The present study examined the relationships of organizational justice and the psychological contract with four outcome variables in a downsizing context. Multinational data were gathered from survivors representing a variety of organizations and industries. The main focus of the current study examined the relationships between survivors' perceptions of procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice and organizational commitment, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and trust in management. Correlational data indicated that procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice all demonstrated significant correlations with the outcome variables with interpersonal justice demonstrating higher correlations with the outcome variables than procedural justice. Additionally, the results of two structural models indicated that, although both models fit the data equally well, interpersonal justice was the dominant predictor of the outcome variables. Finally, moderated multiple regression analyses indicated that the psychological contract did not act as a moderator on the relationships between the justice and the outcome variables. However, supplemental confirmatory factor analysis suggested that the justice variables might act as a mediator of the psychological contract - outcome variable relationships. Possible explanations of the results as well as implications for practice and future research are provided.

Research report presented to the Unisa School of Business Leadership / The purpose of the research is an investigation into how employee involvement can be used as a tool towards raising levels of engagement within actively disengaged employees at Ngwane Mills.

Research report presented to the Unisa School of Business Leadership / The purpose of the research is an investigation into how employee involvement can be used as a tool towards raising levels of engagement within actively disengaged employees at Ngwane Mills.

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This research considers the organisational factors and processes that impact on knowledge retention and subsequent perceptions of organisational effectiveness during downsizing/restructuring events. By exploring these relationships, the research seeks to help organisations facing downsizing/restructuring to identify best practices to support employees during the process and achieve positive organisational outcomes. The thesis presents a detailed review of the literature in the field of downsizing and organisational restructuring, together with knowledge, knowledge sharing and organisational effectiveness. A conceptual framework and hypotheses, informed through the literature and qualitative focus group process, were developed for testing. Data were collected from 81 organisations, drawn from both the private and public sectors. Analyses enabled detailed consideration of the impact of perceived levels of organisational knowledge on perceptions of post-downsizing/restructuring organisational effectiveness. The significance of relationships between downsizing/restructuring events, both decisions and processes, and knowledge sharing in organisations undergoing downsizing/restructuring were also examined. Findings indicate the need for open and honest relationships between managerial (Decision Makers and Implementers) and non-managerial employees (Affected Employees) in order to achieve successful organisational outcomes. The impact of knowledge sharing on organisational knowledge was assessed by studying the extent of both formal knowledge sharing and informal networks present in respondent organisations. The direct impact of knowledge sharing on organisational outcomes was also analysed and discussed. / Conclusions are reached that both formal knowledge sharing and informal networks have a significant impact not only on perceived levels of organisational knowledge but also on post-downsizing/restructuring organisational effectiveness. However, different aspects of knowledge sharing appear to be more significant to Decision Makers and Implementers and Affected Employees. For business, the findings of this research demonstrate a need to concentrate on organisational knowledge during downsizing/restructuring in order to achieve improved outcomes. The findings suggest this can be done through attention to ensuring that intent and interpretation of the decisions and processes involved are open and honest. Assessment of the knowledge present in the organisation and a focus on retention of key individuals with important knowledge is also advisable. Communication of what is planned and inclusion of employees in both planning and implementation were identified as ways in which organisations can do so, thereby promoting distributive and procedural fairness throughout the process. Formal knowledge sharing strategies arose as being important to achieving improved organisational outcomes, particularly to Decision Makers and Implementers. These strategies included identifying, capturing and storing information in ways that are accessible to employees. Documentation of practices and procedures was also found to be important as was careful planning of the change. / Communication, providing training and support to survivors and allowing the necessary time for sharing knowledge were also identified as key strategies. Overall, developing a culture and climate within the organisation that is supportive of knowledge sharing was found to be central to achieving improved organisational effectiveness. Informal networks were identified by Affected Employees as impacting on both perceived levels of organisational knowledge and, indirectly on organisational outcomes. The research indicates the Decision Makers and Implementers and Affected Employees have different perceptions about the role and importance of informal networks. Those implementing downsizing/restructuring may therefore need to examine the structure and operation of informal networks prior to downsizing/restructuring to ensure they are adequately supported during the process. Informal networks may also be utilised to assist in bringing about the change. The findings of this research are important to assist organisations develop best practice approaches to downsizing/restructuring. With increasing acceptance of downsizing/restructuring as a business strategy, this research provides insights into key issues of downsizing/restructuring events and knowledge retention as predictors of improved organisational outcomes.

Increasing demands for lower carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption drive technological developments for car manufacturers. One trend that has shown success for reducing fuel consumption in spark ignited engines is downsizing, where the engine size is reduced to save fuel and a turbocharger is added to maintain the power output. A drawback of this concept is the slower torque response of a turbocharged engine. Recent hardware improvements have facilitated the use of variable geometry turbochargers (VGT) for spark ignited engines, which can improve the transient torque response. This thesis addresses the transient torque response through three papers. Paper 1 presents the optimal control of the valve timing and VGT for a fast torque response. Optimal open-loop control signals are found by maximizing the torque integral for a 1-d simulation model. From the optimization it is found that keeping the ratio between exhaust and intake pressure at a constant level gives a fast torque response. This can be achieved by feedback control using vgt actuation. The optimal valve timing differs very little from a fuel consumption optimal control that uses large overlap. Evaluation on an engine test bench shows improved torque response over the whole low engine speed range. In Paper 2, model based, nonlinear feedback controllers for the exhaust pressure are presented. First, the dynamic relation between requested VGT position and exhaust pressure is modeled. This model contains an estimation of the on-engine turbine flow map. Using this model, a controller based on inverting the input-output relation is designed. Simulations and measurements on the engine show that the controller handles the strong nonlinear characteristic of the system, maintaining both stability and performance over the engine’s operating range. Paper 3 considers the dependence of the valve timing for the cylinder gas exchange process and presents a torque model. A data-based modeling approach is used to find regressors, based on valve timing and pressures, that can describe the volumetric efficiency for several engine speeds. Utilizing both 1-d simulations and measurements, a model describing scavenging is found. These two models combine to give an accurate estimation of the in-cylinder lambda, which is shown to improve the torque estimation. The models are validated on torque transients, showing good agreement with the measurements. / <p>QC 20120928</p>

