Downsizing Research Articles

Leadership During Crisis: An Examination of Supervisory Leadership Behavior and Gender During COVID-19.

Due to major work disruptions caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, supervisors in organizations are facing leadership challenges as they attempt to manage “work from home” arrangements, the health and safety of essential workers, and workforce reductions. Accordingly, the present research seeks to understand what types of leadership employees think is most important for supervisors to exhibit when managing these crisis-related contexts and, in light of assertions that women may be better leaders during times of crisis, examines gender differences in how male and female supervisors act and how subordinates perceive and evaluate them in real (Study 1) and hypothetical (Study 2) settings. Results indicate that communal leader behaviors were more important to employees in all three crisis contexts. In Study 1, communality was a stronger predictor than agency of supervisor likability and competence. In Study 2, communality was also more positively related to likability, but agency and communality were equally predictive of competence ratings. Ratings of real supervisors suggest that women were not more communal than men when managing these crises, nor did perceptions of leader behavior differ by supervisor gender in a controlled experiment. However, evaluations of women's competence were more directly related to their display of communal behaviors than were evaluations of male supervisors. This research is helpful practically in understanding effective supervisory leadership during the COVID-19 crisis and contributes to the literature on gender and leadership in crisis contexts by attempting to disentangle gender differences in leader behaviors, perceptions, and evaluations.

Financial Flexibility and Corporate Employment

We study the role of financial flexibility on COVID-19 employment actions. Using daily data from March through May 2020 for 354 of the largest U.S. employers, we first quantify the effect of the pandemic on employees: Firms facing a negative demand shock were 28.8 percentage points more likely to reduce their workforce and 15.6 percentage points less likely to provide pay increases to frontline workers, compared to other sample firms. We then show that pre-pandemic financial flexibility attenuates these pandemic effects, reducing the likelihood of workforce reductions by almost half. The role of financial flexibility is greatest in firms with better governance, a more asymmetric cost structure, and better pre-pandemic treatment of workers.

Changes in the Employment Status of People With and Without Disabilities in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ObjectiveUsing data from the monthly Current Population Survey, this paper provides monthly employment and unemployment statistics for people with and without disabilities in the United States before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic to date (January 2021). DesignCross-sectional analysis of the Current Population Survey. SettingThe United States. ParticipantsPeople with and without disabilities ages 16-64 years. InterventionN/A Main Outcome MeasuresPercentage employed, percentage unemployed, percentage not in labor force, percentage on temporary layoff, percentage looking for work. ResultsEstimates show that, like workers without disabilities, workers with disabilities experienced increases in unemployment at the beginning of the pandemic but continued to remain engaged in the labor force. Our analysis finds that employment rates dropped from 74.8% to 63.2% for those without disabilities and from 31.1% to 26.4% for those with disabilities between February 2020 and April 2020 but gradually improved in the succeeding months. ConclusionsAs the pandemic continued, the percentage of unemployed people with and without disabilities on temporary layoff decreased and those looking for work increased.

Corporate liquidity, supply chain and cost issues awareness within the Covid-19 context: evidence from us management reports’ textual analysis

Purpose The purpose of this study is to assess the management responses and intentions of 3,279 US firms from all industries, before and after the coronavirus outbreak, to identify the level of managerial concern about specific financial issues and potential economic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses textual analysis of official management reports to search for specific single words in five domains related to corporate finance and governance. This paper focuses on the relative frequency of single words using a weighting scheme that adjusts for document length and for the inverse document frequency. This paper then uses t-tests to investigate the univariate differences across groups of reports before and after the US stock market crash in February 2020. Findings The applied textual and empirical analysis provides evidence that firms’ primary concerns relate to the disruption in supply chains, liquidity need and coronavirus-led recession. This paper also shows that the main cost reduction measure they are considering is salary reduction, rather than workforce reduction. This paper also shows evidence that firm managers are rather swift to provide coronavirus-related information in the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) corporate filings. Practical implications The findings provide a primary view of the directions, on which US firms will move in the near future, and thus, they can be used as tools for the formulation of appropriate government policies in the corresponding sectors, which could mitigate the economic risks related to the pandemic. At the business level, the disseminated knowledge can assist firms either in the same sector or in similar/related sectors to “locate” themselves within the map of the pandemic and to adjust or align correspondingly their strategies and decisions as they will have a view of the bigger picture. Originality/value The empirical analysis divulges US firms’ management primary concerns after the COVID-19 outbreak, and thus, offers insights to the processes taking place in the US business community and the formulating new corporate and economic reality.

