The introduction of technology to the company has its consequences, one of which is to resort to the famous downsizing.
Currently, companies are undergoing many changes due to globalization and competitiveness, to face them they have to use tools that ensure their existence, one of them is technology, which sets a trend in business and industrial development at all levels.
When talking about technology in the business sector, man feels displaced since it generally comes to replace the human workforce, companies find it convenient to use technologies to reduce costs and increase their productivity, as a machine well knows he can accomplish in one day what five or ten men would do in the same amount of time.
This displacement of the labor force, caused by the technological irruption, generates effects on the way companies are managed and their industrial and labor relations, one of them is known as downsizing.
What is downsizing
Downsizing arose in the 1980s in a company in the United States as a need to cut staff to avoid disappearance and then rethink its objectives to combat competition and achieve permanence.
According to the definition provided by Cross and Travaglione (2004) downsizing is the reduction of the size and costs of the organization, as well as the redesign of work processes.
With this tool, companies, in the fight for permanence in the market and with the need to innovate technologically, seek to achieve the following objectives:
- Save the company in a time of crisis Decrease personnel costs Increase personnel performance
It is the company's decision to voluntarily reduce its size and the dismissal of its staff.
Types of downsizing
The reduction of the company and the reduction of personnel have two reasons, of which Freeman and Cameron (1993) mention two types of layoffs: reactive layoffs and proactive layoffs.
Reactive downsizing
This is done as a defensive response to market contingencies.
Proactive downsizing
It occurs as a strategy, born from within the organization, focused on improving its competitiveness.
Proactive downsizing offers better results, according to some studies that also argue that downsizing is perceived by companies as a rescue alternative and by employees as a factor of job insecurity. Two different and acceptable points of view.
Placing ourselves in a neutral perspective, downsizing is a strategy for improving competition, and it is also an alternative solution to the problems that plague companies at a certain moment.
We conclude by saying that downsizing as a cause of technological trends is a business tool that can facilitate decision-making, improve productivity and promote the development of more competitive, efficient and flexible companies.
Care must be taken in the implementation of downsizing measures, since they are decisions that profoundly affect the lives and productivity of individuals, especially when there is a decrease in the workforce.
However, diagnosis, planning and communication are essential elements that must be used in a downsizing process. Furthermore, when there are a series of factors and effects that are generated to a greater or lesser degree on human resources within the company.
Bibliography
- Cross, B. and Travaglione, A. (2004). The times they are a-changing: Who will stay and who will go in a downsizing organization?. Personal Review., 33 (3), 275. Freeman, S. and Cameron, K. (1993). Organizational Downsizing: A convergence and reorientation framework. Organizational Science, 4 (1), 10-29.
