Redundancies Survivor Perceptions of Organisational

Redundancies

Survivor Perceptions of Organisational Justice and Organisational Commitment Following Redundancies: Results and Discussion

The present study was conducted in order to determine the effect that redundancy has on survivors. The dimensions driving this study are those relating to employee commitment following redundancy-associated downsizing and those relating to employee perceptions of how redundancy has been managed. The discussion here will provide an overview of the results produced by this study and an analytical discussion offering interpretations of these results.

Because the subject of the completed research is a broad investigation of organizational redundancy, the focus in the methodology is on measuring employee perceptions and experiences during the process. This requires a recognition of the uncertainty and discontent which can often be produced by change. To the point, it is common for change to be facilitated by a downsizing of staff, a shift of personnel delegation a redistribution of available company resources. These are conditions which can represent a threat to the stability of the employee experience and, even where a threat to job security is not necessarily present, the presumption or fear that this is the case may lead to lowered moral, reduced dedication to one's job responsibilities and an overall lag in performance at a time when a need for the energy and commitment is at its highest. This subtopic of employee perception and morale centers on a number of issues such as damaged organizational commitment, Survivor Syndrome and the imposition of undue stress. The discussion on these redundancy and downsizing-based byproducts revealed by both literature-driven and survey-drawn data will hold said findings up to the light of the original study hypotheses.

Hypotheses:

Here, we consider first the nature of the hypotheses set forward to be examined. Accordingly, it is appropriate to note that redundancy is inherently relating to the notion of downsizing and will typically involve a shifting of responsibilities and a judicious selection of retained employees. These retained employees are referred to in our results section as survivors and it is the set of perceptions and commitments that they report which drives the findings here. Therefore the discussion is predicted to confirm an expected disconnect between the arguments given in favor of redundancy-based downsizing and the real experienced faced by the survivors of companies with redundancies. While redundancy is often implemented based on the idea that greater efficiency can be achieved, the impetus to eliminate organisational redundancies are often carried out through widespread layoffs. To this point, Streeter (1992), reports that "the fiscal constraints and scarce resources that dominated funding of public and private social services throughout most of the 1980s further promoted the notion of eliminating redundancy as the primary means of achieving optimal efficiency." (p. 97) The present research offers the premise that this approach is faulty because survivors are likely to experience diminished organisational commitment following redundancies due to a lowered perception of organisational justice.

This is underscored by an array of hypotheses concerning expectations relating to the research. Formed based on research such as these above, the study would proceed with the hypotheses that following redundancies: there will be a decrease in affective commitment; an increase in continuance commitment; and a decrease in normative commitment. Additionally, the study would proceed with the hypotheses that following redundancies: perceptions of distributive justice will be positive related to affective commitment, that perceptions of procedural justice will be positively related to affective commitment; that perceptions of interactional justice will be positively related to normative commitment; and that perceptions of procedural justice will not be significantly related to continuance commitment. Additionally, the study would proceed with the hypotheses that following redundancies: perceptions of distributive justice will not be significantly related to continuance commitment; that perceptions of interactional justice will not be significantly related to normative commitment; that perceptions of procedural justice will not be significantly related to normative commitment; that perceptions of distributive justice will not be significantly related to normative commitment; and that perceptions of interactional justice will not be significantly related to normative commitment.

Survey Instrument:

Before exploring the results in any analytical detail, it is also appropriate to reflect on several specific aspects of the research design. Particularly, it is important to note that the nature of the study both qualitative -- as grounded by basic supporting literature from which the hypotheses would be developed -- and quantitative -- as supported by the use of a survey questionnaire using a basic Likert-scale functionality. The survey would be distributed using a strategy called snowball sampling in which the qualification of working for an organization which had addressed redundancies would be used to derive the sample. Questionnaires were filled out by respondents in companies where redundancies had taken place in the last few months. The sample population was located in Ireland and produced through previous acquaintanceship and resulting expanded networks. One subject of the questionnaire would be the perception of survivors of redundancies of organisational justice, which would be further classified as either distributive, procedural or interactional in nature. A second major focus of the questionnaire would be the organizational commitment felt by personnel toward a company following redundancies. Finally, the findings here would be intended to produce the basis for an analysis of the correlation between this perception of organisational justice and the organisational commitment felt by surviving personnel in the face of redundancies.

Demographics:

In order to draw observations based on the correlation between certain demographic features and the perspectives held toward the organization following redundancies, researchers collected certain critical demographic data. Among them, researchers considered gender, age, education level, length of service, position level, marital status, employment type, industry and location. Ultimately, following a review of responses for those that were fully completed, researchers arrived at a final sample set of 125 respondents. The discussion that is conducted on the results hereafter will be based on the responses provided by the 125 respondents in question.

Organisational Justice:

Organisational justice would be assessed in the research according to employee perspectives, with the questionnaire dividing questions according to the three subsets of distributive, procedural and interactional justice. The findings would justify this breakdown of different dimensions of organisational justice by showing that findings varied according to the dimension measured. This suggests a certain nuance and complexity to the perception of justice from within the organization after the tumultuous experience of witnessing redundancy-driven downsizing. Certainly, it can be observed that there is a broad spectrum of feelings on the subject from with the sample of 125 respondents engaged here.

