Upsizing the Individual in the Downsized Organization: Managing in the Wake of Reenineering, Globalization, and Overwhelming Technological Change

Offering advice on how to bridge the gaps created by rapid change, a people-oriented guide for managers presents solutions to boundary, commitment, continuity, and organizational issues.

This valuable short volume offers help in dealing with rapid change in organizations. As countless employees and managers are locked in organizations using layoffs as part of a retrenchment strategy, how can these people not only cope but thrive? The authors confront this issue and offer ways to make it through the chaos, probing the emerging world of work and its effects on the people who are experiencing dislocations. The book's 25 chapters are divided into three parts. Part one describes the current impact of downsizing on today's business world. Part two evaluates the characteristics of the emerging organization and focuses on some real hazards of organizational life in the mid-1990s. Part three outlines attitudes, cultural changes, and tools needed for organizations to develop a success turnaround strategy. This last part also focuses on how displaced people can do well after a layoff. A book that can help people find fresh ways and new opportunities to thrive in the emerging organizational environments. Joseph Leonard

Johansen, the director and senior fellow of the New Technologies Program at the Institute for the Future, and Swigart, a scriptwriter and novelist, look at the changing structure of today's organizations. They examine the problems that have arisen because of downsizing, such as increased uncertainty about individual roles, the loss of "corporate memory" and continuity, and declining organizational loyalty. The authors are optimistic about the opportunities that exist for individuals and institutions that recognize these problems and are prepared to create new roles and models for the future. Although some readers may find it too abstract in parts, this thoughtful book should appeal to managers and general readers alike. Recommended for academic libraries.
Mark McCullough, Heterick Lib., Ohio Northern Univ., Ada
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.