Executing Downsizing: The Experience of Executioners

Abstract

Downsizing as a managerial strategy has been implemented on a global scale for more than two decades. Most research on the outcomes of downsizing focus on the personal and professional consequences affecting individuals representing two distinct camps: the downsizing survivors and downsizing victims. This Australian case study explored how the executioners, the individuals that were entrusted with the task of carrying out downsizing, experienced their responsibilities. The results derived from one of Australia’s largest banks demonstrate that the work of executing downsizing activities is emotionally taxing. It was shown that executioners had a tendency to distance themselves from the tasks emotionally, cognitively, and physically. These strategies were seen as coping mechanisms for self-protection and self-preservation. Previous experience with downsizing enabled executioners to stay on task. Relational proximity and closeness with individual victims further impacted the emotional state of executioners. This study heavily relied upon Clair and Dufresne’s (2004) empirical work and generated a preliminary conceptual framework depicting various facets of executioners’ reactions to downsizing-related layoffs.