Surviving a workforce reduction: Employee attitudes and behaviors that enhance organizational outcomes

Organizations apply workforce reductions as a means of achieving their corporate objectives. Subsequently, organizations rely on the effectiveness of their remaining employees to contribute to the organization's overall productivity. Thus, the attitudes and behaviors of surviving employees become important drivers of an organization's success. Research shows that perceptions of how the workforce reductions are implemented affect these attitudes and behaviors. Implementation justice reflects the employees' perception of fairness associated with organizational practices during workforce reduction implementation. This study seeks to uncover key aspects of a workforce reduction process that are most associated with survivor outcomes. The study examines the research question: How do workforce reduction implementation factors affect the attitudes and behaviors of the remaining employees? Specifically, factors such as interactional (assigning legitimate business requirements), procedural (employing fair methods), and distributive (apportioning negative outcomes equally) implementation justices are evaluated. Findings from a systematic review methodology indicate that perceptions of procedural implementation justice affect workforce reduction survivors most. Within procedural implementation justice, three contextual elements were frequently associated with survivor outcomes: communications, employee participation, and reduction selection criteria. While high perceptions of employee participation increased positive outcomes in survivors, both high and low perceptions of communications showed relationships with outcomes. The survivor outcome most affected by implementation practices was organizational commitment, or employee commitment to the employer. Organizational commitment increased when perceptions of any of the three implementation justices were high and decreased when procedural implementation justice was perceived to be low. Trust was the next most affected survivor outcome; it increased when procedural implementation justice was perceived to be high and decreased when distributive implementation justice was perceived to be low. The primary implication for management practitioners is that by incorporating (a) thorough and timely communications, (b) employee participate in planning and decision making, and (c) fair and transparent employee selection criteria, organizations can positively influence the attitudes and behaviors of surviving employees. Implications for scholars and researchers are discussed.