Over the past decade, the workplace has altered considerably in terms of job stability. People have either experienced layoffs firsthand or directly known someone else who was impacted by re-engineering, downsizing, outsourcing or acquisition. For employees adversely affected by these changes or for those who do not completely understand why these changes are occurring, the effects can be very disturbing and impact both their personal and job life.

A variety of different industries have been impacted by layoffs, not only manufacturing. For example, hospitals like other companies and nonprofit organizations have experienced downsizing that has negatively impacted healthcare employees with varying degrees of psychological distress and poor health. In a 2002 study, Greenglass, Burke and Fiksenbaum showed that restructuring and its changes can result in lower job sati

In such situations, economic dislocation also creates problems for the greater community. When unemployment rates rise, there is an increased demand for services at a time when communities are experiencing sharp declines in tax income. These decreases often result in poorer quality education, a deteriorating infrastructure, and larger

The impact of downsizing on workers is a combination of both the psychological and physical. Kivimaki et. al (2000) conducted a study to explore the underlying mechanisms between organizational downsizing and deterioration of health of employees. He found negative changes in work are associated with the declining support from aspouse, and increased prevalence of smoking. Sickness absence rate from all causes was 2.17 times higher after major downsizing than after minor downsizing. Adjustment for changes in work, for instance, physical demands, job control, and job insecurity, diminished the linkages between downsizing and sickness absence by 49 percent. Adjustments for impaired social support or increased smoking did not change the relationship between downsizing and absence from illness. Such conclusions were unaffected by sex and income.

Thus, it is not always just the employees who are impacted when there is restructuring. A literature review of downsizing studies by Farrell (2000) also showed the connection between downsizing and the impact on market orientation. Specifically, his report gave evidence that (1) trust and commitment are keys to understanding the exchanges between a company and its workers; (2) the form of restructuring strategy will impact upon the degree of trust between personnel and senior management (Mishra and Mishra 1994) and will also directly effect the firm's market orientation; (3) the type of downsizing strategy and trust level will directly impact worker commitment to the firm's goals of creating high-quality customer value; and (4) employee commitment to such company values will impact the level of market orientation (Narver, Slater and Tietje 1998).

welfare rolls, which make it more difficult to attract new businesses to the area.

In the future, as downsizing continues, additional studies will have to be conducted to determine long-range impacts on individuals, their families, communities and the economy as a whole.

Survivors of downsizing are impacted as well, as seen in a number of studies. In a longitudinal study, Moore, Grunberg and Greenberg compared 1,244 white- and blue-collar workers who recalled either zero, one, or two exposures with layoffs; all participants were personnel of a major industrial company that had had several large episodes of layoffs. They found that employees with the greatest number of contacts with downsizing both direct, or personally targeted, and indirect, coworkers laid off, noted considerably lower levels of job security and higher levels of role ambiguity, desire to leave their jobs, depression and health concerns. Contrary to what some others had thought, their findings did not support the notion that workers more quickly recover as they encounter a larger number of downsizing episodes. The

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