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Restructuring has become a daily practice in both private and public sectors in the EU. But often restructuring processes fail to produce the intended effects of secured or increased organizational profi tability. On the contrary restructuring puts the physical and psychosocial health of all organizational members at risk. To limit the risks of ent...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... Why is health friendly restructuring needed (issues & opportunities, e.g. fig. 2.1 in this ...
Context 2
... out the business case forces the responsible change agents to sit back and re- flect on all of the work they have so diligently completed. By documenting everything together in one story, it is easy to link the issues to the solution and the benefit, and identify where the business would be without doing it. The development of the overall business case simplifies the development of the financial justification, and will usually identify short-comings of the solution. This analysis also is useful for your leadership team to prioritise this project against the many other initiatives in the business that may require capital investment. The final important role that the business case plays is to provide a consistent message to many different audiences. It is a high level view of the entire restructuring and enables all organizational bodies affected by the effort (customers, management, operations, research & development, service, sales, account- ing, finance, region and community etc.) to be knowledgeable about the changes. 46 benefits of a proposed programme, policy or regulatory initiative, and reflect trade-offs inherent in alternatives. An integrated economic analysis of such impacts can capture the hidden costs and benefits of policy options, as well as the synergies and institu- tional economies of scale that may be achieved through complementary policies that support a more health oriented restructuring process. The business case provides a framework for planning and management of the business change. Organisational bene- fits and costs can be related to the factors mentioned in fig. 2.1. Thus, making the case implies the use of different economic tools to account the different consequences in- ternal and external on the human resources, the organisation and the organisational ...
Context 3
... findings so far have demonstrated that employees working in downsized work- places have an increased risk of various health problems. While further research on 145 various soft endpoints is needed better to understand the health effects of downsizing, a major step forward is the assessment of hard end points, such as mortality. Thus, re- cords from the Statistics Finland register which provides virtually complete population mortality data were collected for the participants of the 10-Town study ). The dates and causes of death were obtained for all the participants who died between 1 July 1993 and 31 December 2000. A significant association between downsizing and all-cause mortality was found ( fig. 2). This association was disease specific as it disappeared when deaths from cardio- vascular diseases were excluded from all deaths. Employees who had experienced ma- jor downsizing had a two-fold greater risk of death from cardiovascular diseases after adjustments for pre-downsizing characteristics. No sex differences were ...
Context 4
... to the broad scope of the enacted plans, the following presentation focuses on ex- emplary activities related to healthy restructuring and on relevant background informa- tion, including target groups, the principles of instruments applied, their performances and utilization. Most interventions were carried out within the framework of the initia- tive "Neues Arbeiten NRW" [New Work NRW] (MAGS, ...
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Citations
... A few national surveys, however, do give indications of a relatively high organisational change frequency. For example, it is reported that 16 per cent of the respondents in the 2007 National Dutch Working Conditions Survey had experienced major restructuring within the past year; 7 per cent of the respondents in the Danish Work Cohort Study reported company take overs in 2000; and 45 per cent in the German BIBB/BAuA Survey in 2005/2006 had experienced changes and restructuring within the past two years (Kieselbach and Triomphe, 2010). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of change leadership (informing, communicating, involving and supporting) and change management (reasons and competencies for change) for organisational change processes and their outcomes across public and private organisations. The study includes three specific change situations: first, layoffs; second, mergers; and third, closures, relocations and outsourcing, focusing on how change leadership and change management relate to employees’ experience of the change processes and their outcomes across these change situations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on panel data forming a representative sample of the Danish working population. A total of 2,120 responses were collected, 1,000 from public organisations and 1,120 from private organisations. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The study findings show that both change leadership and change management predict positive change experiences and change consequences – and that they do so similarly across public and private sectors. Despite this similarity, the study reveals important sectorial differences, with public sector employees reporting less positive change experiences and consequences.
Originality/value
The paper provides valuable knowledge for researchers and public and private leaders interested in the impact of change leadership and change management on change outcomes.
