Whereas employee participation is generally conceived to facilitate implementation of
organizational change, only limited research has investigated whether it may reduce the
negative effects of downsizing. The present study compares two Swedish hospitals that
implemented downsizing in different ways. While there were no major differences in
stressors between hospitals, proactive implementation was associated with more employee
participation. Moreover, employee participation variables were positively associated with
employee work attitudes and well-being at both hospitals. These findings provide insights
concerning the importance of a long-term strategic implementation of organizational
change.
AllenN. J.MeyerJ. P.
(1990): The measurement and antecedents of affective,
continuance and normative commitment to the organization. In:
Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63,
1–18.
2.
AshfordS.
J. (1988): Individual
strategies for coping with stress during organizational transitions. In:
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 24,
19–36.
3.
AshfordS. J.LeeC.BobkoP.
(1989): Content, cause, and consequences of job insecurity:
A theory-based measure and substantive test. In: Academy of
Management Journal, 32,
803–829.
4.
Armstrong-StassenM.
(2005): Coping with downsizing: A comparison of
executive-level and middle managers. In: International Journal
of Stress Management, 2,
117–141.
5.
BeanC. J.HamiltonF. E.
(2006): Leader framing and follower sensemaking: Response to
downsizing in the brave new workplace. In: Human
Relations, 59,
321–349.
6.
BeerM.EisenstatR. A.SpectorB.
(1990): Why change programs don't produce change.
Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec,
158–166.
7.
BeehrT. A.WalshJ. T.TaberT. D.
(1976): Relationship of stress to individually and
organizationally valued states: Higher order needs as a moderator. In:
Journal of Applied Psychology, 61,
41–47.
8.
BrayfieldA. H.RotheH. F.
(1951): An index of job satisfaction. In:
Journal of Applied Psychology, 35,
307–311.
9.
BrocknerJ.
(1990): Scope of justice in the workplace: How survivors
react to co-worker layoffs. In: Journal of Social
Issues, 46,
95–106.
10.
BrocknerJ.GroverS.ReedT. F.DeWittR. L.
(1992): Layoffs, job insecurity, and survivors' work effort:
Evidence of an inverted-U relationship. In: Academy of
Management Journal, 35,
413–425.
11.
BurkeR. J.CooperC. L.
(eds.) (2000): The organization in crisis: Downsizing, restructuring,
and privatization. Oxford:
Blackwell.
12.
CameronK.FreemanS.MishraA.
(1991): Best practices in white-collar downsizing: Managing
contradictions. In: Academy of Management Executive,
5, 57–73.
13.
CaplanR.D.
(1971): Organizational stress and individual strain: A
social-psychological study of risk factors in coronary heart diseases among
administrators, engineers, and scientists. Ann Arbor,
Michigan: Institute for Social Research, University of
Michigan, University Microfilms No. 72/14822.
14.
CovinT.
J. (1993): Managing
workforce reductions: A survey of employee reactions and implications for management
consultants. In: Organizational Development Journal,
11, 67–76.
15.
CovinT. J.KilmannR. H.
(1990): Participant perceptions of positive and negative
influences on large-scale change. In: Group &*Organization
Studies, 15,
233–248.
16.
CunninghamC. E.WoodwardC. A.ShannonH. S.MacintoshJ.LendrumB.RosenbloomD.BrownJ.
(2002): Readiness for organizational change: A longitudinal
study of workplace, psychological and behavioural correlates. In:
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology,
75, 377–392.
17.
DavyJ.A.KinickiA.J.ScheckC.L.
(1991): Developing and testing a model of survivors
responses to layoffs. In: Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 38,
302–317.
18.
De
WitteH. (1999):
Job insecurity and psychological well-being: Review of the literature and
exploration of some unresolved issues. In: European Journal of
Work and Organizational Psychology, 8,
155–177.
19.
FairhurstG. T.CoorenF.CahillD. J.
(2002): Discursiveness, contradiction, and unintended
consequences in successive downsizing. In: Management
Communication Quartely, 15,
501–540.
20.
FalkenbergH.NäswallK.SverkeM.SjöbergA. (in
press): How are employees at different levels affected by privatization? A
longitudinal study of two Swedish hospitals. In: Journal of
Occupational and Organizational Psychology.
21.
FerlieE.AshburnerL.FitzgeraldL.PettigrewA.
(1996): The new public management in action.
Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
22.
GreenglassE. R.BurkeR. J.
(2001): Editorial introduction. Downsizing and
restructuring: Implications for stress and anxiety. In: Anxiety,
Stress and Coping, 14,
1–13.
23.
GoldbergD.
(1978): Manual of the General Health Questionnaire.
Windsor: National Foundation for
Educational Research.
24.
GowingM. K.KraftJ. D.QuickJ. C.
(eds.) (1998): The new organizational reality: Downsizing,
restructuring, and revitalization. Washington,
DC. American Psychological
Association.
25.
