This Australian study examines accounts of downsizing survivors of a large corporation in Australia. The research investigated how corporate downsizing survivors adjusted to meet the new corporate realities and dynamics, and how individuals developed new skills for their new roles and responsibilities within the reorganized firm. The study further reflects on the issues related to motivation and attitudes towards employability and learning aspects of individuals. The findings highlight that individuals are responsible for their own training and development needs. Thus, they are required to initiate their own learning opportunities. The advancement of self-development skills is considered to be of considerable importance in successfully transforming a corporation.
Organizational
change initiatives, including restructuring and downsizing,
represent some of the most profound (Gandolfi, 2008) and
problematic issues facing modern-day corporations, non-profit
organizations, governmental agencies, and global workforces
(Carbery and Garavan, 2005). Corporate restructuring, or
simply `restructuring', is a relatively broad concept. Black
and Edwards (2000), for instance, define restructuring as
a major change in the composition of a firm's assets combined
with a major change in its organizational direction and
strategy. The change management literature distinguishes
between various types of restructuring. Heugens and Schenk
(2004) present three forms of corporate restructuring, namely
portfolio, financial, and organizational restructuring.
This
paper is concerned mainly with organizational restructuring
which is defined as "a dimension with significant changes
in the structural properties of an organizational entity"
(Carbery and Garavan, 2005). Multitudes of reasons have
been put forward to justify the adoption of restructuring
(Carbery and Garavan, 2005). Bowman and Singh (1993) assert
that the desire to increase an organization's levels of
efficiency and effectiveness is generally at the core of
managerial thinking and action. Prechel (1994) contends
that organizational restructuring is not a primary strategy
per se, but occurs as a `by-product' (Carbery and
Garavan, 2005, p. 489) of portfolio or financial restructuring. |
