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Book part
Publication date: 13 September 1999

Wolter H J . Hassink

Abstract

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The Creation and Analysis of Employer-Employee Matched Data
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-44450-256-8

Book part
Publication date: 18 September 2006

Kevin F. Hallock

This paper uses data on over 4,600 layoff announcements in the U.S., covering each firm that ever existed in the Fortune 500 between 1970 and 2000, along with 40 interviews of…

Abstract

This paper uses data on over 4,600 layoff announcements in the U.S., covering each firm that ever existed in the Fortune 500 between 1970 and 2000, along with 40 interviews of senior managers in 2001 and 2002 to describe layoffs in large U.S. firms over this period. In order to motivate further work in the area, I investigate six main issues related to layoffs: timing of layoffs, reasons for layoffs, the actual execution of layoffs, international workers, labor unions, and the types of workers by occupation and compensation categories. The paper draws on literature from many fields to help further understand these issues.

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Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-426-3

Book part
Publication date: 11 July 2019

Annette Bergemann, Erik Grönqvist and Soffia Guðbjörnsdóttir

We investigate how career disruptions in terms of job loss may impact morbidity for individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Combining unique, high-quality longitudinal…

Abstract

We investigate how career disruptions in terms of job loss may impact morbidity for individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Combining unique, high-quality longitudinal data from the Swedish National Diabetes Register (NDR) with matched employer–employee data, we focus on individuals diagnosed with T2D, who are established on the labor market and who lose their job in a mass layoff. Using a conditional difference-in-differences evaluation approach, our results give limited support for job loss having an impact on health behavior, diabetes progression, and cardiovascular risk factors.

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Health and Labor Markets
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-861-2

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Book part
Publication date: 11 August 2014

Núria Rodríguez-Planas

This paper is the first to present empirical evidence consistent with models of signaling through unemployment and to uncover a new stylized fact using the 1988–2006 Displaced…

Abstract

This paper is the first to present empirical evidence consistent with models of signaling through unemployment and to uncover a new stylized fact using the 1988–2006 Displaced Worker Supplement (DWS) of the Current Population Survey (CPS), namely that, among white-collar workers, post-displacement earnings fall less rapidly with unemployment spells for layoffs than for plant closings. Because high-productivity workers are more likely to be recalled than low-productivity ones, they may choose to signal their productivity though unemployment, in which case the duration of unemployment may be positively related to post-displacement wages. Identification is done using workers whose plant closed as they cannot be recalled, and no incentives to signal arise.

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New Analyses of Worker Well-Being
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-056-7

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Book part
Publication date: 12 June 2017

Taekjin Shin

In this study, I explore the link between workforce downsizing and the predominance of a corporate governance model that espouses a shareholder value maximization principle…

Abstract

In this study, I explore the link between workforce downsizing and the predominance of a corporate governance model that espouses a shareholder value maximization principle. Specifically, I examine how top managers’ shareholder value orientation affects the adoption of a downsizing strategy among large, publicly traded corporations in the United States. An analysis of CEOs’ letters to shareholders indicates that firms with CEOs who use language that espouses the shareholder value principle tend to have a higher rate of layoffs, after controlling for various indicators of the firm’s adherence to the shareholder value principle. The finding suggests that corporate governance models, particularly those advocated by powerful organizational elites, have a significant impact on workers by shaping corporate strategies toward the workforce. The key actors in this process were top managers who embraced the new management ideology and implemented corporate strategy to pursue shareholder value maximization.

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Emerging Conceptions of Work, Management and the Labor Market
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-459-0

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Book part
Publication date: 30 October 2004

Rochelle Parks-Yancy

Research has found that African-Americans and women have opportunities for advancement in the traditional corporate environment through resources embedded in their social…

Abstract

Research has found that African-Americans and women have opportunities for advancement in the traditional corporate environment through resources embedded in their social networks. However, layoffs can affect the composition of their social networks, their positions in the networks, and rewards from those networks. I suggest that the racial, cultural, and gender differences between African-American and women layoff survivors and White and male layoff survivors will negatively affect their access to and benefits from social capital resources. Yet, strong tie relationships with White and male layoff survivors in key strategic positions can help African-American and women survivors maintain their existing job position because they can then borrow the social capital resources of the White and male survivors. Thus, while research has found that weak ties help individuals advance in their workplaces, strong tie relationships with majority groups may be more beneficial to minority groups in maintaining their position after a layoff.