Perencanaan Jadwal Induk Produksi Komponen Band Komp Battery di PT. Mada Wikri Tunggal

PT. Mada Wikri Tunggal is a company engaged in the automotive industry which produces small components in motor parts. A common problem experienced by each production company is the planning for the amount of production that must be in accordance with the production capacity coupled with fluctuating demand. So that companies can make orders according to capacity and also the time required for a Master Production Schedule. The method used is the changing labor method. Because this method is very suitable for companies that experience fluctuating demand. The results obtained are that the company can meet the existing demand for the period January to December 2021 as many as 48507 units. The Regular Time fare in 12 periods / 1 year is Rp. 242,685,000. The Hiring fee in 1 year is Rp. 16,000,000. The Lay Off fee in 1 year is Rp. 20,000,000. And the cost of Under Time for 1 year is Rp. 1,750,000. So the total production cost of PT. Mada Wikri Tunggal of Rp. 280,435,000.

Changes and Organizational Development of PT Eiger in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Order to Retain 4,500 Employees without Anyone Having to Be Laid Off

Pandemic forces everyone activate survival mode. All lines are constantly trying to adapt to stay alive on times of crisis, including the fashion industry. Company leaders do three things, viz run remote working, manage employee productivity, and improve the ability of employees to use digital, that is what the leadership of PT Eigerindo MPI, which is a retail industry and distribution of lifestyle products such as Eiger, Bodypack, and Exsport. Currently, the company has 4,500 employees. Coupled with the various small industrial partners who take shelter in Eiger, the number reach 10,000 people. "Of that number, praise God, none were sent home. Me also pay suppliers always on time, "said Ronny. That, admitted Ronny, very not easy. He had to rack his brains to keep the company running and all the workers saved. The company's strategy to survive in the midst of a pandemic is to evaluate existing business models and business processes, and compile Business Contingency Plan to deal with business uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic. In carrying out all strategies, Eiger is also very concerned about fate employees during the COVID-19 pandemic by trying to maintain everything the employees are as many as 4,500 people and provide adequate health facilities.

Downsizing the State

Downsizing the State

The COVID‐19 pandemic: shocks to human capital and policy responses

The COVID‐19 pandemic is significantly disrupting human capital in labour markets. Workforce reductions cause firm outputs to fall and prices to rise, leading to unprecedented economic costs. To quantify the economic costs, we develop a dynamic general equilibrium macroeconomic model that incorporates susceptible–infectious–recovered epidemiology dynamics, where individuals can be healthy, infected or recovered so that evolution of human capital can be well tracked. We characterise optimal public policy responses to the decline in human capital by either isolating susceptible residents from infected residents to reduce the spread of disease or increases in government spending to improve the recovery and death rates.

Projecting unemployment durations: A factor-flows simulation approach with application to the COVID-19 recession

We propose a three-step factor-flows simulation-based approach to forecast the duration distribution of unemployment. Step 1: estimate individual transition hazards across employment, temporary layoff, permanent layoff, quitter, entrant, and out of the labor force, with each hazard depending on an aggregate component as well as an individual’s labor force history. Step 2: relate the aggregate components to the overall unemployment rate using a factor model. Step 3: combine the individual duration dependence, factor structure, and an auxiliary forecast of the unemployment rate to simulate a panel of individual labor force histories. Applying our approach to the November Blue Chip forecast of the COVID-19 recession, we project that 750,000 workers laid off in April 2020 remain unemployed eight months later. Total long-term unemployment rises thereafter and eventually reaches 4.2 million individuals unemployed for more than 26 weeks and 1.4 million individuals unemployed for more than 46 weeks. Long-term unemployment rises even more in a more pessimistic recovery scenario, but remains below the level in the Great Recession due to a high amount of labor market churn.

PENGARUH DIGITAL MARKETING, PERCEIVED QUALITY DAN PERSONAL SELLING TERHADAP PENJUALAN PRODUK TAHU (STUDI KASUS : PENGRAJIN TAHU DI KEDIRI)

During the pandemic, tofu craftsmen in Kediri complain about the turnover and the reduction in workforce. This requires a step to determine the role of digital marketing, perceived quality, and personal selling on selling these tofu products and measuring this research's part. This study used 60 respondents, namely tofu craftsmen, to be given a questionnaire. They were taking respondents using probability sampling techniques. This research method uses linear regression statistical analysis techniques. They are starting with the validity test, reliability test, classical assumption test, multiple linear regression test, partial test, simultaneous test, and determination coefficient. This study's results are digital marketing has no effect on product sales partially, while perceived quality and personal selling have an impact on product sales partially. Meanwhile, simultaneously all independent variables simultaneously influence the dependent variable. The success rate of this study was 64.8%. This research can be increased again, the role of the variables to have a high level of influence by filling out the questionnaire in an educational manner according to the conditions of observation that have been made.

