Counselling remaining employees in redundancy situations

Abstract

Redundancy is a risk to all employees, and needs careful handling and counselling. Less recognised are the needs of those left behind. On the analogy of major disasters, they too demand meticulous attention to avoid deleterious effects both to themselves and to their organisations. The mishandling of a redundancy situation is presented as a case study. Drawing on survivors to disasters who overcome the trio of trauma, life crisis and loss, a study was undertaken of 50 senior and middle managers in private and public sector organisations which had recently undertaken major restructuring resulting in substantial loss of posts. The management of restructuring, redeployment or redundancy is important, not simply to be humanitarian, or for good public relations, but also because the effectiveness, vision and mission of the organisation that survives is at stake. Survival tips for both the individual and the organisation are indicated.

Citation

Vinten, G. and Lane, D.A. (2002), "Counselling remaining employees in redundancy situations", Career Development International, Vol. 7 No. 7, pp. 430-437. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430210449957