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 1) The Cost of Downsizing in an Enterprise with Job Security
Author(s): HUNTER MABON
Journal: Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting
Year: 1996

Abstract:
This paper comprises a theoretical study of factors influencing the utility
of organizational 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 worthwhile for management to offer long term
employees early retirement.
2) Satisfaction with job security as a predictor of organizational commitment and
job performance in a multicultural environment
Author(s): Darwish A. Yousef
Journal: International Journal of Manpower
Year: 1998

Abstract:
The study explores the role of satisfaction with job security in
predicting organizational commitment and job performance in a
multicultural non-Western environment. It also examines factors
contributing to the variations in satisfaction with job security
among employees. Results indicate that satisfaction with job
security is positively correlated with both organizational
commitment and job performance. Furthermore, employees’ age,
educational level, job level, monthly income, marital status, tenure
in present job, tenure in present organization and an organization’s
activity contribute significantly to the variations in satisfaction
with job security among employees. Finally, the relationship
between satisfaction with job security, and both organizational
commitment and job performance vary across national cultures.
 3) Preference between Salary or Job Security Increase
Author(s): Yunus Kathawala, Kevin J. Moore, Dean Elmuti
Journal: International Journal of Manpower
Year: 1990

Abstract: A survey was conducted to test the preference of salaried

employees when given the option of increased pay versus increased job
security. The study also looked at various job characteristics and compared
how employees ranked them as motivators and satisfiers. Subjects were 41
automobile industry salaried employees who responded to written
questionnaires. The results showed a preference for increased salary over
increase in job security. Respondents who preferred a salary increase
demonstrated a less satisfied attitude with current salary and overall
satisfaction with the job. Those preferring increased security ranked security
higher than salary as a satisfier, but not as a motivator. Those preferring a
salary increase ranked compensation higher than job security as a motivator
and a satisfier. One group, male middle managers, showed a higher
preference for salary increase versus increased security. Overall average
response ranking of job elements resulted in compensation being ranked as
the number one element in importance towards job satisfaction while
increase in salary for performance ranked as the number one element in
importance in motivating employees. Job security ranked fifth as a satisfier
and seventh as a motivator overall.
 4) Downsizing: measuring the costs of failure
Author(s):
Steven H. Appelbaum, Suzanne Lavigne-Schmidt, Mihail Peytchev, Barbara Shapiro

Abstract:
A five-year review of the literature on the management practice of downsizing
and its related costs published between 1994 and 1998 is used to analyze the
positive and negative outcomes attributable to downsizing. The article examines
downsizing to assess its impact on both the individual employee (the human
element) and on the organization (the business factor). It is recognized that
some degree of downsizing was inevitable over the last 20 years due to
technological advances, business process reengineering, and a trend of cost-
cutting brought on by economic downturn and a globalization of the economy.
Nevertheless, poor implementation of downsizing strategies by unprepared and
unskilled managers, working in a vacuum of political leadership, made the
experience worse than it needed to be. It was concluded that, although there can
be many positive outcomes to a downsizing project, in the end the negative
outcomes outweigh the positive.

Article Type: Research paper

 5) Do Job Security Guarantees Work?
Alex Bryson, Lorenzo Cappellari and Claudio Lucifora

Abstract
We investigate the effect of employer job security
guarantees on employee perceptions of job security.
Using linked employer-employee data from the 1998
British Workplace Employee Relations Survey, we find
job security guarantees reduce employee perceptions of
job insecurity. This finding is robust to endogenous
selection of job security guarantees by employers
engaging in organizational change and workforce
reductions. Furthermore, there is no evidence that
increased job security through job guarantees results in
greater work intensification, stress, or lower job
satisfaction.
 6) Attitudes Toward Work and Job Security
Report Prepared by S. Kathi Brown
AARP Strategic Issues Research
Survey conducted by International Communications Research
August 2006

INTRODUCTION
In recent years, much media attention has been given to the
increasing number of formerly U.S.based jobs that companies have
moved (or off shored) to foreign countries, the increasing use of
technology to automate jobs that were once much more labor-
intensive, and the growing population of immigrant workers in the
U.S. In light of these dynamics, AARP commissioned a nationally
representative survey of U.S. workers ages 18 and older in order to
explore their attitudes about work and job security, including their
expectations regarding the age at which they will retire and the
degree to which they feel secure in their current job. This survey,
which was conducted for AARP by International Communications
Research (ICR) from July 12, 2006 through July 16, 2006 as part of
ICR’s weekly omnibus telephone polling, reveals that the majority
of U.S. workers feel fairly secure in their current jobs.
Furthermore, as other surveys have shown, many expect to
continue working well into their late 60s, 70s, or beyond.
 7) To stay or to go: voluntary survivor turnover following an organizational downsizing
GRETCHEN M. SPREITZER AND ANEIL K. MISHRA

