Effects of Downsizing on Surviving Employees in the Dominion Farms - Siaya County, Kenya

Abstract

Downsizing is one form of restructuring strategy in which a firm reduces the number of staff, its overall size and scope permanently with the ultimate goal of greater profitability. Effects of downsizing on surviving employees in the Dominion Farms, Siaya County, Kenya, is a topic conceived out of the researcher regular interaction with senior management of their organization. The objective of the study is to provide an understanding of the effects of staff downsizing on the surviving employees and the continued performance of the Dominion Farms. This study tries to closely examine the effects of downsizing in the context of surviving employees’ psychological contract with the organization, It also contributes to the development of effective interventions for dealing with organizational change. Using the data from the survey, this paper investigates the impact of surviving employees’ attitudes of affective and continuance, commitment, general and specific job satisfaction, perceived organizational support and the behavior performance, effort, turnover intention and absenteeism. Downsizing survival was directly and indirectly associated with organizational commitment, survivors reported less commitment than unaffected employees. In addition downsizing survival was positively associated with job related stress and negatively associated with organizational support which translated into surviving employees’ low level of commitment. It's targeted that the study will help managers to address such questions as well as to whether downsizing is an appropriate management approach especially during an economic down turn. The limitations are acknowledged and recommendations for further studies have been suggested to enable other scholars to examine this aspect exhaustively with different points.