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The current research investigates the gender difference in the attitudes of current employees and job seekers (or “future” employees) to payroll cost reduction methods (downsizing vs cutting pay).

Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, we analyzed a secondary dataset (survey data) of 2,139 employees in Ireland. In Study 2, we conducted an online experiment on 384 people in the US.

Study 1 reveals that, for males, downsizing survivors' commitment and job satisfaction levels are higher than those of employees whose pay is cut. In contrast, there were no differences in the commitment and job satisfaction levels between survivors of downsizing and pay-reduced employees for females. The analysis in Study 2 indicates that females are more attracted to organizations that utilize pay cuts over downsizing to overcome financial difficulties. In contrast, males demonstrated no differences in job-seeker attraction outcomes to organizations that chose either of these two payroll cost reduction methods. Thus, the results of the two studies indicate that females, compared to males, form less negative (or more favorable) attitudes toward pay cuts over downsizing.

The findings urge organizations to consider gender differences and develop relevant mitigation plans when one method must be chosen to reduce payroll costs.

The outcomes of this research indicate that the selection of a payroll cost reduction method may lead to a disparate impact on gender composition in an organization.

Studies comparing the consequences of payroll cost reduction methods (i.e. cutting pay and downsizing) have been limited, with no studies comparing these methods' impact on job-seeker attraction. The current research tries to close this gap by comparing the effects of cutting pay and downsizing on job-seeker attraction outcomes.

Two studies are conducted. The first study compares the effects of the two payroll cost reduction methods (i.e. cutting pay vs downsizing) on job-seeker attraction through a within-subject design experiment of people in the United States. The second study analyzes secondary data in South Korea to compare the two methods' effects on the number of job applicants applying for job openings.

The results demonstrate that organizations with a history of pay cuts yield more favorable job-seeker attraction outcomes than organizations with a history of downsizing.

Although firms that choose to downsize may better maintain the morale of surviving employees, the decision of downsizing can have long-term costs, such as having a worse capability to attract job-applicants than firms that choose to cut pay and share the pain as a group.

The research provides an insight into which payroll cost reduction method yields better outcomes in terms of job-seeker attraction. The research responds to the call in the payroll cost reduction method literature of identifying a feasible alternative to downsizing in terms of various outcomes other than the morale of current (or remaining) employees.

CHANGE has always characterised industrial societies. To speak of it as a mid‐twentieth century phenomenon, a violation of the established order, is unrealistic. Manufacturing operations have always been reviewed, sporadically or systematically, in industry to find new methods in order to secure greater output or lower costs. Usually the worker continued at his job with altered duties and different demands upon him, adjusting fairly easily to changed conditions in a routine way.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the conceptual framework about human resources downsizing and restructuring and how organizations of the public sector can do that effectively and efficiently. These facts drive to the conclusion that the implementation of early retirement incentives requires the most elaborate planning and execution to be effective, predictable and safe in the long term.

This paper adopts an analytical, descriptive methodology approach to describe the basic features of the data by using the descriptive research design. Data have been collected through different sources, which include secondary data, to introduce the theoretical literature of the subject as books, journals, articles, published working papers and referred previous studies related to the same subject.

Downsizing process is a deliberate administrative process that includes, but is not limited to, workforce reduction and is primarily aimed at achieving efficiency in public organizations. The definition of workforce downsizing may be narrowed to reducing the number of workers, or more likely to refer to general efforts to restructuring human resources in public organizations, Early Retirement Incentive Programs (ERIP) represents a viable alternative for organizations seeking to reduce staff. For the ERIP to be successful, the program coordinator must understand the business objectives and goals that the organization is trying to obtain.

Human resources strategies concerning downsizing public administration workforce should be more appropriate to those who leave the organization and those who stay at work, reducing the negative psychological, administrative and economical effects. This could be achieved through a strategy called early retirement incentive programs.

This methodology takes “thinking outside the box” in a new direction. Expert teams composed of leading thinkers from many disciplines are brought together to suggest creative and innovative solutions to process problems. By going beyond reengineering, their solutions are truly unique.

This paper comprises a theoretical study of factors influencing the utility of organisational downsizing. Companies downsize in order to adapt to lower demand or as a means to improving efficiency, i e to improve their performance/cost ratio. With perfect information and no legal or ethical restrictions, management would remove employees with the lowest utility. This information is normally lacking and downsizing is instead based on a headcount or on total salary cost reduction. The efficiency of such measures will then be a function of the correlation between salary and utility. Different downsizing outcomes are calculated on the basis of different assumptions; some of these outcomes increase efficiency while others would probably lead to continued decline. Many companies are subject to legal restrictions such as Last In First Out tenure requirements. This leads on to an analysis of relationships among utility, salary and period of employment. Break‐even analyses are computed showing on what terms it would be worthwhilefor management to offer longterm employees early retirement.

This paper examines both theoretically and empirically the application of utility theory to downsizing decisions. It is shown that residual efficiency after downsizing can differ greatly, depending on whether a company uses a headcount, utility or payroll reduction and that the correlations among employee age/period of job tenure, individual utility and salary all contribute to these differences. Companies are often restricted by legal and ethical considerations when deciding who will leave during downsizing. Using the above conceptual framework it is shown that companies can determine a financial break‐even point where it would be worthwhile to offer some categories of employees a severance package in order to have freedom of action during downsizing. Data are used from an empirical study of a large financial services company to illustrate the practical application of the model. It is concluded that only limited amounts of information in addition to that normally available to HR managers is required in order to apply the models developed in this study and that utility theory can make a valuable contribution to decision‐making in the downsizing process.

IN presenting the 1975 Viscount Nuffield Memorial Paper entitled “The attempt to reform British Leyland's Industrial Relations” its author, Mr. Pat Lowry (Director of Personnel, British Leyland Ltd.), asserts that British Leyland did not invent strikes — it inherited them. It is to be wondered whether Mr. Lowry was not too close to events to understand fully the nature of the illness which, in recent times, has gripped British Leyland and, indeed, other car manufacturers. British Leyland were not short of specialists and consultants during recent years, neither was there any lack of diagnoses or of treatments.

THAT the United States should have taken speedy steps to bolster the dollar was to be expected. The fall was dramatic and laden with dire possibilities for American pride. That it would have helped considerably in their export field had perforce to take second place.

This research examines the effects of organizational change (i.e., change of the hospital name, chief executive officer (CEO), and ownership) on objective performance measures of customer services (hospital beds, payroll, full-time employees, and patients served) in the health care industry. Archival data were collected from 155 Hospitals in the State of Tennessee for four consecutive years. During that time period, there were a lot of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and organizational changes in the health care industry in Tennessee. Results suggested that there was a significant reduction of hospital beds and a significant increase of payroll during the four-year period. These changes were more significant in urban hospitals than in rural hospitals. In the four-year period, a change of the hospital name resulting from a merger had increased the efficiency of serving customers (patient/FTE ratio), while those without the change had decreased the efficiency. Our results reveal some evidences that acquisitions may be related to short-term financial benefits as expected