The purpose of this paper is to understand what factors make media firms downsize and which channel managers will choose to inform the layoff message to employees. This paper uses interview research method to collect the data from 12 workers in different media firms. Findings indicate that there are three levels of factors cause downsize in media firms: external factors of the organization, internal factors of the organization and personal factors of employees. And managers depend on some standards to decide the list of layoff such as work performance and experience and managers¡¦ recognize about the employees. If one manager wants to inform layoff message to employees, he/she will choose face-to-face communication channel because it can ease employees feeling and makes some immediately feedbacks. The order of communication channels from interviewers¡¦ response is: face-to face, telephone and e-mail, document, MSN, bulletin board, firm¡¦s website and social network website.

In our country, military is becoming the frame of ¡§Consistent Authority and Responsibility¡¨ and ¡§Professional Department¡¨ due to the military downsizing trend and, besides, the situations between Taiwan and Mainland China--- As a result, we reduce the army personnel number down to 380 thousand members. The sample consisted of 368 officers & sergeant selected from the military. The data were analyzed by applying statistical methods, including factor analysis, reliability, one-way ANOVA, correlation and regression. Training transfer moderated the relationship between downsizing and job involvement, and got the important discoveries are stated separately as follows: 1. From our questioned officers & sergeant, they are not identified with the organization downsizing. National Defensive Department should take this seriously to figure ways out to lift army morale. 2. The different individual variables to downsizing consciousness, job involvement, job satisfaction and training transfer comes out a partly remarkable discrepancy. 3. Downsizing consciousness, job involvement, job satisfaction and training transfer reveals outstanding positive relation. 4. The interaction of efficiency changed consciousness and training transfer interference effect to the identification of job significance.

Recently, organization downsizing has become the major means used by corporations to seek survival or better growth. Organization downsizing has some purposes: to reduce the cost of personal, to get better efficiency, to rearrange the deployment of human resource after M&A. Besides those economic purposes, some scholar think corporations do organization downsizing to get legitimacy. Generally speaking, the purpose of organization downsizing is to get better efficiency or the legitimacy. But lots of researches indicate lots of organization downsizing can not achieve expected goals. Although some corporations can achieve the goal of organization downsizing, many corporations can¡¦t achieve expected goals, and there are also some corporations do a lot of organization downsizing but their situations go from bed to worse. Among the researches of why organization downsizing can¡¦t achieve expected goals, many researches indicate that the application of organization downsizing will make huge negative impact to survivors. Some scholars call that impact survivor syndrome. Besides, some scholars investigate the reason of the failure of organization downsizing from the point of informal social network. Because the theory of social capital includes trust, organization involvement, social network and so on, we can more understand the reason of the failure of organization downsizing from the point of social capital. So the purpose of this research is to use the theory of social capital to investigate the impact of organization downsizing and provide some advices to corporations, so that they can do better about organization downsizing. This research uses case study to understand the reason and the process of organization downsizing, and investigates the negative impact of organization downsizing. Survivor syndrome and social capital play important roles in the analysis of the failure of organization downsizing. This research finds that organization downsizing will do huge damage to social capital. If corporation don¡¦t understand the importance and benefit of social network, then the application of organization downsizing will hurt social network and corporations can¡¦t achieve expected goals. Besides, in the analysis of case study this research finds that organization downsizing also hurt trust, involvement, incentives to cooperation and so on, these issues are part of survivor syndrome, but we also can use social capital to explain.

As the downward movement in the economy, many corporations still remains high expense on the debit. In order to lower the personnel expenses, technically, most corporations will directly lay off employees, or compress the working requisite, such as: unpaid leave, or deduction on the salary. After the downsize method has been conducted, there are some negative impacts on the employees (both to lay off and the remaining employee), this research will probe into the impact on the insecurity and commitment to the organization on remaining employees after the conduction of the downsizing method. According to the research result, it concluded the impacts from the downsizing method on increasing the insecurity at work, it will also affects remaining employees¡¦ trust to the company and further diminish the commitment to the organization. This research has examined the downsized corporations¡¦ remaining employees (to both general and managerial position employees) during July 2008 to February 2009 on the degree of insecurity and commitment to the organization. According to the examined result, this research has the following conclusion: 1.The downsizing method¡¦s actual impact on remaining employee¡¦s insecurity at work will be varied by the procedure, so the hypothesis is not approved. 2.The hypothesis on the remaining employees¡¦ insecurity at work has the negative impact on commitment to the organization, disapproved. 3.The hypothesis on downsizing by lay off and unpaid leave has the negative impact on commitment to the organization, approved; managerial and non-managerial position employee has the negative impact on the commitment to the organization, disapproved. 4.Insecurity from the downsizing method has a moderate effect on commitment to the organization; nevertheless, it can¡¦t approve the moderate impact on the insecurity at work from the downsizing method, so the result is insignificant.