Tag: alternatives to layoffs
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Which is preferable, Layoffs or Alternatives to Layoffs?
My esteemed colleague and fellow Michigan PhD alum, Aneil Mishra, is a well-known expert on the ‘softer’ organizational affects of downsizing and layoffs: morale, commitment and trust. Writing today about furloughs at GM on his blog Total Trust, Aneil mentions that "In our research on downsizing, we’ve found that across-the-board cost cutting like this (specifically,…
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Leading Authentically with Transparency: An interview/podcast with Paul Levy
Here’s a neat podcast interview with Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, whose leadership approach to the need for dramatic cost-cutting we considered in the post Finding a leadership opportunity in alternatives to layoffs. This podcast interview offers a few additional insights, in part because the interviewer Catherine Bell asks some smart…
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Why do some CEOs “leave money on the table” when they choose layoffs?
In my MBA classes, we called it "Leaving Money On The Table". In business practice, we call it a "missed opportunity". Managers "leave money on the table" when they fail to ask for something that a customer will give them readily and without extra charge. Managers "leave money on the table" when they take an…
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Hey “Working” Mom– getting laid off is a “relief”. Really.
It is disturbing to see that the effects of employers’ responses to the economic crisis are not being distributed equally throughout our population. While there’s a bit of controversy over who has it worse, it’s pretty clear that due to the structure of our economy, some groups are being laid off proportionally more than other…
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Finding a Leadership Opportunity in Alternatives to Layoffs
Let’s say you’ve been convinced by the argument against layoffs and the recommendations for trying alternatives to layoffs. You’ve looked at a few of the Honor Roll organizations and decided to take that next step… As you prepare to act, consider this additional option. Can you find a way to make alternatives into layoffs something…
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Are Apologists for Layoffs Actually Just Bad Economists?
Here’s a post in honor of my friend Ian Ayres, a law & economics scholar who celebrates a big birthday today. Ian is constantly challenging academics of all stripes to stretch their thinking by asking themselves hypothetical questions. His favorite rhetorical tactic always seems to include two words: Why Not? Ian eschews any line of…
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Are Layoffs Unpatriotic?
A few weeks ago, Steven H. Korman published a provocative Open Letter to CEOs in the NYTimes and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Asking other CEOs to avoid layoffs, Korman urged corporate executives to focus less on protecting stock price, profits, and the short term, and focus more on protecting the people who are working hard trying…