The Impact of Adopting an Ethical Approach to Employee Dismissal During Corporate Restructuring
The treatment of employees during downsizing and corporate restructuring raises many ethical issues. To provide a common framework for understanding ethical decisions facing organizations delivering the news of dismissal to affected employees, Integrative Social Contracts Theory and the research on...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer
1998
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| In: |
Journal of business ethics
Year: 1998, Volume: 17, Issue: 12, Pages: 1253-1264 |
| Further subjects: | B
Social Contract
B Integrative Social B Ethical Decision B Open Communication B Social Exchange |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The treatment of employees during downsizing and corporate restructuring raises many ethical issues. To provide a common framework for understanding ethical decisions facing organizations delivering the news of dismissal to affected employees, Integrative Social Contracts Theory and the research on social exchange was used to integrate existing research on employee dismissal. Of particular importance was determining the criteria necessary to manage the dismissal process within ethical boundaries. Three basic criteria, which together represent a variety of contractual and transactional obligations, are proposed as necessary for an ethical approach to dismissal; 1) advance warning of the job loss, 2) open communication, and 3) institutionalized support services. The frequency with which organizations meet these criteria is examined using a geographically dispersed, cross-organizational sample of 770 involuntarily displaced professional employees. In addition, the effect of such an ethical approach to dismissal on individual psychological and financial outcomes is examined. Findings are discussed as they relate to the implicit contract between employee and employer and organizations' responsibility to employees during corporate restructuring. |
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| ISSN: | 1573-0697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1023/A:1005758628414 |