separate studies which have investiga ted this phenomena. The first study explores the impact of redundancy in a recently privatized organization in the UK. This, we argue, is a particular ly fertile area of study given the radical changes that have affected organ izations in the UK that have been subjected to privatization. The results s tem from an exploratory and qualitative case study which takes an individua l perspective. The second study discussed in this paper explores the result s of a survey conducted in the UK that examines the implications of change in both the public and private sector organizations. This survey takes a qu antitative look at the implications of redundancy from an organizational pe rspective. By investigating these two studies, our research explores the im pact of redundancy on two levels - the individual level and the organizatio nal level. First, we examine the emotional, attitudinal and behavioral effe cts of redundancy on survivors and the resultant implications for managemen t: in particular the changing role of line managers where delayering and re dundancy has taken place. Second, we explore the impact of redundancy on th e organization in terms of organizational morale, motivation, organizationa l loyalty and job security where redundancy has and has not been used as a method of downsizing.