Decreasing organizational size: untangling the effects of money and people
Article Abstract:
Literature on declining organizations focuses on two indicators of decreasing size - loss of financial resources and work force reduction. This effort to integrate the decline and size literatures combines psychological and sociological perspectives to distinguish between the effects of these two variables. Following the psychological threat-rigidity thesis, loss of financial resources is proposed to cause mechanistic shifts in organizational structures and jobs. We advance a more complex model about the influence of work force reduction that combines psychological and sociological perspectives. In the short term, the threat provoked by work force reduction brings about mechanistic shifts in structures and jobs. In the long term, however, the threat wanes and, following sociological theory, a second set of shifts occurs, in which less mechanistic means of coordination and control are used for the smaller work force. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Academy of Management Review
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0363-7425
Year: 1989
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
The stigma of bankruptcy: spoiled organizational image and its management
Article Abstract:
Interview, archival, and observational data from four computer firms were used to develop a theory about how Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code spoils the image of top managers and firms. We propose that Chapter 11 is a discrediting label that caused key organizational audiences to have negative reactions towards a firm, including disengagement, reduction in the quality of participation, bargaining for more favorable exchange relationships, and denigrating an organization and its leaders. Those negative reactions further increase the probability of organizational death and threaten managerial careers. We also propose a hierarchy of stigma-management strategies that leaders may use in their efforts to avert or repair the spoiled images of top management and firms. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Academy of Management Journal
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0001-4273
Year: 1987
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Effects of organizational formalization on alienation among professionals and nonprofessionals
- Abstracts: Understanding radical organizational change: bringing together the old and the new institutionalism. "P2-form" strategic management: corporate practice in professional partnerships
- Abstracts: Gender and organizational performance: determinants of small business survival and success. Easier said than done: gender differences in perceived barriers to gaining a mentor
- Abstracts: Multiple stakeholder orientation in UK companies and the implications for company performance. Strategic orientation, strategic planning system characteristics and performance
- Abstracts: Impression management in the feedback-seeking process: a literature review and research agenda. Corporations as social change agents: Individual, interpersonal, institutional and environmental dynamics