GreenhalghL.RosenblattZ.
(1984): Job insecurity: Toward conceptual
clarity. In: Academy of Management Review,
3, 438–448.
26.
HallstenL.
(1985): Burnout: En studie om anpassnings- och utvecklingsprocesser
i en byråkrati [Burnout: A study on adjustment- and development processes in a
bureaucratic organization]. Stockholm:
Länsarbetsnämnden (Report no. 18:2):.
27.
HellerF.PusičE.StraussG.WilpertB.
(1998): Organizational participation: Myth and reality.
Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
28.
HellgrenJ.NäswallK.SverkeM.
(2005): There's more to the picture than meets the eye: A
comparison of downsizing survivors with changed and unchanged job
content. In: South African Journal of Industrial
Psychology, 31,
87–93.
29.
HellgrenJ.SverkeM.
(2003): Does job insecurity lead to impaired well-being or
vice versa? Estimation of cross-lagged effects using latent variable
modeling. In: Journal of Organizational Behavior,
24, 215–236.
30.
HellgrenJ.SverkeM.
(2001): Unionized employees' perceptions of role stress and
fairness during organizational downsizing: Consequences for job satisfaction, union
satisfaction and well-being. In: Economic and Industrial
Democracy, 22,
543–567.
31.
HerscovitchL.MeyerJ. P.
(2002): Commitment to organizational change: Extension of a
three-component model. In: Journal of Applied
Psychology, 87,
474–487.
32.
HittM. A.KeatsB. W.HarbackH. F.NixonR. D.
(1994): Rightsizing – Building and maintaining strategic
leadership: A long-term competitiveness. In: Organizational
Dynamics, 23,
18–32.
33.
HollenbeckJ. R.WilliamsC. R.KleinH. J.
(1989): An empirical examination of the antecendents of
commitment to difficult goals. In: Journal of Applied
Psychology, 74,
18–24.
34.
HopkinsS. M.WeathingtonB.
L. (2006): The
relationship between justice perceptions, trust, and employee attitudes in a downsizing
organisation. In: Journal of Psychology,
140, 477–498.
35.
IversonR.
D. (1996): Employee
acceptance of organizational change: The role of organizational
commitment. International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 7,
122–149.
36.
IversonR. D.ZatzickC. D.
(2007): High-commitment work practices and downsizing
harshness in Australian workplaces. In: Industrial
Relations, 3,
456–480.
37.
JonssonE.
(1993): Konkurrens inom sjukvården: Vad säger forskningen?
(Competition in the health care industry: What can research tell us?):
Stockholm:
IKE.
38.
JudgeT. A.ThoresenC. J.PucikV.WelbourneT. M.
(1999): Managerial coping with organizational change: A
dispositional perspective. In: Journal of Applied
Psychology, 84,
107–122.
39.
KalimoR.TarisT. W.SchaufeliW. B.
(2003): The effects of past and anticipated downsizing on
survivor well-being: An equity perspective. In: Journal of
Occupational Health Psychology, 8,
91–109.
40.
KernanM. C.HangesP. J.
(2002): Survivor reactions to reorganization: Antecedents
and consequences of procedural, interpersonal, and informational
justice. In: Journal of Applied Psychology,
87, 916–928.
41.
de VriesKets M. F. R.BalazsK.
(1997): The downside of downsizing. In:
Human Relations, 50,
11–50.
42.
KivimäkiM.VahteraJ.PenttiJ.FerrieJ.
(2000): Factors underlying the effects of organizational
downsizing on health of employees: Longitudinal cohort studies. In:
British Medical Journal, 320,
971–976.
43.
KozlowskiS.ChaoG.SmithE.HedlundJ.
(1993): Organizational downsizing: Strategies, interventions
and research. In: CooperC. L.RobertsonI. T.
(eds.): International review of industrial and organizational psychology (Vol. 8,
263–332):Chichester:
Wiley.
44.
MakawatsakulN.KleinerB. H.
(2003): The effect of downsizing on morale and
attrition. In: Management Research News,
26, 52–62.
45.
MarksM.
L. (1993): Restructuring
and downsizing. In: MirvisP.
H. (Ed.): Building the competitive
workforce: Investing in human capital for corporate success (60–95):
Chichester, U.K.:
Wiley.
MathieuJ. E.ZajacD. M.
(1990): A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents,
correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. In:
Psychological Bulletin, 108,
171–194.
48.
MikkelsenA.SaksvikP. O.LandsbergisP.
(2000): The impact of a participatory organizational
intervention on job stress in community health care institutions. In:
Work & Stress, 2,
156–170.
49.
MooreS.GrunbergL.GreenbergE.
(2006): Surviving repeated waves of organizational
downsizing: The recency, duration, and order effects associated with different forms of
layoff contact. In: Anxiety, Stress, and Coping,
19, 309–329.
50.
NeivaE. R.RosM.das Graças Torres da
PazM. (2005):
Attitudes towards organizational change: Validation of a
scale. In: Psychology in Spain, 9,
81–90.
