BNET Business Dictionary
Business Definition for: Downsizing
- organizational restructuring involving outsourcing activities, replacing permanent staff with contract employees, and reducing the number of levels within the organizational hierarchy, with the intention of making the organization more flexible, efficient, and responsive to its environment
- the reduction of the size of a business, especially by laying staff off. Downsizing may be part of a rationalization process, or corporate restructuring, with the removal of hierarchies or the closure of departments or functions either after a period of unsatisfactory results or as a consequence of strategic review. The terms upsizing and resizing are applied when an organization increases the number of staff employed.
Additional Resources
- Downsizing
- This overview focuses both on downsizing in the narrow sense workforce reduction and on related, generally broader or more fundamental strategies such as rightsizing and rethinking. The document defines key terms, discusses why downsizing is important, highlights implementation approaches, tools, and results and lessons, and suggests next generation issues. It...
- White papers 1995-04-05
- How To Survive Downsizing
- The downsizing trend has been prevalent in the corporate sector for the past few years. However, researches reveal that the companies resorting to downsizing techniques fail considerably. Downsizing fails to improve a company's performance, productivity, and overall profits. A company must recognize the negative consequences of downsizing. Thus, it is...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Downsizing: Layoffs/Closings
- Downsizing and layoffs, once phenomena associated mainly with individual company distress or larger economic downturns, have become permanent features of the global business landscape. Leadership companies recognize the myriad implications of downsizing and take any of a variety of approaches to what has become known as "responsible restructuring." Many companies...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- A Simple Remedy For The Devastations Of Downsizing
- From the executive summary ‘Downsizing is a legitimate business tool. When it works, it can lead to cost savings, increased productivity, and higher profits. When it does not work, it can leave the company foundering. The difference between a downsizing failure and success is not just, what upper management plans...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Employment Implications of Downsizing Strategies and Reorientation Practices: An Empirical Exploration
- The aim of this paper is to investigate downsizing approaches and their employment implications across several industries in Belgium. Therefore, a categorization scheme of different downsizing approaches was theoretically developed and validated with a sample of 19 downsizing cases in Belgium-based organizations across different industries. The categorization scheme represents a...
- White papers 2002-02-01
- Downsizing deconstructed - 'Examining the Incidence of Downsizing and its Effect on Establishment Performance,' paper by Peter Cappelli of the University of Pennsylvania - Brief Article
- Downsizing differs from traditional layoffs in that the job cuts do not appear to result from drops in demand, but instead seem to be driven by a desire for operating efficiencies, In "Examining the Incidence of Downsizing and its Effect on Establishment Performance," (NBER Working Paper 7742), Peter Cappelli of...
- Research articles 2000-08-01
- HP SET PLAN OF DOWNSIZING IN CHINA
- AsiaInfo Services 05-21-2002 HP Set Plan of Downsizing in China CHINA, May 21, 2002 AsiaPort via COMTEX -- HP China Group announced that they has set the plan of downsizing, which would be carried out in several weeks, and determined the...
- Research articles 2002-05-21
- Minding the Muse: The Impact of Downsizing on Corporate Creativity
- Research showed their R&D groups' creative performance to be in a prolonged slump following a corporate downsizing therefore these ill effects have to be countered. If downsizing is a necessity, managers must understand the long-term impact on creative output and do everything possible to expedite the process and return the...
- White papers 2000-05-23
- Defusing Downsizing
- Cutting employees is often necessary, but it's a risky process. Sizable work force reductions always carry big risks. This article describes the various risks that are involved with employee downsizing and how to keep these risks in line. It classifies the risks inherent in decisions to cut staffing into three...
- White papers 2002-12-01
- Death Imagery and the Experience of Organizational Downsizing: Or, Is Your Name on Schindler's List?
- The experiential realities of downsizing, reductions in force RIFing, restructuring, reengineering, rightsizing, and outplacement, are often at wide variance with their touted, and widely expected promises of increased productivity, efficiency, team-work, role interchangeability, and profit. They often fall short of the promise of more for less. Vignettes from the presenter's...
- White papers 1996-02-15
- How Managerial Ideologies Moderate the Relationship Between Change in Profitability and Downsizing
- This study investigates the moderating effects of three managerial ideologies on the relationship between change in profitability and subsequent downsizing. Results of a moderated regression analysis reveal that the managerial ideologies moderate the relationship between change in profitability and downsizing in a consistent manner. Strong belief in the ideologies increases...
- White papers 2002-01-01
- Background On Downsizing
- In the contemporary business era, where the emphasis is on cost-effectiveness and ‘lean' organizations, downsizing has emerged as a prominent activity of relieving employees from their jobs. There are several reasons due to which organizations follow the downsizing strategy. The paper examines the same. The history of downsizing is also...
- Presentations 2003-01-01
- Downsizing? Be Aware Of Immigration Regs Impact
- In the contemporary business era, with the emphasis being on cost-effectiveness and ‘lean' organizations, downsizing has emerged as a prominent strategy for reducing the workforce of an organization. For the workers living in foreign countries, downsizing poses some immigration issues. On the other hand, organizations have to address these issues...
- White papers 2001-03-13
- Downsizing With Dignity
- Most companies' resort to downsizing for achieving increased profitability. The organizations apply downsizing techniques by cutting down the expenses and increasing employee layoffs. However, experts suggest that an organization must recognize the real problem within the organization before going on a layoff spree. Moreover, even if an organization is determined...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Is There Life After Downsizing?
- Ultimately, the importance of downsizing from a social policy point of view depends upon its long-term impact on workers. Arguments holding that downsizing has a special extra impact net of preexisting labor market characteristics include several different possibilities. It could be that the process of being forced out of one's...
- White papers 2001-12-10
- How to Boost Morale After Downsizing
- How to Boost Morale After DownsizingLessons from a corporate downsizingReaders interested in recovering after downsizing might find the chapter on "Practicing spirit-centered leadership: Lessons from a corporate layoff" of interest. It can be found at http://www.trafford.com/06-1721 , http://arcleadershipgroup.net/publications.html , or on a number of other sites such as Amazon ....There...
- Discussion threads 2007-09-01
- The Role Of Leadership During Downsizing
- Downsizing has become a popular tool for many CEOs over recent decades, however it comes with a heavy price. Sadly, organisational downsizing has come to be recognised as a powerful tool in the corporate strategic toolkit. This development has occurred in spite of a growing pool of evidence that clearly...
- White papers 2004-02-05
- Motivating the Survivors of a Downsizing
- Following a layoff, supervisors must be aware that employees need to be motivated differently during a downsizing period versus a growth or hiring period. A supervisor who attempts to motivate his/her employees, during a downsizing, as if the company where in a growth hiring phase will only deteriorate their employees...
- White papers 2001-04-01
- The Human Side of Downsizing
- Most downsizing efforts are directed at cutting costs, eliminating corporate bureaucracy and speeding decision making. Unfortunately, achieving these laudable objectives has too frequently been accompanied by lowered morale, diminished employee spirit and retarded risk taking, and innovation. Morale, like market share, can be managed. However, the tools needed, the skills...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Managing After Downsizing : A Manager's Guide to Coping With Layoffs
- Downsizing is a very personal and emotional experience for people caught up in the events. Some managers believe that those who are not dismissed will feel relieved, even grateful that they survived to keep their jobs. This might be true in some cases, where the cuts are few and widely...
- White papers 2003-01-01
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