Survivors Perception of Staff Downsizing in Kenya Railway Corporation, Kisumu Region, Kenya

Abstract

Staff downsizing is perceived as the process that involves the reduction of an organization's staff complement through restructuring, retrenchment, re-engineering or any other similar activities. Staff downsizing is seen as a strategy that is adopted by most organizations in order to meet the objectives of the organization. For this reason, the study sought to find out the survivors perception of the downsizing exercise at Kenya Railways Corporation in Kisumu Region.

The study conducted a cross -sectional survey with a sampled population of 75 surviving employees of Kenya Railways, Kisumu Region. Semi structured questionnaires were used to obtained views of survivors on downsizing. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies and percentages presented in tables. The study found that the survivors perception on downsizing is largely influenced by the management of which they felt that there was no fairness in the exercise.

The study recommends that the management should proactively plan work to be eliminated or re- designed to correspond to the organization'S mission. Organizations should also target employees using viable criteria such as skill, performance value adding and span of control. Organizations should also provide assistance to the employees after downsizing and to foster positive attitude on the employees to rebuild their loyalty. This will enable the employees to manage the post downsizing exercise and perceive it as fair.