Consultation is needed – if staff know what is going on in the organisation, they feel more involved and confident – this would prompt them to be more motivated to work. They may also be able offer ‘grass root’ information that senior management would not necessarily be able to obtain themselves. If the planning of the human resource function is effective, employees will be less likely to feel threatened and more equally treated. This also reduces greatly the risk of disruptive action such as lawsuits and industrial action.
This sensitive approach to downsizing requires in-depth planning and information on hand for managers and lower level staff. Down-sizing affects those that are dismissed, but also affects those that stay within the organisation to a degree, which is generally overlooked; those that stay within in the organisation my lose members of their social circle, which may lower their morale and motivation. They may also be left with the feeling that they may be the next to leave, hence the lack of job security.
For instance, at my place of work6 when certain people left, there was a general view that the way in which they left or forced to leave in some perceptions was not fair and this created resentment within the organisation at the lower level of the hierarchy. As a result, lower level employees distanced themselves from the line managers and the human resources function, just performing the bare minimum requirements of their job role. Senior management took too long to notice the effect that the reduced workforce had on productivity and so further employees left, feeling that they would soon be pushed out anyway.
There is now an element of mistrust and resentment within the environment at the workplace where employees are not achieving the objective of human resources to go beyond the contract duties and there is no loyalty to the organisation. There have been ineffectual attempts to raise the level of motivation within the workforce by increasing the regularity of staff meetings but consultation is very autocratic. This is because there has been no research into the reason for the problem and so there has been further increase of the negative attitude towards working within the organisation.
The longer the problem is left to grow, the harder it will be to fix. The communication between senior management and lower level employees is virtually non-existent. Insensitivity of downsizing, only concerned with achieving personal performance targets (e. g. , processing 8 apps per hour) with no regard to organisational objectives. This may have been improved had the employees been aware of the reasons for downsizing and if the downsizing strategy had been considered fair then it would be more accepted. The authors of the journal article…
state that “In preparing for the downsizing an organization should allow sufficient time between the planning and the implementation phases”7. This gives the employees – those likely to be affected the most – time to accept the changes that will occur. Within this time, it should be the responsibility of the line managers and human resource managers to ensure that staff are reasonably comfortable with the changes in terms of their level of understanding and available course of action should they not be satisfied.
Good human resource planning within an organisation will have policies and procedures in place concerning severance, redundancy, downsizing, and termination of contracts, regardless of whether or not they have performed such tasks before. Down-sizing may also increase the workload for the remaining workforce. In a typical situation where the decision to down-size has been forced by a decrease in business revenue for instance, the remaining workforce may also have to perform a verity of tasks that they may not have done before or have little experience in.
this also lowers their confidence in their ability to competently do their job. This further increases the feeling of a lack of job security. “Burdened with extra duties in an uncertain environment” (journal 1). Employees will therefore have to be trained… making the org less vulnerable to… continuous monitoring The improvement and increase of use of modern information and communications technology has increased the ability for organisations to be more competitive in a fast moving environment. This is most applicable in organisations within the industries of technology, finance (investment).
This increase in the use of sophisticated technological systems and devices has seen a rise in what is known as ‘teleworking’. This is where people are able to work from an unconventional place such as their home or an office based overseas. The typical type of teleworking employee would be someone who mainly has to produce reports or spend a lot of time away from the office doing research or visiting customers. This type of working practice reduces the expenses for the organisation of office and storage space, furniture and he associated rates.
It is also suitable for people that are unable to work the normal nine to five hours, either due to the type of work required or their own personal circumstances but can manage their own time with little supervision. However, if the employee is not used to this type of working practice, they could feel socially isolated and left out of the running of the organisation. This may reduce the level of motivation, especially if they are not present to receive praise for any work they may have done.
