European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Downsizing creates important effects inside and outside an organizational environment. In fact, downsizing results in breaking the organization into several or many groups. A group of employees leaves; sometimes, a group may receive advance layoff notification and a group stay. Confusion is high because employees who lose their jobs may not really understand why, since it was not their fault. The decision is often not related to their performance, while the ones who stay have done nothing more or special to keep their positions. Organizations often enjoy an initial increase in productivity because employees work harder and more competitively in an attempt to keep their jobs. Downsizing has become an organizational fact of life, and many surveys have confirmed that the survivors are often ignored before, during and after the corporate streamlining. Yet it is the survivors that will be the linchpins of future profitability. The employees that lose their jobs during an organizational downsizing go through an emotionally wrenching experience. Yet the co-workers who remain with their employers have similar reactions.