... On the same basis, 'research into practice' approaches to the topic have also lacked materiality when trying to influence the policy agenda as figure 2 represents below on some global statistics where employers aren´t required to take steps to protect against psychosocial risks. That said, recently we've been experiencing a transformation in this area, with the key contribution from bodies such as the Institute of Work, Health and Organisations from Nottingham University, and joint international collaboration projects with a strong 'policy into practice' approach, such the HIRES Health in Restructuring project (Kieselbach, 2010). Both constitute examples of research with a strong focus on policy implementation. ...
... One of the contexts identified in the research that has lacked regulatory or non-regulatory approaches is how psychosocial factors linked to organisational changes and restructuring have been traditionally managed. Despite robust research evidence demonstrating negative impacts on worker safety, health and wellbeing associated with these processes (Kieselbach, 2010), it is complex to find an opportunity to legislate in this area. Authors such as Michael Quinlan in Australia encourage specific legislation to cover and protect psychosocial factors existent and amplified by organisational changes: 'General duty provisions in OHS legislation should be amended to more explicitly enunciate employer responsibilities regarding contingent work arrangements and major workplace restructuring such as downsizing and to keep a record of their compliance with these provisions'. . ...
... A good example of this is the implementation of EU-OSHA Campaign: Healthy Workplaces 2014-2015 Healthy Workplaces Manage Stress, which put together initiatives from European, international and national tools for psychosocial risks (EU-OSHA, Healthy Workplaces, 2015). Another representative example can be policy-oriented research in this area, as the HIRES Health in restructuring (Kieselbach, 2010) research recently demonstrated. ...
According to the latest figures, traditional psychosocial risks, and work-related forms of violence, in particular, affect more than 40 million workers across Europe (Eurofound, 2017). Work-related psychosocial risks are considered as an emerging object of study, in comparison to more traditional safety risks associated with physical health, safety and wellbeing, which attract a greater interest at a policy level.
Working conditions (including work organisation, work intensity, stress levels, poor management, poor work–life balance) (Eurofound, 2015) are facing new challenges, due to factors such as precarious employment, globalisation and digitalisation. Working environments are evolving and introducing new forms of work that need to be addressed by policymakers. In this scenario, psychosocial risk prevention regulations will play a key role in protecting workers’ occupational safety and health (OSH) and wellbeing.
Considering the context, are current laws making any difference?. Just carrying on doing the same things at a regulatory level has not demonstrated to be the right way forward. Arguably traditional and emerging psychosocial hazards aren’t being properly reported, recognised, regulated and protected against by most national or international regulations. They are frequently neglected by occupational safety and health and labour law regulations, which makes them less effective to overcome legal obstacles. Still, a general duty of care and the obligation to promote wellbeing (physical, psychological, moral and social) remain as key obligations for employers to comply with.
The aim of this research is to review the policy and regulatory landscape for psychosocial risks, including those legal mechanisms applicable to emerging psychosocial risks, by researching the potential and shortcoming of policy interventions for psychosocial risks.
The research involved a literature and policy review (grey literature) to help identify regulatory and policy strategies that tackle psychosocial risks and to understand how policy approaches have worked. In addition, a questionnaire was devised to help to settle the context for research questions used during the final stage of the research – a series of semi-structured interviews with different professionals to address not only the research questions but also public and social perceptions of how these risks have been tackled in their respective frameworks.
Respondents represent a cross-section of professionals with an interest in different fields of psychosocial risks, categorised as follows:
- policy experts; law/regulation experts
- research/academic experts
- occupational safety and health professionals
- psychosocial experts; consultants in the areas of wellbeing, health.
The research findings will show what works and what doesn’t work in the regulation of psychosocial risks, by providing a broad picture and a wealth of information of how policy interventions in this area have interacted with norms and influence cultural perceptions.
... Although restructuring takes numerous forms, it still most frequently refers to closing companies, downsizing, and dismissing the employed. 1,2 Employees' health is affected more significantly if restructuring involves organizational realignments that involve the loss of some parts of the work force; this effect can be observed not only in employees who actually become unemployed and later find new jobs (or not) but also in those who remain with the company after dismissal and are often referred to in the literature as survivors. [1][2][3] After loss of job, dismissed workers face unemployment, which jeopardizes their socioeconomic position and prospects for the future 1 and weakens their social networks, which can all lead to increased stress and consequently to worse health. ...