Distributive Justice:

Distributive Justice concerns the perception of personnel toward the organization based on what may be perceived as inordinate reward by survivors. This may result in a sense of guilt that research has also identified as Survivor's Syndrome. However, where the research produced here is concerned, that possibility of guilt is not universal. To the contrary, 53 of the 125 respondents would report to feeling that former colleagues who had been made redundant had not been treated fairly while a statistically identical 50 respondents believed that they had been treated fairly. Another 23 of the respondents viewed the layoffs with neutrality.

This indicates that with the sample provided to the research, no conclusions can be made where distributive justice is concerned. There is no determinant indication that survivor perceptions of organizational justice are universally impacted by the perception of fairness as relates to employees made redundant. Simultaneously, it cannot be dismissed that an equally significant number of respondents did feel that a lack of fairness where redundant employees was concerned had impacted their perception of the company's commitment to organisational justice. These findings are inconclusive but lead to the observation that a study might be appropriate which distills the subject of distributive justice and perceptions of broader organisational justice in this same context of redundancy and the experiences of organizational survivors.

Procedural Justice:

Much like the findings produced relating to distributive justice, the findings relating to procedural justice do not immediately allow for any conclusions on the relationship between employee perceptions of procedural justice and employee perceptions of broader organisational justice in the face of redundancies. Here, the notion of procedural justice concerns the belief amongst employees that processes and procedures through which employees are made redundant have been carried out in a manner that is fair, unbiased and logical. Once again though, the results would show that personnel experiencing the tumultuous scenario of redundancy-based downsizing have a set of feelings which runs a full spectrum of differences.

Here, the results are reported with 51 respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that such fairness had been applied through the manner in which redundancies were evaluated and eliminated. A statistically similar 48 respondents disagreed that such fairness had been applied and 26 respondents reported to having no feelings on the matter. If researchers may yield any telling fact from this set of findings, it is that only 45% or less than a majority of respondents believed that the process relating to the evaluation and elimination of redundancies had not been done fairly or in an unbiased manner. From these findings, while the present analysis cannot argue that any universal conclusions have been produced, said analysis may put forth the argument that fewer than half of respondents justify a resolution that there is a connection between the procedural justice applied in the redundancy process and the perception held of general organisational justice by many of the employees that are left behind. That said, it would still be appropriate given the inconclusive nature of the present section of findings to recommend a study which distills the connection between procedural justice and the general perception of redundancy survivors of broader organisational justice.

Interactional Justice:

The findings in this section would also be somewhat inconclusive. In this section, researchers would seek to establish a connection between employee perceptions of broader organisational justice and the justice shown to remaining members of the organisation through redundancy procedures. For survivors, that is, there is an interest in measuring the relationship with the company based on the treatment which its exhibits toward surviros as they weather the uncertainty of downsizing, responsibility shifting and resource redistribution. In all of such cases, it was anticipated that personnel would overwhelmingly based their view of organisational on these features of interactional justice that include assurance of job security, practical support for new job responsibilities and appropriate compensation for increased demands. This anticipation would be met with a challenge. According to the data collected, out of the 125 respondents questioned, 50 agreed that organizational procedures had been carried out in a manner which treated survivors fairly. 43 did not feel that remaining personnel had been treated fairly following redundancies and 33 did not express any position at all. Once again, researchers are justified in arguing that the findings here are inconclusive and that universal observation cannot be drawn from these data. In addition to recommending as with the above dimensions of organisational justice that more focused studies be conducted in order to produced more conclusive findings, it is recommended that perhaps the instrument used to measure these different dimensions of organisational justice be refined. Particularly, each of the three dimensions of organisational justice discussed here above is given over to statistically significant numbers of abstentions. The uncertainty of many respondents may suggest a lack of clarity or refinement in the survey instrument itself. And once again, the lack of conclusiveness here justifies the isolation of each of these dimensions in the context of its own study on perceptions of organisational justice amongst survivors of redundancies.

Organisational Commitment:

A primary concern entering the discussion on organizational commitment subsequent to redundancies is the idea that such downsizing is done for the purposes of efficiency. It was anticipated that the approach taken by many firms towards eliminating redundancy does not necessarily imply an improvement in organizational efficiency. To the contrary, the elimination of personnel may carry with it a number of consequences to the culture, delegation and morale experienced by those who remain behind to the extent that organizational commitment may be damaged. As shown in the section above, it is unclear how much the manner in which redundancies are addressed will actually impact survivor perceptions of organisational justice. But it is still predicted that organisational commitment may suffer during this process. The text by Streeter helps the present research to make this case, indicating that many organisational theorists are reconsidering the implications of redundancy-based downsizing. Accordingly, Streeter provides the research with the assertion that "the great concern for eliminating duplication and overlap within and between organizations has led to disregard for the benefits that accompany redundancy. For example, W. Richard Scott notes that duplication serves as 'a repository of needed variety and heightened responsiveness, and provides and important safeguard against system component failures.'" (p. 97)