Downsizing Research Articles

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.

The distributional impact of recessions: The global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic recession

Using U.S. Current Population Survey data, this paper compares the distributional impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis and those of Global Financial Crisis in terms of (i) worker characteristics, (ii) job characteristics–“social” (where individuals interact to consume goods), “teleworkable” (where individuals have the option of working at home), and “essential” jobs (which were not subject to government mandated shutdowns during the recent recession), and (iii) wage distributions. We find that young and less educated workers have always been affected more in recessions, while women and Hispanics were more severely affected during the Pandemic Recession. Surprisingly, teleworkable, social and essential jobs have been historically less cyclical. This historical acyclicality of teleworkable occupations is attributable to its higher share of skilled workers. Unlike during the Global Financial Crisis, however, employment in social industries fell more whereas employment in teleworkable and essential jobs fell less during the Pandemic Crisis. During both recessions, workers at low-income earnings have suffered more than top-income earners, suggesting a significant distributional impact of the two recessions. Lastly, a large share of unemployed persons was on temporary layoff during the COVID-19 recession, unlike the Global Financial Crisis.

Clariant will cut 1,000 jobs

Clariant says it will reduce its workforce of 17,000 by 1,000 through cost cutting and business divestments over the next 2 years. The firm says it wants to “rightsize” after the 2019 sale of its h...

Reduction of Workforce due to Impact of Covid-19 and Occupational Health and Safety Management at Workplace

COVID-19 pandemic has led to health crisis as well as slowdown of industrial activities throughout the world resulted in global economic loss. Safety measure of social distancing by workers at workplaces to prevent spread of corona virus leads to huge losses especially in the service sector jobs that depend on customer-provider interactions or involve the congregation of large number of people. Also, the process equipment and machinery may not function smoothly or will be unavailable as these are under continuous shut down during the lockdown period. As workplaces have been forced to cut down their expenditure and recheck their workforce to maintain social distancing, workers in industries are at a higher risk of losing their jobs.
 Fewer workforces at workplace have increased workload on available workers along with fear of insecurity due to pandemic. Under these circumstances, the responsibility of the management is to keep balance between production, profit and safety at workplace as well as to keep employees motivated and free from the stressful environment due to pandemic. This paper addresses the challenges and the methods to prevent and mitigate occurring of accidents at workplaces which are having reduced workforce and malfunctioning of equipment and machinery as compared to pre-COVID 19 scenarios.

Transforming operations with right-sized solutions: lightweight termination heads increase flexibility and deliver results

Transforming operations with right-sized solutions: lightweight termination heads increase flexibility and deliver results

Survive, Revive, Thrive: Chapter 3: Getting Oriented

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President Getting Oriented - The Only Wrong Direction Is Backwards I begin this column by saying that after attending several recent SPE events filled with students and professionals, all virtual of course, that I have seen the very best of us as members of SPE. To a person, you all have been nothing short of inspiring. Our members know that there is a better tomorrow on the horizon and diligently prepare for the days when our industry begins to thrive again. On the other hand, the industry consolidations and workforce reductions continue, and frankly, I don’t know of anyone whose life and career has not been touched by this pandemic-induced crisis. It’s an axiom of life that if you cannot control it, then you must control how you deal with it. I believe operating under this axiom will serve us well collectively and individually as we push through the pandemic. I want to repeat a passage from my remarks at the President’s Session on Member Monday at ATCE in late October. “As an industry, we are as relevant as ever, even more so now. And further, our industry continues to provide economic growth, as well as access to cleaner water, better food, and affordable transportation. I am a believer, a true believer, I believe in what we do, in who we are, and how important our contributions are to society … I want to thank each of you for your time and effort in support of SPE. We are who we are because of what you have done, and we are who we will become because of your commitment to serve this industry and our global society. The world needs what we do - now, more than ever.” I want you to know that I believe in our mission and our future. As we “Get Oriented,” I want to assure you that as a discipline, we will become stronger, and as an organization, SPE will become more focused on content generation and delivery than at any time in its history. Most importantly, I want to assure you that SPE will continue to serve its members and its global community as the preeminent technical organization in upstream oil and gas. It is imperative that you “Get Oriented” with what you can do and will do in the future as SPE continues to evolve.

Aerosol Forcing Masks and Delays the Formation of the North Atlantic Warming Hole by Three Decades.

