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Accounting

A Holistic and Long-Term Perspective on Downsizing

Abstract
Organisational downsizing or simply downsizing remains a most pervasive but understudied business phenomenon. Extensively used in the mid 1990s, organisations and managers alike cannot fathom its myriad outcomes ranging far from their desired long-term objectives and expectations. This paper integrated literature from business process management and downsizing. Viewing downsizing in a holistic and long-term perspective, this paper first explored its triggering factors and then analysed its implication on the short-term rather than long-term objectives. A reflection on the environmental and technological changes helped to uncover some likely causes and effects why downsizing decisions were not planned with long-term objectives. Subsequently, motivated that managers and organisations can exert more of their influence over the identified controllable triggering factors and henceforth enhance their effectiveness in future downsizing plans, attempts were made in two aspects, firstly, to propose the application of the concept of business process management to reorient the human resources towards a culture of continuous improvement and secondly, to proactively adopt a reorientation concept by incorporating the three elements of a learning orientation upon the organisation as the long-term objectives of downsizing. The notion adopted is to leverage on human capabilities and knowledge and that the attainment of success in achieving the long-term objectives of downsizing may be contingent upon the effective reorientation of the human resources towards a learning orientation for continuous improvement leading to renewed growth of the organisation.

Introduction
In the 1990s, the study of downsizing and redundancy predominated in the literature used by human resource management academics and practitioners (Thornbill and Saunders, 1998). This is also related by Thompson...