... 1,2 Employees' health is affected more significantly if restructuring involves organizational realignments that involve the loss of some parts of the work force; this effect can be observed not only in employees who actually become unemployed and later find new jobs (or not) but also in those who remain with the company after dismissal and are often referred to in the literature as survivors. [1][2][3] After loss of job, dismissed workers face unemployment, which jeopardizes their socioeconomic position and prospects for the future 1 and weakens their social networks, which can all lead to increased stress and consequently to worse health. 1,4 The health-related behavior of unemployed people worsens, and in the long run this impacts individuals' health. ...
... [1][2][3] After loss of job, dismissed workers face unemployment, which jeopardizes their socioeconomic position and prospects for the future 1 and weakens their social networks, which can all lead to increased stress and consequently to worse health. 1,4 The health-related behavior of unemployed people worsens, and in the long run this impacts individuals' health. 4,5 On the other hand, survivors face changed conditions at work-for example, increased intensity of work and a low level of control over work 1,6 and feelings of job insecurity. ...
Organizational restructuring is associated with greater mortality and morbidity of the workers affected by it. We examined the quality of workers’ health at a textile manufacturing company after restructuring, comparing three groups of workers: workers who remained (survivors), workers who lost their jobs and later found new jobs (the reemployed), and unemployed workers. A total of 1046 workers participated in a telephonic survey. The data were processed using SPSS and the R package version 1.2 of prLogistic. The differences between groups were calculated using the chi-square test and adjusted prevalence ratios. The comparison between the three groups shows significantly poorer mental health of the unemployed, who more often than survivors and the reemployed reported depression, as well as significant differences in elevated blood pressure, cholesterol level, and cardiac disorders. The reemployed, who were nonetheless in better health compared to the unemployed, reported poor mental health or depression more often in comparison to survivors. Higher morbidity of the unemployed and reemployed could be influenced by numerous factors associated with restructuring.
... With the aim of increasing organizational effectiveness and stakeholder value, many organizations invest resources in implementing organizational change initiatives (Beer & Nohria, 2000) both proactively and reactively. European national surveys suggest a prevalence of organizational change between 7% and 45% (Kieselbach & Triomphe, 2010). Change processes are typically both complex and ambiguous (Hughes, 2011) and not all organizational changes lead to positive outcomes. ...
This paper investigates the relation between organizational change and enacted or experienced workplace bullying. We find that there is a longitudinal relation between organizational change and bullying behaviour and that this effect varies depending on the type of preceding organizational change (task-related or relational
change). Task-related change predicts experienced bullying behaviours and relational change predicts enacted bullying behaviours. Within a relationistic process precipitation framework,we find that among moderators at the organizational level (leadership quality) and individual level (affectivity), only positive affectivity slightly moderates the relation between relational change and enacted bullying behaviours. The findings are relevant for the development of evidence-based strategies for the prevention of workplace bullying during different types of organizational change.
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/In5azUGIQWyIvmpqDEyd/full
... Modern reorganizations may be qualitatively different from those of earlier times. Whereas Lewin [56] described organizational changes as progressing from unfreeze via moving to freeze; modern theorists describe more complex processes [57]. Paulsen et al.[58], for example, describe the stages pre-structuring/pre-announcement, execution of restructuring and post restructuring, which often also tend to remain in a more uncertain state and may never reach the refreeze stage [59]. ...
Organizational changes in modern corporate life have become increasingly common and there are indications that they often fail to achieve their ends. An earlier study of 24,036 employees showed that those who had repeatedly been exposed to large increases in staffing during 1991-1996 had an excess risk of both long-term sickness absence and hospital admission during 1997-1999, while moderate expansion appeared to be protective. The former was most salient among female public sector employees. We used qualitative interviews to explore work environment factors underlying the impact of organizational changes (moderate and large expansions in staffing) on sickness absence from an employee perspective.