The North Atlantic warming hole (NAWH) is referred to as a reduced warming, or even cooling, of the North Atlantic during an anthropogenic‐driven global warming. A NAWH is predicted by climate models during the 21st century, and its pattern is already emerging in observations. Despite the known key role of the North Atlantic surface temperatures in setting the Northern Hemisphere climate, the mechanisms behind the NAWH are still not fully understood. Using state‐of‐the‐art climate models, we show that anthropogenic aerosol forcing opposes the formation of the NAWH (by leading to a local warming) and delays its emergence by about 30 years. In agreement with previous studies, we also demonstrate that the relative warming of the North Atlantic under aerosol forcing is due to changes in ocean heat fluxes, rather than air‐sea fluxes. These results suggest that the predicted reduction in aerosol forcing during the 21st century may accelerate the formation of the NAWH.

Notes from the Field: Dynamic Triaging Using Quality Improvement (QI) Methodology to Prevent the Admission of Asymptomatic COVID Positive Obstetric Patients in New Delhi, India.

A single undiagnosed COVID-19 positive patient admitted in the green zone has the potential to infect many Health Care Workers (HCWs) and other patients at any given time with resultant spread of infection and reduction in the available workforce. Despite the existing triaging strategy at the Obstetric unit of a tertiary hospital in New Delhi, where all COVID-19 suspects obstetric patients were tested and admitted in orange zone and non-suspects in green zone, asymptomatic COVID-19 positive patients were found admitted in the green zone. This was the trigger to undertake a quality improvement (QI) initiative to prevent the admission of asymptomatic COVID-19 positive patients in green zones. The QI project aimed at reducing the admission of COVID-19 positive patients in the green zone of the unit from 20% to 10% in 4 weeks' time starting 13/6/2020 by means of dynamic triaging. A COVID-19 action team was made and after an initial analysis of the problem multiple Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles were run to test the change ideas. The main change ideas were revised testing strategies and creating gray Zones for patients awaiting COVID-19 test results. The admission of unsuspected COVID-19 positive cases in the green zone of the unit reduced from 20% to 0% during the stipulated period. There was a significant reduction in the number of HCWs, posted in the green zone, being quarantined or test positive for COVID-19 infection as well. The authors conclude that Quality Improvement methods have the potential to develop effective strategies to prevent spread of the deadly Corona virus.

Method for Evaluating the Effect of the Design and the Environmental Conditions of the Manufacturing Cells toImprove Work Performance

A method is proposed to improve work performance through an adequate design of the manufacturing cell along with optimal environmental conditions to contribute to the well-being of the worker. The methodology used was divided into four stages: the first corresponds to the analysis of operations; the second is the analysis of the effect of the design of the manufacturing cell; the third is the evaluation of environmental conditions such as lighting, noise, and temperature to compare them with the official standard and determine if they meet the permitted levels; and the fourth is to conclude and recommend improvements to the manufacturing cell. The method was applied in a company in the automotive industry, where a change was made from a linear cell distribution to an L-shaped distribution, with a 50% reduction in workforce and an increase in the productive time of the worker of 49%. Also, the environmental conditions of the cell comply with the requirements of official standards.

Temporary Unemployment and Labor Market Dynamics During the COVID-19 Recession

This paper develops a search-and-matching model that incorporates temporary unemployment and applies the model to study the labor market dynamics of the COVID-19 recession in the US. We calibrate the model using panel data from the Current Population Survey for 2001-2019, and we find that the model-based job finding rates match observed job finding rates during the entire sample period and out-of-sample up through July 2020. We also find that the Beveridge curve is well-behaved and displays little change in market tightness in 2020 once we use the calibrated model to adjust for changes in the composition of the unemployed. We then use the model to project the path of unemployment over the next 18 months. Under a range of assumptions about job losses and labor demand, our model predicts a more rapid recovery compared to a model that does not distinguish between temporary and permanent unemployment and compared to professional and academic forecasts. We find that in order to rationalize the professional forecasts of the unemployment rate, some combination of the vacancy rate, job separation rate, and the recall rate of workers on temporary layoff must deteriorate substantially from current levels in the next several months.

