Organizational downsizing: Psychological impact on surviving managers in Hong Kong

This study examines the psychological impact of downsizing on surviving managers, and evaluates the effects of perceived justice on their attitudes and behaviours. It aims not only to investigate the changing nature of the psychological contracts, but also to explore how they were related to and affected by internal management practices. The results revealed that downsizing has a significant impact on affective and continuance commitment, role conflict/ambiguity, role overload and job security. The perceived justice of the layoff process is positively related to the change in affective commitment and job security, but negatively related to the change in continuance commitment. Multiple regressions on survivor syndrome, work effort and intention to leave were also carried out. The true nature of a psychological contract is shown to be an exchange relationship firmly linked to reciprocal norms.