Downsizing to Increase Profits
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A contemporary business practice is known as downsizing, or the effort by a company to reduce the size of its workforce in order to increase profitability. Such a quest for profits is often seen as detrimental to the worker, creating a new sense of insecurity, reducing decades-old relationships between worker and management, and assuring corporate profits while undercutting the ability of workers to make a living. The corporate manager in such a situation has determined that his responsibility lies with the company and not with the community, at least in some ways, and he or she may even have a rationale as to why their effort benefits the community in some way. The issue is how Plato's Socrates would evaluate such a rationale, and Socrates would find that the manager has to reach deep inside to ascertain what is truly right and to do it in spite of corporate or community pressure to do otherwise (with "manager" meaning the high-level management that makes the decisions, not the mid-level manager who carries them out). There is little doubt that the downsizing issue will remain a major one in American business into the near future, for companies are seeing that they have a competitive edge if they are leaner and are not merely responding to the recession. Firms claim that in the new international environment, cost control is essential and layoffs must continue even after the economy picks up. White collar employment, especially in the areas of planning, analysis, and r
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ddition to comparing a company's performance to its competition, there are internal signals that warn of wasted effort and expense, such as slow decision making, excessive monitoring, and complaints of too many reports and meetings. If properly managed, overhead restructuring can be a positive move for the organization. Common characteristics that improve the effectiveness of overhead programs include:
1) maintaining consistency with the firm's strategy;
2) examining functions with a plant to corporate 'vertical slice' perspective;
3) focusing on the underlying factors of cost and staffing; 4) eliminating low value work;
5) reallocating resources;
6) simplifying management processes; and
7) considering automation enhancements.
A commitment from management and the involvement of selected managers and analysts are required in the implementation phase.
Managers in companies are faced with making decisions regarding the workforce every day. This is a responsibility they have accepted. There has long been a commitment in the American system toward the workers as well as the company, and the American company has assured workers that they would have jobs essentially for life and that they would be able to
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1524
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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