We interviewed 21 strategically selected women from the earlier study using semi-structured telephone interviews focusing on working conditions during the organizational changes. We identified 22 themes which could explain the association between organizational changes and sickness absence. We then used Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to reduce the number of themes and discover patterns of possible causation.
The themes that most readily explained the outcomes were Well Planned Process of Change (a clear structure for involvement of the employees in the changes), Agent of Change (an active role in the implementation of the changes), Unregulated Work (a lack of clear limits and guidelines regarding work tasks from the management and among the employees), and Humiliating Position (feelings of low status or of not being wanted at the workplace), which had been salient throughout the analytic process, in combination with Multiple Contexts (working in several teams in parallel) and Already Ill (having already had a debilitating illness at the beginning of 1991), which may indicate degree of individual exposure and vulnerability. Well Planned Process of Change, Agent of Change and Multiple Contexts are themes that were associated with low sickness absence. Unregulated Work, Humiliating Position and Already Ill were associated with high sickness absence.
These findings suggest that promising areas for future research and improvement in change management could be the structured involvement of the employees in the planning of organizational changes, and the development of methods to avoid highly unregulated working conditions.
Organisationale Veränderungen bringen neben personalen Umstrukturierungen auch Auswirkungen auf die Gesundheit und das Wohlbefinden der Mitarbeiter mit sich. In dieser Studie untersuchten die Autoren die Auswirkungen von Veränderungsprozessen auf das Erleben der Arbeitssituation und Gesundheitsindikatoren der Mitarbeiter. Als wichtige Ressource in diesem Prozess wurde in der vorgestellten Untersuchung der Organisationsbezogene Selbstwert (OBSE) geprüft. Die Ergebnisse zeigen sowohl einen direkten als auch einen vermittelten Einfluss des OBSE auf die Auswirkungen von Veränderungsprozessen. Zusätzlich verdeutlicht die Arbeit die Relevanz von Gefährdungsanalysen zu psychischen Belastungen und beinhaltet Hinweise zur weiterführenden Forschung.
Organisationaler Wandel und Flexibilisierung sind ständige Begleiter unseres Arbeitsalltages geworden. Das erzeugt Stress. Immer mehr Führungskräfte und Mitarbeiter scheinen diesen Stress nicht mehr angemessen verarbeiten zu können – zu Lasten ihrer Gesundheit und der Effizienz organisationalen Wandels. Warum wird organisationaler Wandel als stressig, teils als überfordernd erlebt? Wie können Humanisierung und Effizienz des Wandels in Einklang gebracht werden? Welche Wege bieten sich an, die Gesundheit und Leistungsfähigkeit der Organisationsmitglieder zu erhalten als auch die Ziele des Wandels sicherzustellen? Auf diese Fragen werden im folgenden Beitrag Antworten gesucht. Es wird zwischen tiefergreifendem Wandel (Restrukturierung) und alltäglicher Optimierung unterschieden. Messbare Belastungswirkungen ständigen Wandels sind u. a. erhöhte Risiken für Herz-Kreislauferkrankungen, allgemeine Reizbarkeit, Mattigkeit und Erschöpfung, Substanzmissbrauch sowie Gratifikationskrisen. Die Belastungswirkungen organisationalen Wandels und permanenten Optimierens können durch gezielte Maßnahmen abgefedert werden. Dazu zählt, bei unvermeidlichen Interessenkonflikten in Restrukturierungsprozessen auf Fairness und Verteilungsgerechtigkeit zu achten. Zielvereinbarungssysteme sind so zu gestalten, dass sie nicht zum Treiber kurzfristiger Leistungsmaximierung und Selbstgefährdung werden. Positionswettbewerbe sind auf ihren Sinn zu hinterfragen und entsprechend zu begrenzen. Schließlich ist auch ein unterstützendes sozial- und gesundheitspolitisches Umfeld eine Ressource, das die gesundheitlichen Risiken permanenten Wandels abfedern kann.
