May 7th, 2009
BusinessWeek: The Tricky Truth About Downsizing
Companies can reduce unintended effects of downsizing, according to research conducted at the Wisconsin School of Business that was recently featured in BusinessWeek.
The BusinessWeek article examined ways for companies to reduce the negative effects of downsizing. It included research on the topic by Charlie Trevor, an associate professor of management at the Wisconsin School of Business, and Anthony Nyberg, a former PhD candidate at Wisconsin, who is now an assistant professor at the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.
As BusinessWeek summarized their research findings: “Companies that had a history of harboring HR practices that were aimed at assuring procedural fairness and justice—such as having an ombudsman who is designated to address employee complaints; confidential hotlines for problem resolution; the existence of grievance or appeal processes for nonunion employees, etc.—did not see their turnover heighten after a downsizing effort. Apparently, remaining employees were confident that, in such a company, the downsizing effort had been fair and unavoidable.”
Earlier this year, Trevor and Nyberg received the Scholarly Achievement Award from the Academy of Management’s Human Resources Division for an article they authored on their research findings.