51.
NoerD.
(1993): Healing the wounds: Overcoming the trauma of layoffs and
revitalizing downsized organizations. San
Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
52.
NovelliL.Jr.KirkmanB. L.ShapiroD. L.
(1995): Effective implementation of organizational change:
An organizational justice perspective. In: CooperC.
L.RousseauD. M.
(eds.): Trends in organizational behavior (Vol. 2, 15–36):Chichester, UK:
Wiley.
53.
NuttP. C.
(2007): Assessing downsizing guidelines with an
exemplar. In: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science,
3, 373–395.
54.
ÖhrmingJ.SverkeM.
(2001): Bolagiseringen av S:t Göran: En proaktiv organisering
(Hospital corporatization: Proactive organization):
Lund:
Studentlitteratur.
55.
ÖhrmingJ.SverkeM.
(2003): Transition into privatization: Uncertainty and
sense-making in two Swedish hospitals. In: HellgrenJ.NäswallK.SverkeM.SöderfeldtM.
(eds.): New organizational challenges for human service work (75–93):Munich: Rainer
Hampp.
56.
ParkerS.
K. (2003): Longitudinal
effects of lean production on employee outcomes and the mediating role of work
characteristics. In: Journal of Applied Psychology,
4, 620–634.
57.
ParkerS. K.ChmielN.WallT. D.
(1997): Work characteristics and employee well-being within
a context of strategic downsizing. In: Journal of Occupational
Health Psychology, 4,
289–303.
58.
PfefferJ.
(1998): The human equation. Boston,
MA: Harvard Business School
Press.
59.
PoznerB. Z.RandolphW. A.
(1980): Moderators of role stress among hospital
personnel. In: Journal of Psychology,
105, 215–224.
60.
QuinlanM.
(2007): Organizational restructuring/downsizing, OHS
regulation and worker health and wellbeing. In: International
Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 30,
385–399.
61.
RizzoJ. R.HouseR. J.LirtzmanS. I.
(1970): Role conflict and ambiguity in complex
organizations. In: Administrative Science Quarterly,
15, 150–163.
62.
SadhevK.
(2003): Survivors' reactions to downsizing: The importance
of contextual factors. In: Human Resource Management
Journal, 13,
56–74.
63.
SchweigerD. M.LeanaC. R.
(1986): Participation in decision making.
In: LockeE.
A. (Ed.): Generalizing from laboratory
to field settings: Research findings from industrial-organizational psychology and human
resource management (147–166):Lexington, MA: Lexington
Books.
64.
ShawJ. B.Barrett-PowerE.
(1997): A conceptual framework for assessing organization,
work group, and individual effectiveness during and after downsizing.
In: Human Relations, 50,
109–127.
65.
SOU1993:38. Reformerad landstingsmodell: En kartläggning och analys av
pågående förnyelse, ur Hälso- och sjukvården i framtiden: Tre modeller (Health care
service in the future: Three models): Stockholm:
Rapport fran expertgruppen till HSU 2000.
66.
SpectorP.
E. (1994): Using
self-repport questionnaires in OB research: A comment on the use of a controversial
method. In: Journal of Organizational Behavior,
5, 385–392.
67.
SpreitzerG.MishraA.
(2002): To stay or to go: Voluntary survivor turnover
following an organizational downsizing. In: Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 23,
707–729.
68.
Spri (1994):
Stockholmsmodellen: Beslutsbefogenheter och ekonomiskt ansvar (The Stockholm
Model: Decision authority and economic responsibility):
Stockholm:
Spri.
69.
SverkeM.HellgrenJ.
(2002): The nature of job insecurity: Understanding
employment uncertainty on the brink of a new millennium. In:
Applied Psychology: An International Review, 51,
23–42.
70.
SverkeM.HellgrenJ.NäswallK.
(2002): No security: A meta-analysis and review of job
insecurity and its consequences. In: Journal of Occupational
Health Psychology, 7,
242–264.
71.
SverkeM.HellgrenJ.ÖhrmingJ.
(1999): Organizational restructuring and health care work: A
quasiexperimental study. In: Le BlancP.M.PeetersM. C. W.BüssingA.SchaufeliW. B.
(eds.): Organizational psychology and health care: European contributions
(15–32):Munich: Rainer Hampp
Verlag.
72.
TombaughJ.WhiteL. P.
(1990): Downsizing: An empirical assessment of survivors'
perceptions in a post-layoff environment. In: Organizational
Development Journal, 8,
32–43.
73.
Van KnippenbergB.MartinL.TylerT.
(2006): Process-orientation versus outcome-orientation
during organizational change: The role of organizational identification.
In: Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27,
685–704.
74.
WanbergC. R.BanasJ. T.
(2000): Predictors and outcomes of openness to changes in a
reorganizing workplace. In: Journal of Applied
Psychology, 85,
132–142.
