Successful Career Management in a Downsizing Organization: What the Survivors of Corporate Downsizing Learnedfrom Downsizing and How They Learned to Manage Theircareers Successfully

The previous stability that existed in manyorganizations has been replaced by rapid change thatcontinues to accelerate. Changes in governmentregulations, technology, competition, and the economydrive organizations to downsize in order to reducecosts. Downsizing is a major strategy that results inpeople being laid-off, fired, or forced to retire. While the corporate response to external changes inits environment has been to downsize, it is notclearly understood how the employees of thesecorporations are responding to downsizing. Survivorsof downsizing are aware of the constant threat of jobloss and in some cases may be more stressed than thevictims. Employees in this downsizing corporate worldfeel "under siege" and engage in defensive behaviorthat is counter-productive. While downsizing poses a threat to employees, it alsopresents a learning opportunity. Little has beenwritten about what employees are learning about howto manage the changes resulting from theproliferation of corporate-wide downsizing. This bookuncovers what people learned from their downsizingexperience and how they learned to manage theircareers successfully after organizational downsizing.