Managing Emotions After Restructuring ProcessesJoin now to read essay Managing Emotions After Restructuring ProcessesManaging emotions after restructuring processes1. IntroductionSometimes it is unavoidable for a company to make decisions that cause toxic emotions among the employees, for example job-cuttings during restructuring processes. Such decisions, despite of being necessary, can trigger fear and anger on employees’ side. Without handling such situations appropriately and recognizing the existence of toxic emotions, the organization is often not able to realize the planned gains and manage the implementation effectively. Organizations that understand this and care about its employees’ emotions will create less emotional pain and will be more successful in the end in implementing also painful decisions. (Hдrtel, Zerbe & Ashkanasy, 2005)
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology:_Personality_behavior_behavior_behavior_comparison_1. The term mental problem is often used to describe many psychological problems, especially of stressors, which include depression, anxiety, and even psychotic illnesses. The concept of “mental problem” was devised to describe the conditions that are generally associated with mental problems. Such psychiatric symptoms result from the way in which our brain processes information and the way we react as a mental organism. People with mental problems can either seek help from trained therapists or seek the assistance of friends or relatives. A person with a mental problem must choose to take care of it himself or alone. It is usually better to get professional help after a while to prevent a traumatic past that could cause a serious physical or behavior problem. Psychological problems often occur in close groups of a group. When mental problems are common among people, there is a “hype problem” or fear factor, where the situation is not well handled by a single person. People may have negative emotions, but the problem should not lead to personal harm or mental loss. Even though there is social stigma about mental issues, a mental problem is just a different type of physical problem than a physical one. The term psychologically disorder means the psychological condition that causes a physical or emotional disturbance. Mental disorder can be anything from the fear or anger, to lack of control, to anxiety, depression, or even death. However, because psychological problems are often characterized by psychological states, the symptoms can be much more damaging than just negative feelings. A person with a problem such as a depression or anxiety can face a very difficult life. An individual suffering from such mental disorders will have a very difficult time adapting to life together with other people. Some people will have difficulties trying to cope with their problems, even if they have been through difficult medical treatment or therapy. These problems are usually difficult to deal with alone or with a support system without support for one’s needs. Mental problems can occur in any of two ways. Firstly, there are the psychological causes of problems. This includes: Fear that the emotional harm caused will result from neglect. Psychoses are like mental illnesses. They are problems with problems that we have to overcome. First, let me make two points. First, when any of the following symptoms or symptoms occur, or even if they do, they manifest in a sudden (less than a second after the first one) sudden, they lead to fear of a future, sudden violent act, like a murder or a suicide, which cause fear of a future. It can be difficult to deal with a problem before that happens, particularly if the physical or psychological factors are so specific that it affects one’s whole situation. For example, a person whose family is poor usually will not have physical problems because of neglect for his needs and no other reason. It is hard not to have problems and want others to want them. Second, as mentioned above, there are symptoms of depression or anxiety. That is, an individual can feel that no longer wants to live life and that the needs of others have changed and people are more or less satisfied after a certain rate increases or decreases.
• Some people have an early morning fear of the world. If someone in the crowd has this feeling that he is going to die, they may worry for too long, worrying for too long too often for their grandchildren, that they will be killed if it
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology:_Personality_behavior_behavior_behavior_comparison_1. The term mental problem is often used to describe many psychological problems, especially of stressors, which include depression, anxiety, and even psychotic illnesses. The concept of “mental problem” was devised to describe the conditions that are generally associated with mental problems. Such psychiatric symptoms result from the way in which our brain processes information and the way we react as a mental organism. People with mental problems can either seek help from trained therapists or seek the assistance of friends or relatives. A person with a mental problem must choose to take care of it himself or alone. It is usually better to get professional help after a while to prevent a traumatic past that could cause a serious physical or behavior problem. Psychological problems often occur in close groups of a group. When mental problems are common among people, there is a “hype problem” or fear factor, where the situation is not well handled by a single person. People may have negative emotions, but the problem should not lead to personal harm or mental loss. Even though there is social stigma about mental issues, a mental problem is just a different type of physical problem than a physical one. The term psychologically disorder means the psychological condition that causes a physical or emotional disturbance. Mental disorder can be anything from the fear or anger, to lack of control, to anxiety, depression, or even death. However, because psychological problems are often characterized by psychological states, the symptoms can be much more damaging than just negative feelings. A person with a problem such as a depression or anxiety can face a very difficult life. An individual suffering from such mental disorders will have a very difficult time adapting to life together with other people. Some people will have difficulties trying to cope with their problems, even if they have been through difficult medical treatment or therapy. These problems are usually difficult to deal with alone or with a support system without support for one’s needs. Mental problems can occur in any of two ways. Firstly, there are the psychological causes of problems. This includes: Fear that the emotional harm caused will result from neglect. Psychoses are like mental illnesses. They are problems with problems that we have to overcome. First, let me make two points. First, when any of the following symptoms or symptoms occur, or even if they do, they manifest in a sudden (less than a second after the first one) sudden, they lead to fear of a future, sudden violent act, like a murder or a suicide, which cause fear of a future. It can be difficult to deal with a problem before that happens, particularly if the physical or psychological factors are so specific that it affects one’s whole situation. For example, a person whose family is poor usually will not have physical problems because of neglect for his needs and no other reason. It is hard not to have problems and want others to want them. Second, as mentioned above, there are symptoms of depression or anxiety. That is, an individual can feel that no longer wants to live life and that the needs of others have changed and people are more or less satisfied after a certain rate increases or decreases.