Identification and Analysis of Problems in Selected European Historic Gardens during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The paper is based on a survey and investigates the functioning of historic gardens during the pandemic. The authors collected and analysed information on the impact of the pandemic on the behaviour of visitors, maintenance, and condition of cultural heritage assets, European historic gardens. Four aspects were considered particularly carefully: the situation of gardens during the COVID-19 pandemic, maintenance and care in gardens, virtual activity and communication, and financial consequences. The authors determined the conditions of the gardens and the problems they faced based on a survey completed by 23 managers of 31 historic gardens from June to August 2020 and then proposed a diagnosis. The paper presents the survey results. In general, visitor volumes tended to drop in 2020, which significantly affected gardens’ financial standing and contributed to workforce reductions. The garden condition and treatments were affected, as well. Reduced visitor volumes resulted in positive environmental changes. Among them were ecological succession, the stability of landscaped plants, increase in vegetation, improved biodiversity in the ground cover, and enhanced animal presence. Additional safety measures were implemented after the gardens were reopened to the public during the pandemic, mostly social distancing, and obligatory face masks. Less than half of the gardens had contingency plans, and 25% of the respondents were working to develop one. The analyses provided foundations to start working on a universal emergency strategy similar to procedures used for years for permanent collections at museums. Note that, being open public spaces and live museums, historic gardens were the first places reopened after the lockdown. Recommendations based on the study can contribute to the future safe functioning of historic gardens in other similar crises. The guidelines offer instructions, advice, and recommendations that form foundations of the development of a universal management model facilitating the preservation of historic gardens in good condition while exploiting their ecological potential.

Scuola e alfabetizzazione in Italia. Caratteri e limiti di una correlazione spuria

The functional alphabetical competence and the competence in the matter of citizenship are closely interconnected in the training of the young person: their close functional link is well expressed and well-argued by the Recommendations of the Council of the European Union (in particular from that of 2018) within the general framework of key competences for learning, but in reality it occupies a strand of western thought that goes back so far as to be considered traditional, and takes up ideas and proposals advanced in the last half century mainly by Tullio De Mauro, through the principles of democratic linguistic education. The current cultural climate brings to the fore the link between language and citizenship and outlines a framework of educational obligations which the school cannot escape. But an examination of the limits and difficulties of the Italian school leads to downsizing the most advanced objectives, while aiming to respect the basic objectives indicated by the Council of the European Union. In conclusion, we propose a Decalogue of operational choices that take into account both the essential objectives that cannot be renounced and the current difficulties of the Italian school.

Pyrolysis of invasive woody vegetation for energy and biochar has climate change mitigation potential

Woody plant encroachment in agricultural areas reduces agricultural production and is a recognised land degradation problem of global significance. Invasive native scrub (INS) is woody vegetation that invades southern Australian rangelands and is commonly cleared to return land to agricultural production. Clearing of INS emits carbon to the atmosphere, and the retention of INS by landholders for the purpose of avoiding carbon emissions has been incentivized in Australia as an emission reduction strategy. Retaining INS, however, means land remains relatively unproductive because INS negatively impacts livestock production. This desktop study examined whether clearing INS to return an area to production, and pyrolysing residues to produce biochar, has the potential to provide climate change mitigation (the “pyrolysis scenario”). The syngas produced via pyrolysis was assumed to be used to generate electricity that was fed into the electricity grid and avoided the production of electricity from existing sources. In addition, the biochar was assumed to be applied to soils used for wheat production, giving mitigation benefits from reduced N2O emissions from fertiliser use and reduction in the use of lime to ameliorate soil acidity. Relative to clearing INS and burning residues in-situ, the pyrolysis scenario resulted in a reduction in radiative forcing of 1.28 × 10−4 W m2 ha−1 of INS managed, 25 years after clearing, and was greater than the reduction of 1.06 × 10−4 W m2 ha−1 that occurred when INS was retained. The greatest contribution to the climate change mitigation provided by the pyrolysis scenario came from avoided emissions from grid electricity production, while avoided N2O and lime emissions made a relatively minor contribution towards mitigation.

Digital effects on macroeconomic stability in the framework of COVID-19 pandemic: EU practice

The article deals with the investigation of the impact drivers on the gross domestic product as the main indicator of socio-economic development of the country in conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The subject of the research in the article is the indicators of macroeconomic stability of the EU and Non-UE countries. The purpose of the article is to assess interrelation between the GDP and destabilizing economic factors, for European Union and Non-EU countries, and – to define the role of digitalization in providing the country's economic growth. Tasks: to study the trends of indicators of macroeconomic stability of the country, to determine the role of digitalization in economic development, to conduct a comparative analysis of indicators of digitalization of the economy and macroeconomic stability of EU and Non-EU countries. General scientific used research methods: analysis - to analyze the main indicators of macroeconomic stability of countries and identify trends in their change under the influence of digitalization processes; methods of factor analysis - to find the factors that have the greatest impact on the indicators of macroeconomic stability of the country. The obtained results: the economic barriers affected by the pandemic were defined: dramatic falling of foreign direct investments; declining of cross-country trade volumes; global manufacturing output decreasing; unemployment rising, reductions in working time, temporary layoffs and job-search discouragement. Empirical estimations based on the correlation analysis allowed making the conclusions about: close inverse relationship between GDP, import, inflation rate; slight inverse relationship between GDP and FDI, unemployment rate, external debt, general governmental gross debt; little direct link between GDP and population, IMD World Digital Competitiveness rank.

