Leadership in an Age of Layoffs

Emotions in strategic organization: Opportunities for impactful research

“…Many organizational events can elicit emotions among large groups of people. A variety of organizational change phenomena such as radical change (Bartunek, 1984), change in organizational identity (Corley and Gioia, 2004), mergers and acquisitions (Kusstatscher and Cooper, 2005), strategic alliances or joint ventures, and downsizing (Fox and Amichai-Hamburger, 2001; Noer, 1993) are all examples of events that can cause large groups of individuals to experience similar emotions, or collective emotions. Although scholars have documented the (often harmful) effects of emotions, research that investigates how to manage these collective emotions, so as to reduce their harmful effects and increase their effects on desired strategic outcomes, still remains in its infancy.…”

The Voluntary Redundancy Option: Carrot or Stick?

“…Noer (1993) defines ‘survivor sickness’ as a term that describes the attitudes, feelings and perceptions that occur in employees who remain after involuntary staff reductions. Survivors may exhibit a range of emotions including fear, insecurity, uncertainty, frustration, resentment, anger, sadness, depression, guilt, unfairness, betrayal and distrust (Noer, 1996).…”