Book Review: Downsizing: Confronting our possessions in later life

Book Review: <i>Downsizing: Confronting our possessions in later life</i>

Agricultural labor, COVID-19, and potential implications for food security and air quality in the breadbasket of India

To contain the COVID-19 pandemic, India imposed a national lockdown at the end of March 2020, a decision that resulted in a massive reverse migration as many workers across economic sectors returned to their home regions. Migrants provide the foundations of the agricultural workforce in the ‘breadbasket’ states of Punjab and Haryana in Northwest India.There are mounting concerns that near and potentially longer-term reductions in labor availability may jeopardize agricultural production and consequently national food security. The timing of rice transplanting at the beginning of the summer monsoon season has a cascading influence on productivity of the entire rice-wheat cropping system. To assess the potential for COVID-related reductions in the agriculture workforce to disrupt production of the dominant rice-wheat cropping pattern in these states, we use a spatial ex ante modelling framework to evaluate four scenarios representing a range of plausible labor constraints on the timing of rice transplanting. Averaged over both states, results suggest that rice productivity losses under all delay scenarios would be low as compare to those for wheat, with total system productivity loss estimates ranging from 9%, to 21%, equivalent to economic losses of USD $674 m to $1.48 billion. Late rice transplanting and harvesting can also aggravate winter air pollution with concomitant health risks. Technological options such as direct seeded rice, staggered nursery transplanting, and crop diversification away from rice can help address these challenges but require new approaches to policy and incentives for change.

Robotic milking of dairy cows: a review

Automatic milking systems (AMS) have aroused worldwide interest recently. The first installation was by the company Lely in a project in the Netherlands (its homeland) in 1992. But nowadays, AMS represents a growing reality due to lobby for labor issues, rising costs, difficulty finding well-trained workers, and/ or difficulty keeping people on farms. This work aimed to present a review of the literature on AMS, beginning with a brief history of the evolution of the technology, showing advantages and limitations of its use, and ultimately giving some suggestions. The understanding of the technical functioning and operational running can help farmers and technicians in decision making on the adoption of the new technology. Besides workforce reduction and labor quality promotion, AMS has potential to improve feed conversion to milk, milk quality (with lower SCC), and cow productivity, as well as providing useful data and parameters for better farm management. Potential limitations include high investment costs, changes in milk composition (solids, free fatty acids), and increased risk of ketosis in cows.

Workforce reductions and post-merger operating performance: The role of corporate governance

This paper examines whether corporate governance mechanisms influence the association between workforce reductions and post-acquisition operating performance. Using UK-based acquisitions, it is found that there is a negative relationship between employment reductions and post-acquisition operating performance. However, the results show that this negative association becomes positive when the board has a substantial equity ownership. This suggests acquirers with higher levels of board ownership make better quality layoff decisions and, thereby, achieve operating performance improvement subsequent to workforce reductions. The results also indicate that larger board size and greater board independence decrease the negative effect of acquisition-related workforce reductions on subsequent operating performance. Further, our results show that CEO duality increases the negative relationship between employment reductions and post-acquisition operating performance. Overall, the results suggest that corporate governance plays an important role in understanding the performance effect of acquisition-related workforce reductions.

Conservatori e democratici nell’Italia liberale

This contribution analyses the reflection that Villari dedicated to the paths of conservatives and democrats in the process of building the Italian nation. It was an often forgotten role that animated groups, magazines, and cultures inserted in the complex mechanisms of the decision-making process. Minority segments – defeated and downsized by the prevalence of others – of the majorities expressed themselves or found themselves in the prevailing and winning approach. In this context, the dynamics of moderate hegemony, the spaces and possibilities of the opposition, and the balance of a nationalization that encountered the problems and opportunities of the new century, are highlighted

Downsizing and Affective Organisational Commitment: A Contextual Proximity Perspective

This paper investigates the differential effect of various types of downsizing on employee commitment. While the literature on downsizing suggests that workforce reductions have a negative impact on employee commitment, knowledge of downsizing is limited by the undifferentiated ways in which various downsizing activities are usually approached. Moreover, there has been insufficient research looking at the different responses of survivors and victims of downsizing. This empirical study analyses the effects of four downsizing methods - layoffs, closure of units, divestment and voluntary redundancies- on employee commitment and explores differences on commitment outcomes depending on employees’ degree of exposure to a downsizing event. Using downsizing announcements between 2007-2010 and questionnaires, two distinct families of downsizing methods were identified. Layoffs and closure of units have a negative effect on commitment while voluntary redundancies and divestment have positive relationships. Employee proximity to the downsizing event accounts for significant differences on commitment outcomes. Studying downsizing in a differentiated way shows that assuming that all downsizing is detrimental to commitment is inadequate. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications of a more nuanced approach to downsizing.