Abstract: In recent years, there has been a great deal of downsizing in corporations, businesses and other organizations throughout the United States. According to the two papers noted below, the negative effects of such layoffs cannot be completely eliminated, but they can be helped or reduced moderately through specific actions such as increased communication and counseling and trust- and team-building.

             Amundson (2004) notes that corporate downsizing has become an important area of study due to the increasing impact on the American workforce. Most companies do little to prepare their employees for such negative measures. The majority of studies on this topic have focused on the victims of the layoffs; few have centered on the survivors. The studies that focused on survivors primarily used survey methods that assessed commitment, motivation, level of performance, job satisfaction, stress symptoms, and coping mechanisms and how these are related to self-affirmation, gender and organizational level, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and intent to leave the organization. .

             In Amundson's review of literature, he found only two related studies in which a semi-structured group interviewing format was used. Evans (1995) studied U.S. soldiers in the downsized military and Noer (1993) interviewed employees of a downsized private organization. Similar themes emerged from both of these studies: increased stress; decreased motivation; reduced performance with extra workload, distrust/withdrawal of management/leader; and experiencing the emotions of anger, sadness, guilt, insecurity, and fear. Research by Armstrong-Stassen (1998) used mail-in questionnaires to analyze the individual traits and support resources that helped 82 managers in a Canadian federal government department over a 2-year period cope with downsizing. Acknowledging that "reactions of the remaining employees will largely determine the effectiveness and quality of the services provided by the federal government in the future" (p.