Human Resources Management: The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Human Resource Management

* Downsizing: Reduction of the business portfolio by eliminating products and businesses units that aren’t profitable.

Downsizing refers to the voluntary actions on the part of organizations to reduce the overall size of their workforce, generally to reduce costs. The disadvantages of downsizing in a survey by the American Society of

Each organization has or should have a distinct business strategy to ensure they reach their desired goals and objectives. Uniquely, the business strategy, or competitive strategy, should include their target consumers, the product or service desired by their consumers, and their roadmap to remain competitive in the market (Parnell, 2014). However, strategies may be difficult to determine when the organization is engrossed in one industry, but decides to dip their toe in another industry (Bethel, 2016).

When considering downsizing, one of the most vital questions to consider is whether downsizing will improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and performance. If so, Stonewall must then consider what practices of downsizing to implement – workforce reduction, work redesign, or systematic change (Belcourt & McBey, p. 263). If reducing the size of the workforce, things to consider are whether cuts will be either targeted or across the board, and whether the cuts will be carried out all at once or staged over a period of time. Although, downsizing strives to improve

Swatridge realizes the company is not being as efficient as they could be and downsizing is a strategy to keep costs down. Employees throughout the company are aware of this possibility and are constantly concerned about their job security. The uneasiness about not knowing whether layoffs are coming or not has younger employees worried about losing their jobs, older employees wanting to take early retirement, and skilled employees thinking about switching jobs. With the threat of downsizing looming throughout the company, employees are worried about job security, especially ones who have no other skills and would be hard for them to find a new job. There is a lack of communication between managers and workers which is affecting employee morale.

‘You are the owner of small editing company. You have ten employees working for you. Business has been slow and the bills are piling up. You have done just about everything you can to cut costs but you are still unable to pay the bills. You do not want to close the business. You have done some number crunching and you found that by reducing your workforce from 10 to 6 you can pay your bills and remain profitable.’

In recent years, much attention has been given to downsizing, rightsizing, trimming the fat and other euphemisms for laying off workers. Generally, companies suggest that they are "forced" to lay off workers in order to cut costs and remain competitive. The financial community likes downsizing because it reduces the short term labor costs that companies must bear. Management likes downsizing for the same reason. This research considers the effects of downsizing and whether it is truly the panacea for a company 's ills, or whether it brings with it more problems. A specific company, Boeing, and recent downsizing decisions it has made is also considered.

Mergers and other affiliations have different reasons for consolidation of positions and reducing the number of company employee's. There are businesses that want to merge in efforts to acquire, expand, improve, or even take over an industry to make a profit or cut cost in their organization. Consolidation of companies in the healthcare industry due to economic pressure can lead to reduction of jobs (Fallon & McConnell, n.d.). When mergers of the same industry combine it can become burdensome to retain all employee's from both companies and still make a profit. As a result, the merger may offer incentives such as voluntary termination incentive, relocation, or early retirement (Fallon & McConnell, n.d.).

While the obvious reasons for headcount reductions are lackluster performance and shrinking assets under management (AUM) but, the root causes are deeper still.

A corporation needs to have a strategic plan in place in order for them to be able to implement a downsizing. There are many pros and cons to downsizing and it has a ripple effect on everyone in the corporation. Depending on the planning of the downsizing, one of the big issues to decide on is how to choose who will be terminated. For example, do you go by seniority, a percentage from all departments, an entire department, or by job level or position? These are major options that need to be addressed before anything happens. Most corporations today exist less for the well being of employees than they

Schuler (1997) summarises Strategic Human Resource Management as expressing how people are to be treated and valued in the workforce as well human resource management's responsibility for articulating the processes which encourage behaviour which is consistent with the organisation's business. In this context strategic human resource management also includes the development of guidelines for the implementation of people-related programs and, the more complex area of co-ordinating and facilitating change.

Downsizing has become a commonplace strategy for organizations to adopt in an effort to cut costs, eliminate redundancies, and streamline organizational systems. Over the last 15 years, many organizations have engaged in downsizing more than once. Most companies have learned from the mistakes of the past, but some companies are still trying to use the same tactics today that were used in the mid 1980s, that leave employees reeling.

The reenergizing employees after a downsizing case study, explains the potential effects of downsizing a company, on both employees and the manager. Andrea Zuckerman is the editor in chief of Blaze and the person who must relay the message to the entire company. It is made clear throughout the case that Andrea does not agree with this downsizing and feels that it is wrong. However, due to the newspaper industry dwindling away and many people now reading the news from a mobile device, it must be done. Andrea’s biggest conflict is figuring out how to properly explain this downsizing to employees, as this is no easy task. The “new normal” that will be implemented consists of merging the five areas of reporting into either two or three. As said, explaining this situation to employees in a reasonable and understanding manner will be a complex task.

“Competitive strategy involves positioning a business to maximize the value of the capabilities that distinguish it from its competitor’s” (Porter 1980:47). A successful business plan requires first and foremost the formation of an appropriate strategy. Through the implementation of a suitable strategy, the company is able to obtain its own industry niche and gain an understanding of its customers (Porter 1985). Whichever strategy is adopted it must be adequately integrated within the firms goals and missions to achieve a competitive advantage (Parker and Helms 1992).

Downsizing, restructuring, rightsizing, even a term as obscure as census readjustment has been used to describe the plague that has been affecting corporate America for years and has left many of its hardest working employees without work. In the year 2001 we had nearly 1.8 million jub cuts, that’s almost three times as much as the year 2000(Matthew Benz). In the 1990's, one million managers of American corporations with salaries over $40,000 also lost their jobs. In total, Fortune 500 companies have eliminated 4.4 million positions since 1979 including the 65,000 positions cut in February of 2002 (Ellen Florian). Although this downsizing of companies can have many reasons behind it and cannot be