Playing the grim reaper: How employees experience carrying out a downsizing

This article reports a qualitative study that explores how employees who are responsible for carrying out a downsizing - ‘downsizing agents’ - experience and react to their downsizing responsibilities. Our results demonstrate that, when the work of carrying out a downsizing becomes emotionally taxin...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Human relations (New York) 2004-12, Vol.57 (12), p.1597-1625
Main Authors: Clair, Judith A., Dufresne, Ronald L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Case studies
Distancing behaviour
Downsizing
Emotions
Employee attitude
Employees
Human resource management
Influence
Layoffs
Occupational roles
Organizational change
Qualitative research
Responsibilities
Sociology
Sociology of organizations and enterprises. Bureaucracy and administration
Sociology of work and sociology of organizations
Studies
USA
Work roles
Working conditions
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article reports a qualitative study that explores how employees who are responsible for carrying out a downsizing - ‘downsizing agents’ - experience and react to their downsizing responsibilities. Our results demonstrate that, when the work of carrying out a downsizing becomes emotionally taxing, downsizing agents react by cognitively, emotionally, and physically distancing themselves from their roles. We explore forces that make carrying out a downsizing more taxing and the conditions under which distancing reactions become more likely.
ISSN:0018-7267
1741-282X
DOI:10.1177/0018726704049991