Nordic childcare policies and their implications for South Korea: A documentary analysis

Korea has experienced several decades of low to very low birth rates, contributing to an aging population and posing a threat to the nation’s economy. The government has unsuccessfully attempted to implement policies to develop and maintain childbirth and childcare that would mitigate the reduction of the productive workforce. Korean policy makers acknowledge the Nordic countries as the benchmark for the development and implementation of social welfare programs in this and other areas, but they have as yet been unable to achieve levels of success similar to these countries in reversing low fertility. Using documentary analysis, this study explores the nature and impact of childcare policies in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Korea to gain insights that can help optimize childcare policies in Korea. Based on Gilbert and Terrell’s social welfare policy analysis framework, which asks “who will benefit from this policy?,” “how will these benefits be delivered?,” and “how can necessary funding be accessed to provide benefits?”, the study examines and compares Nordic and Korean policy on childcare according to four main dimensions: (1) types of childcare policy, (2) target of support, (3) method of delivery, and (4) method of financial preparation. Based on this analysis, this study recommends that Korea adopt childcare policies that focus on defamiliarization, decommodification, gender integration, and a child-centered approach.

Did the Australian JobKeeper program save jobs by subsidizing temporary layoffs?

Did the Australian JobKeeper program save jobs by subsidizing temporary layoffs?

Supplemental Material for Investing for Keeps: Firms’ Prepandemic Investments in Human Capital Decreased Workforce Reductions Associated With COVID-19 Financial Pressures

Supplemental Material for Investing for Keeps: Firms’ Prepandemic Investments in Human Capital Decreased Workforce Reductions Associated With COVID-19 Financial Pressures

Employment recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic’s impact on the U.S. labor market is unprecedented. This article reviews economic research on recent pandemic-related job losses in the United States in order to understand the prospects for employment recovery. The research examines telework use, the incidence of job loss, disruptions in labor supply, and progress toward recovery. Massive temporary layoffs drove a spike in unemployment, and subsequent recalls of unemployed workers drove a rapid but partial recovery. The prospects for full recovery are murkier, both because the fraction of the remaining unemployed expecting to be recalled is decreasing and because the pandemic’s future course remains uncertain.

Upgrading Downsizing: Ethics and Personnel Reductions in Declining Organizations

<p style="text-align:justify">Decline and downsizing often create organizational conditions that are tension-filled, problematic, disruptive, and prone to unethical behaviour. It is common for educational organizations to face discontinuity of services and reduction of personnel; therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between declining organizations and the ethical behaviour of educational leaders under these circumstances. In this article, we provide a general description of organizational decline, typical responses to such decline, and highlight the phenomenon of personnel downsizing, with particular attention to the Canadian education context. We offer descriptions of various in situ strategies from several Canadian educational superintendents to illustrate implications for how we might better understand personnel reductions in relation to ethics. We conclude with suggestions concerning ways we might upgrade downsizing with wise judgment and ethical decision-making.</p>

PANDEMI COVID-19 DAN PEACEFUL RISE TIONGKOK: BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE

Tulisan ini menganalisis dampak yang diakibatkan oleh pandemi COVID-19 terhadap Belt and Road Initiative yang merupakan bagian dari kebijakan Peaceful Rise yang diterapkan oleh Negara Tiongkok dengan melakukan studi literatur dengan menggunakan perspektif neoliberalisme sebagai dasar analisis. Literatur yang kami gunakan dalam penelitian ini mulai dari buku, jurnal, hingga media elektronik dengan data kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Dengan memperhatikan temuan yang di dapat, kami mengungkap dampak dari pandemik ini terhadap faktor � faktor yang memengaruhi berjalannya kebijakan Peaceful Rise Tiongkok dan secara lebih spesifik lagi kebijakan Belt and Road Initiative. Kesimpulan yang kami dapatkan adalah Belt and Road Initiative yang merupakan usaha Tiongkok menerapkan asas neoliberalisme ini mengalami permasalahan alokasi dana, serta berkurangnya tenaga kerja secara keseluruhan.