Muddle in the middle: organizational restructuring and middle management careers

Newell, Helen; Dopson, Sue

doi:10.1108/00483489610123191

Cited by 88 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…Kets de Vries and Balazs 1997; Morrison and Robinson 1997). The psychological contract between employers and employees has been argued to involve employees providing effort and loyalty in exchange for pay and job security (Newell and Dopson 1996;Dopson and Neumann 1998). Certainly, being made redundant would constitute-from the employee's perspective-a breach of that contract.…”

Section: An Experience Of Alienationmentioning

confidence: 98%

“Your Job No Longer Exists!”: From Experiences of Alienation to Expectations of Resilience—A Phenomenological Study

Vickers

Parris

2007

Employ Respons Rights J

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We have entered the age of the contingent or temporary worker, the consultant and the subcontractor. Workers are expected to be pliable and tractable; to "fit in." Being made redundant is also an area where modern workers are expected to be flexible and resilient. However, when these so-called "flexible" workers are told their job no longer exists, the accompanying sense of rejection and alienation can be excruciating. Stories of being made redundant were collected during an exploratory, qualitative study, using Heideggerian phenomenology as the methodological vehicle to capture the lived experiences of those affected. Focused, in-depth interviews were conducted with the ten respondents; nine men and one woman. The stories shared suggest that being made redundant is an alienating experience with respondents sharing feelings of powerlessness, shock, betrayal, shame and social isolation. Unfortunately, those having experienced redundancy were also not as resilient as is routinely assumed. They did not "bounce back" unchanged, but reported significant negative outcomes including fear for the future, underemployment, family disruptions and an erosion of trust. Recommendations are made orienting organisations towards a more human process of redundancy.

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Section: An Experience Of Alienationmentioning

confidence: 98%

“Your Job No Longer Exists!”: From Experiences of Alienation to Expectations of Resilience—A Phenomenological Study

Vickers

Parris

2007

Employ Respons Rights J

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“…These impacts can be seen in a number of ways. Firstly, the multiple rounds of downsizing in organizations have been identified with the breaking down of the psychological contract (Newell and Dopson 1996;Dopson and Neumann 1998). For middle managers, traditional benefits such as job security and career progression have now disappeared for many (Newell and Dopson 1996;Ebadan and Winstanley 1997).…”

Section: The Changing Context For Middle Managersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caught in the Middle: Organizational Impediments to Middle Managers’ Work-life Balance

Parris

Vickers

Wilkes

2008

Employ Respons Rights J

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As increased work demands and longer working hours become the reality for many employees, the concept of work-life balance has received increasing attention. This paper presents findings from an exploratory study of Australian middle managers, which investigated the impact of middle managers' daily organizational experiences on their lives both in and beyond the workplace. We focus on respondents' reports of the difficulty in achieving work-life balance, specifically, the organizational impediments to creating balance. Three particular areas where these impediments were apparent are: the impact of new technologies; limits to autonomy and control in the middle management role; and difficulties in taking advantage of flexibility initiatives in the workplace. As middle managers are caught in the middle between work and personal life, there is a need for organizations to support middle managers' efforts to achieve work-life balance if the organization's long-term goals are to be achieved. Key words flexibility . middle managers . work-life balance . workplace experiences Work-life Balance and the Middle ManagerThere has long been debate over how individuals can succeed in their working lives without sacrificing their personal lives (Lewis and Cooper 2005, p. 9). The interface between work and personal life (particularly family) has been characterised by terminology such as workEmploy Respons Rights J (

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“…In finance sector organisations, characterised (at least until the early 1990s) by a history of stable and paternalistic human resource practices, organisational restructuring is likely to decrease affective commitment but continuance commitment may be maintained by a lack of alternatives to the employees' current jobs (Newell and Dopson 1996). Newell and Dopson refer to this situation as negative attachment.…”

Section: Change and The Psychological Contractmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological contracts: are they still relevant?

Maguire

2002

Career Development International

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In dynamic business environments the concept of the psychological contract has altered radically. Empirical evidence from a case study conducted in one of Australia’s largest banking organisations is used to illustrate how change can impact upon the psychological contract. Traditional loyalty to an organisation and continuance commitment are becoming less important as organisations pursue more transactional relationships with their employees and as employees are encouraged to pursue more self‐interested “protean” careers. The question could be asked whether, with such increased emphasis on self‐serving personal and organisational strategies, the “psychological contract” continues to provide a means of establishing effective relationships between organisations and their employees. The main conclusion is that the maintenance of such contracts still makes an important contribution to organisational relationships but that organisations need to seek ways of adjusting the terms of the psychological contract to meet the needs of an increasingly mobile and protean workforce.

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Muddle in the middle: organizational restructuring and middle management careers

Cited by 88 publications

References 20 publications

“Your Job No Longer Exists!”: From Experiences of Alienation to Expectations of Resilience—A Phenomenological Study

“Your Job No Longer Exists!”: From Experiences of Alienation to Expectations of Resilience—A Phenomenological Study

Caught in the Middle: Organizational Impediments to Middle Managers’ Work-life Balance

Psychological contracts: are they still relevant?

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