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Diversity in the Work Force
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76230-788-3

Book part
Publication date: 26 November 2012

Kenneth T. Whelan, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Kevin F. Hallock and Ronald L. Seeber

We evaluate potential determinants of enrollment in an early retirement incentive program for non-tenure-track employees at a large university. Using administrative records on the…

Abstract

We evaluate potential determinants of enrollment in an early retirement incentive program for non-tenure-track employees at a large university. Using administrative records on the eligible population of employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements, historical employee count and layoff data by budget units, and public information on unit budgets, we find dips in per-employee finances in a budget unit during the application year, and higher recent per employee layoffs were associated with increased probabilities of eligible employee program enrollment. Our results also suggest that, on average, employees whose salaries are lower than we would predict given their personal characteristics and job titles were more likely to enroll in the early retirement program. To the extent that employees’ compensation reflect their productivity, as it should under a pay system in which annual salary increases are based on merit, this finding suggests that adverse selection was not a problem with the program. That is, we find no evidence that on average the “most productive” employees took the incentive.

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Research in Labor Economics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-358-2

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Book part
Publication date: 15 October 2020

Martha Crowley, Julianne Payne and Earl Kennedy

Labor process research has documented a shift in the nature of control – from techniques that aim to limit worker discretion to consent-oriented controls that are believed to…

Abstract

Labor process research has documented a shift in the nature of control – from techniques that aim to limit worker discretion to consent-oriented controls that are believed to generate greater effort by increasing intrinsic rewards or bonding employees to managers and/or the firm. Over the past several decades, however, growing pressure to increase profits has prompted firms to adopt cost-cutting strategies that have eroded job security, relationships with management and commitment to organizational goals. This study investigates how a changing labor process and rising job insecurity shape workers’ orientations toward work, managers and the firm, and in turn influence workplace behavior. Analyses of content-coded data on 212 work groups confirms that discretion-limiting controls (supervision, technology and rules) are associated with more negative orientations and/or reductions in effort (with variations across distinct forms of control), while investment in workers’ human capital (but not involvement of workers in decision-making) has the reverse effect – ­generating more positive orientations toward work, managers and the firm, and (in turn) promoting discretionary work effort and limiting covert effort restriction. Implications of insecurity are more complex. Both layoffs and temporary employment reduce commitment to the organization, but layoffs generate conflict with management without reducing effort, whereas temporary employment limits effort without producing conflict. We illuminate underlying processes with evidence from the qualitative case studies.

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Professional Work: Knowledge, Power and Social Inequalities
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-210-9

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Book part
Publication date: 19 December 2017

Christine L. Williams

Professional careers have become more precarious in recent decades. Corporations today engage in downsizing even during profitable times, a practice that impacts workers…

Abstract

Professional careers have become more precarious in recent decades. Corporations today engage in downsizing even during profitable times, a practice that impacts workers throughout the labor force, including those with advanced degrees. Using a case study of women geoscientists in the oil and gas industry, I investigate how the increasing precariousness of professional careers reinforces gender inequality. The compressed cycle of booms and busts in the oil and gas industry permits an investigation into how women fare in precarious professional jobs. Extending gendered organization theory, I argue that three mechanisms are built into professional careers today that enhance women’s vulnerability to layoffs: teamwork, career maps, and networking. I illustrate how these mechanisms disadvantage women with in-depth portraits of three geoscientists who lost their jobs during the recent downturn in oil prices. Their personal narratives, collected over a 3-year period of boom and bust, reveal how a particular multinational corporation is structured in ways that favor the white men who dominate their industry. The rhetoric of diversity obscures the workings of gendered organizations during good times, but when times get tough, management’s decisions about whom to lay off belies the routine practices the reproduce men’s advantages within the industry.

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Precarious Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-288-8

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Book part
Publication date: 14 November 2012

Brad S. Long

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to recast downsizing as an act of corporate social irresponsibility by showing it to be contrary to ethical principles available to defend…

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to recast downsizing as an act of corporate social irresponsibility by showing it to be contrary to ethical principles available to defend any course of action against the alternatives.

Methodology – Ethics theory is used to analyse the prevalent business practice of downsizing, drawing upon literature that examines downsizing and/or explains and demonstrates the application of ethical principles.

Findings – Downsizing, as defined in this chapter, is an unethical and irresponsible business practice because it reduces utility, ignores rights, creates injustice, breaks social contracts, creates agency relationships where none exist and fails to respond to the legitimate claims that employees, as a stakeholder, make upon corporations.

Practical implications – Change becomes necessary to the business practice of downsizing when it is carried out by profitable companies without proper appeal to ethics principles for justification. Ethical principles may, instead, suggest alternative courses of action or techniques.

Social implications – Downsizing (and other forms of mass layoffs) is not a morally neutral activity, as it engenders significant social implications (i.e. harm) that necessitate ethical consideration. Moreover, when business actions have social consequences, the interests of other stakeholders may become legitimate.

Value of the chapter – This chapter illustrates the formulation and application of principles that help guide business people to take morally right courses of action. It also serves as a template for analysing other aspects of the employment relationship for a more critical approach to corporate responsibility. As shown in this chapter, ethics can have more than a peripheral role in business decision making.

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Corporate Social Irresponsibility: A Challenging Concept
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-999-8

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