Summary:
This paper examines the relationship between survivor reactions to a
downsizing and retention Subsequent to a downsizing. We hypothesize
that survivors who experience the downsizing as distributively,
procedurally, and interactionally just and who see top management as
trustworthy will feel more attached to the organization because each
reduces the threat inherent in downsizing. In addition, we hypothesize
that survivors who feel empowered will also feel more attached to the
organization because they feel better able to cope with the downsizing.
We further hypothesize that those survivors who feel more attached to
the organization following the downsizing will be more likely to remain
with the organization in the coming year. The theoretical model is tested
on a sample of aerospace employees who survived an organizational
downsizing. The trustworthiness of management, distributive justice,
procedural justice, and three dimensions of empowerment are found to
facilitate more organizational attachment. Higher levels of attachment
are found, in turn, to facilitate less voluntary turnover in the year
following the downsizing.
 8) Recession Has Different Impact on Job Security for Engaged Versus
Disengaged Employees
(Free-Press-Release.com) January 2, 2009
www.hrsolutionsinc.com

Summary:
Many would assume that recently heightened fears of job loss
have translated into employees exerting extra discretionary effort
at work, in the hopes of creating job security.
However, as HR Solutions’ research shows, just the opposite is
occurring with Disengaged Employees.
The employees who should be most concerned about job security are
the Disengaged Employees, who actually have less fear in that
regard. On the other hand, the very people who should have the least
concern for job loss are the Engaged Employees. This differentiation
gets to the heart of the character of Engaged versus Disengaged
Employees; the Engaged are more conscientious about, and connected
to, their job.”
 9) SHRM Survey: Employees Say Recession Not Reducing Overall Job Satisfaction in
2009
6/29/2009

Summary:
A survey results showed that “Job security is the number one aspect of
job satisfaction this year, topping benefits, compensation, and feeling
safe at work.”
Although employees say the weak economy has no negative impact on
overall job satisfaction, the recession is the reason why job security
is the top ranked factor to workplace satisfaction among HR
professionals and employees in 2009,”
Specifically, human resource professionals (72 percent) and employees
(63 percent) place job security at the top of the “very important”
aspects of job satisfaction
 10) Recession-weary workers tire of job-hopping
By Mark Tutton, for CNN
March 18, 2010

Summary:
Recession-weary workers have replaced their job-hopping ambitions
with dreams of a job for life, according to a study.
The 2010 Global Workforce Study, carried out by professional services
company Towers Watson, surveyed 20,000 employees in 22
countries.
The complicating factor is that the recession must have driven up
worries about job security. In the short-term I'm sure more people
are worried about their jobs.
The study found 76 percent of employees regarded a secure and stable
position as important, while only 51 percent saw it as achievable
within their current organization.
 11) Downsizing Effects on Survivors:
Layoffs, Offshoring & Outsourcing
Carl P. Maertz, Jr. , Jack W. Wiley, Cynthia LeRouge, Michael A. Campion
Abstract
In a representative sample of 13,683 U.S. employees, we compared survivors of layoffs,
offshoring, outsourcing, and their combinations to a group who experienced no
downsizing. Survivors of layoffs perceived lower organizational performance, job
security, affective attachment, calculative attachment, and had higher turnover
intentions than the comparison. Offshoring survivors perceived lower performance,
fairness, and affective attachment, but outsourcing survivors generally did not have
more negative outcomes. Layoffs generally had more negative outcomes than other
downsizing forms
In this study, we expand this understanding in three ways. First, despite many
studies that suggest that downsizing survivors have negative reactions and higher
intention to quit, empirical studies have not definitively established this. Here, we
overcome past methodological limitations and provide a more definitive test of the
main (between-subjects) effect of downsizing experiences on survivors’ reactions,
relevant psychological attachments to the organization, and turnover intentions.
Specifically, we provide an appropriate comparison group that did not have
downsizing in their organizations. This, along with our large representative sample,
strengthens inference for our main effect tests beyond that of previous studies.
 12) Job Security as an Endogenous Job Characteristic
Jahn, Elke J. Wagner, Thomas

Abstract
This paper develops a hedonic model of job security (JS). Workers
with heterogeneous JS-preferences pay the hedonic price for JS to
employers, who incur labor-hoarding costs from supplying JS. In
contrast to the Wage-Bill Argument, equilibrium unemployment is
strictly positive, as workers with weak JS-preferences trade JS for
higher wages. The relation between optimal job insecurity and the
perceived dismissal probability is hump-shaped. If firms observe
demand, but workers do not, separation is not contractible and
firms dismiss workers at-will. Although the workers are risk-averse,
they respond to the one-sided private information by trading
wage-risk for a higher JS. With two-sided private information, even
JS-neutral workers pay the price for a JS guarantee, if their risk
premium associated with the wage-replacement risk is larger than
the social net loss from production.
 13) How to Motivate and Retain Your High-Tech Employees
During Uncertain Economic Times
by Mike Foster

Downsizing, reduced employee loyalty, the absence of

job security, and increased competition for high-tech
talent—these are all reasons why the challenge of
keeping good high-tech employees is greater today than
ever before. As high-tech employees in organizations
across the board enhance their skills and relocate from
one company to another, managers are realizing that
motivating and retaining key technical employees is
much different today than it was just five years ago.