Job Insecurity and Employee Commitment: Managers' Reactions to the Threat and Outcomes of Redundancy Selection1

Increases in managerial redundancies have followed in the wake of recession and fiercer competition. Although popular accounts have warned of a growing disaffection among managers, few studies have examined the effects of abandoning their traditional job security. This article examines changes in the work attachments of long-service managers under the threat of redundancy. Over a 12-month period, interviews were conducted with 42 middle managers who, at the beginning of the research, had been warned of possible redundancy. Initially, most of the managers experienced significant threats to their established views about themselves and their employers. The development of these early perceptions into altered work attachments depended largely on outcomes of the redundancy process. For reprieved managers organizational commitment was quickly re-established. In contrast, those demoted to engineering roles or re-employed by other companies became less trusting and developed new explanations of their past employment experiences. These findings illustrate the tension between the need of managers to be assured of their place within the organizational structure and recent threats to their traditional careers and employment security. Also we may expect difficulties in the development of organizational commitment to emerge as the personal risks to managers increase.