The Effect of Gender and Organizational Level on How Survivors Appraise and Cope with Organizational Downsizing

Abstract

This study examined the influence of gender and organizational level on how survivors appraise, cope with, and emotionally react to organizational downsizing involving across-the-board workforce reductions. Study participants included female clerical employees, male and female technicians, and male first-level supervisors employed at a facility of a major corporation in the telecommunications industry. When male and female technicians were compared, the only significant difference was for perceived injustice, with the female technicians perceiving greater procedural and distributive injustice. There were significant differences across organizational levels for procedural injustice, sense of powerlessness, positive thinking, direct action, and help-seeking coping. The findings indicate that intervention strategies designed to help survivors adjust to organizational downsizing should be tailored to meet the diverse needs of different groups of survivors.