Managing emotions after restructuring processes
1. Introduction
Sometimes it is unavoidable for a company to make decisions that cause toxic emotions among the employees, for example job-cuttings during restructuring processes. Such decisions, despite of being necessary, can trigger fear and anger on employees' side. Without handling such situations appropriately and recognizing the existence of toxic emotions, the organization is often not able to realize the planned gains and manage the implementation effectively. Organizations that understand this and care about its employees' emotions will create less emotional pain and will be more successful in the end in implementing also painful decisions. (Härtel, Zerbe & Ashkanasy, 2005)
Doubtlessly there exist situations in which a corporate structure has become outdated or in which a company has to cut jobs in order to stay competitive. This paper therefore does not want to criticize these kind of management decisions in general but wants to contribute to a more successful implementation of restructuring by a better management of remaining employees' emotions.
The paper first discusses which emotions can be involved in restructuring processes and how these emotions may affect a company's performance and the whole success of the process. Thereby the paper focuses on the emotions of the people who implement the downsizing decision and who keep their jobs. The emotional consequences for the ones who lose their jobs are not part of this paper, although this is definitely a very important topic within this whole research area.
In the second part, it is shown how companies can prevent or at least reduce the negative emotions caused by restructuring processes on employees' side. In other words: What ...