Executive Redundancy

Abstract

A new problem in the world of employment is that of executive redundancy. It was generally believed until a few years ago that once a person had joined the professional and managerial classes, he would be rewarded for the years of study that he had undertaken by a life‐long, well‐paid and steady job. It is now clear that this pattern of working life is changing and that the professional and managerial job must be concerned not only with being dynamic in the specialism practised, but that careers also must be dynamic. The reasons for the changing pattern of life in the top jobs are many and varied and include the relative decline of independent professionals, financial squeeze on smaller organizations and the shorter life‐span of higher technologies. The problem for the individual is not readily solved by the existing structure of the Department of Employment, a fact recognized by the restructuring of the Professional and Executive Register (PER), the remainder of the Department of Employment continuing to be concerned in filling existing vacancies. For executives, the old procedure of fitting approximately shaped pegs into well‐defined holes is not appropriate, as by definition, the executive and professional make jobs fit their personalities. In an attempt to cope with this problem, Professional and Executive Recruitment have been cooperating with the Extra Mural Department of the University of Manchester to try and find ways of resettling those who have been made redundant or are faced with a major change in career. At the outset it must be made clear that the intention of this work is not to find jobs for those participating in the scheme, but to enable them to find suitable employment for themselves which matches their qualifications, ambitions and experience. The participants are sponsored through the Training Opportunities Scheme of the Department of Employment on an eight week course held at the University and in the Manchester Business School.

Citation

Page, N. (1975), "Executive Redundancy", Personnel Review, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 51-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055289