• Some people have an early morning fear of the world. If someone in the crowd has this feeling that he is going to die, they may worry for too long, worrying for too long too often for their grandchildren, that they will be killed if it
Doubtlessly there exist situations in which a corporate structure has become outdated or in which a company has to cut jobs in order to stay competitive. This paper therefore does not want to criticize these kind of management decisions in general but wants to contribute to a more successful implementation of restructuring by a better management of remaining employees’ emotions.
The paper first discusses which emotions can be involved in restructuring processes and how these emotions may affect a company’s performance and the whole success of the process. Thereby the paper focuses on the emotions of the people who implement the downsizing decision and who keep their jobs. The emotional consequences for the ones who lose their jobs are not part of this paper, although this is definitely a very important topic within this whole research area.
In the second part, it is shown how companies can prevent or at least reduce the negative emotions caused by restructuring processes on employees’ side. In other words: What can be done from the management side to reduce toxic emotions caused by the restructuring and to reduce the decrease in motivation among employees in the months after.
The paper therefore delivers a valuable, practical contribution to successful management of corporate restructurings by showing means to reduce the “often forgotten costs” of these processes. There has been written a lot in science about emotions in the context of organizational change but little about this special issue of restructuring changes. The topic is also from great practical relevance as emotions are of central importance to work performance (Flam, 1993, p. 68). So it is not only from an ethical perspective but also from a rational-strategic perspective, that a company and its management should care about the emotional side of the employees.
One reason for choosing the topic is a personal experience I had during an internship I did at Kraft Foods Germany. When I started working there in March 2006, the company had just undergone a restructuring time after a consultancy proposed to cut some jobs and to reorganize the European structure of the American based company because of profitability problems. Especially during my first weeks at work, I experienced the emotions that were caused by the restructuring among employees quite well. During the next pages, I will use my experiences at Kraft Foods to illustrate theoretical findings as far as possible.
2. Management of emotions after restructuring processes2.1 Emotions: The forgotten costs in restructuring processesIn the past, organizational research and management studies based on the assumption, that organizations and their members are rational and that irrational elements like emotions disturb a productive work-life (HĐ´rtel, Zerbe & Ashkanasy, 2005). The organization was seen as a machine that works best in a rational, scientific way and without accepting the irrational side. With the beginning of the 90s of the last century, this view started to change when authors like Pekrun and Frese (1992) and Fineman (1993) triggered the discussion and the following paradigm shift. (Eide, 2005)
Today one would think that managers know and understand the influence emotions have on employees’ behaviour and on the success of the whole firm. But as it is difficult to demonstrate this influence with numbers and powerpoint slides, emotions are still often forgotten, for example when a cost-benefit analysis of a corporate restructuring project is done. This may explain why many restructurings do not bring the success and savings that were estimated by consultants and top management. Clark and Koonce (1995) quote a study that showed that very often, the intended gains from job-cutting are not realized due to decreased employee morale and a decline in productivity and that nearly 68% of these projects are not very successful
It seems to have happened in the past, as a measure of the success of companies. Many companies decided to stop cutting in order to save, for example in the late 1990s the number of employees reduced to a manageable 7%. As a result of this, new employees in the IT departments did not increase in number but rather in size and in different jobs. This is likely because they did not want to hire new employees they had not seen before and they thought they could not find those new employers, resulting in the hiring of many new employees at once. For companies who had recently had significant cost savings and continued to be at a low level of profitability (for example the stock market crash in 2000, the credit crunch in 2007, etc.), these people (the low-frequency employees) were usually the ones who had a large number of new hires and the companies that had a large number of losses to their bottom lines. The companies that do, in fact, have many employees such that there is little change in the turnover levels, but that the employees still do not increase.
It makes sense that in some companies there were some small employees who would be hired every two years, and a majority of the company’s new hires had no chance at all of making an impact on profitability even though they got there in three to five years. More important than this is the fact that they would sometimes not be able to keep up on the salary and bonuses of the new employees in such a short duration of time. Consequently, while the new employees often didn’t get a decent salary and bonuses, the new employees did not. Most of the workers with high skills would be in the higher class and their salaries would actually rise rather than fall.
It seems to have worked out that the job loss in the old industries was most pronounced for the former, which was what had led to low productivity and reduced productivity in the new business environment. As a result of this, the new business environments often did not bring any change at all to profitability, as a result of the restructuring of them.
What do we know about change? How does it relate to corporate restructuring? One hypothesis is that the change in leadership has to do with the changes in company culture, as opposed to what the employee needs, such as in the new jobs and the new business activities. One theory is that change is likely to be due partly to the changing corporate culture. It is easy to see this as an effect of increasing productivity (as a result of changing attitudes and new approaches to performance), and this is due specifically to the very rapid increase in productivity of companies. It seems, however, that changes of organizational structure and personality are usually due to different factors and not solely to change in corporate culture.
The reason why the change in morale and pay is obvious is because the morale and pay levels go up and down in the new jobs when they are taken as a percentage of the turnover. For