Risk of psychological ill health and methods of organisational downsizing: a cross-sectional survey in four European countries

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dc.creatorAndreeva, Elena
dc.creatorBrenner, M. Harvey
dc.creatorTheorell, Töres
dc.creatorGoldberg, Marcel
dc.creator.orcid0000-0002-3914-8876 (Brenner, M. Harvey)
dc.date.accessioned2022-06-23T15:56:32Z
dc.date.available2022-06-23T15:56:32Z
dc.date.issued2017-09-29
dc.description.abstractThe manner in which organizational downsizing is implemented can make a substantial difference as to whether the exposed workers will suffer from psychological ill health. Surprisingly, little research has directly investigated this issue. We examined the likelihood of psychological ill health associated with strategic and reactive downsizing.|A cross-sectional survey included 1456 respondents from France, Sweden, Hungary and the United Kingdom: 681 employees in stable workplaces (reference group) and 775 workers from downsized companies. Reactive downsizing was exemplified by the exposures to compulsory redundancies of medium to large scale resulting in job loss or surviving a layoff while staying employed in downsized organizations. The workforce exposed to strategic downsizing was represented by surplus employees who were internally redeployed and supported through their career change process within a policy context of "no compulsory redundancy". Symptoms of anxiety, depression and emotional exhaustion were assessed in telephone interviews with brief subscales from Hospital Anxiety Scale (HADS-A), Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-CD|We observed no increased risk of psychological ill health in the case of strategic downsizing. The number of significant associations with psychological ill health was the largest for the large-scale reactive downsizing: surviving a layoff was consistently associated with all three outcome measures; returning to work after the job loss experience was related to anxiety and depression, while persons still unemployed at interview had elevated odds of anxiety. After reactive medium-scale downsizing, unemployment at interview was the only exposure associated with anxiety and depression.|The manner in which organizational downsizing is implemented can be important for the psychological wellbeing of workers. If downsizing is unavoidable, it should be achieved strategically. Greater attention is needed to employment and health policies supporting the workers after reactive downsizing.
dc.description.sponsorshipThe data collection was financially supported by the European Community Program for Employment and Social Solidarity (2007?2013), grant number #VC/2007/0482. The authors and investigators do not belong to the European public service. The results and opinions presented in this paper do not represent the official position of the European Commission. The funding body had no role in the study design; collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data; writing the manuscript; or the decision to submit the paper for publication.
dc.identifier.citationAndreeva, E., Brenner, M.H., Theorell, T. et al. Risk of psychological ill health and methods of organisational downsizing: a cross-sectional survey in four European countries. BMC Public Health 17, 758 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4789-3
dc.identifier.issn1471-2458
dc.identifier.issue1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12503/31176
dc.identifier.volume17
dc.publisherBioMed Central Ltd.
dc.relation.urihttps://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4789-3
dc.rightsCopyright © The Author(s). 2017
dc.rights.holder© The Author(s). 2017
dc.rights.licenseAttribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.sourceBMC Public Health
dc.subjectcross-sectional survey
dc.subjectEuropean countries
dc.subjectpsychological ill health
dc.subjectreactive downsizing
dc.subjectreturning to work
dc.subjectstrategic downsizing
dc.subjectsurviving a layoff
dc.subject.meshAdolescent
dc.subject.meshAdult
dc.subject.meshAged
dc.subject.meshAnxiety
dc.subject.meshCross-Sectional Studies
dc.subject.meshDepression
dc.subject.meshEmployment
dc.subject.meshEurope
dc.subject.meshFemale
dc.subject.meshHumans
dc.subject.meshMale
dc.subject.meshMiddle Aged
dc.subject.meshOrganizations
dc.subject.meshPersonnel Downsizing
dc.subject.meshRisk
dc.subject.meshUnemployment
dc.subject.meshYoung Adult
dc.titleRisk of psychological ill health and methods of organisational downsizing: a cross-sectional survey in four European countries
dc.typeArticle
dc.type.materialtext

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