In a series of blog posts at the HBR website, Bob Sutton (Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University) talks about layoffs and their implications on a company performance.
An excerpt “Although workforce reduction persists at a fairly high rate (especially involuntary staff reductions), the evidence that these practices actually help improve organizational performance is weak. ”
The posts are:
- Layoffs: Evidence on Costs and Implementation Practices
- Layoffs: More Evidence on Costs and Implementation Practices
- The Last Word on Layoffs: Evidence on Costs and Implementation Practices
Other important readings on this subject that I recommend are:
- Look Before You Lay Off, Darrell Rigby, HBR.org
- Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-based Management, Bob Sutton and Jeffrey Pfeffer
- The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First, Jeffrey Pfeffer
Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.