Healing the wounds : overcoming the trauma of layoffs and revitalizing downsized organizations /
David M. Noer.
- First edition
- xxvi, 248 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
- The Jossey-Bass management series .
Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-239) and index.
Forgotten survivors: what happens to those who are left behind -- Changing organizations and the end of job security -- Learning from the past: the survivor syndrome across time -- Speaking for themselves: layoff survivor stories -- Time does not heal all wounds: the effects of long-term survivor sickness -- Four-level process for handling layoffs and their effects -- Level one: manage the layoff processes -- Level two: facilitate the necessary grieving -- Level three: break the codependency chain and empower people -- Level four: build a new employment relationship -- Rebirth of meaning and direction: leading the new organization -- Life after downsizing: revitalizing ourselves and our organizations.
"What are the lingering effects of layoffs? How can managers keep business on track while initiating healing? David Noer has studied the effects of layoffs on survivors and the organizations that employ them. In this pioneering book he tackles what may be the most complex organizational issue since the industrial revolution: the fundamental and irrevocable shift in the psychological contract between employee and organization." "Based on case studies and original research, Healing the Wounds provides executives, human resource professionals, managers, and consultants with an original model and clear guidelines for revitalizing a downsized organization. The book also offers layoff survivors specific coping mechanisms to understand and transcend the toxic effects of the experience." "Noer shows how to recognize normal but emotionally crippling symptoms of survivor sickness; build intervention models that empower both survivors and organizations; restore energy, productivity, and risk taking in a downsized environment; explore employee contracts that reflect the new employment relationship; and plan for and conduct layoffs in the contemporary organization's new reality."--Jacket.