Title: Study of remaining employees' continuance commitment after downsizing from the perspective of job satisfaction

Authors: Philip C.F. Tsai, Shu-Ling Wu, Yu-Fang Yvonne Yen, Chin-Ming Ho, Ing-Chung Huang

Addresses: School of HRM, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan. ' School of HRM, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan. ' School of HRM, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan. ' School of HRM, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan. ' School of HRM, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan

Abstract: Downsizing has gradually become a popular practice for firms struggling to compete and survive since the 1980s. Downsizing affects and harms employees to a great extent. Losing trust would mean that survived employees could not bear to stay with the firm in the long run and possibly seek other ways out. Therefore, after downsizing, developing strategic human resource practices to maintain and motivate the vital human capital is very important for firms to remain competitive advantage. Starting from two psychological concepts ||job satisfaction|| and ||continuance commitment||, this study explores the factors that significantly influence the commitment among remaining employees. These factors will be critical for downsized firms to design motivating HR practices after downsizing. We have conducted quantitative and qualitative researches simultaneously on seven factories, for 15 months. The finding reveals that ||support to employee|s personal health and family life||, ||pay and benefits|| and ||the nature of the work|| affect significantly employees| continuance commitment. This finding provides meaningful implications to practices and researches of human resources management.

Keywords: downsizing; strategic human resource practices; job satisfaction; continuance commitment; employee commitment; human resource management; HRM; human capital; motivation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRDM.2005.005988

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2005 Vol.5 No.1, pp.99 - 124

Published online: 17 Jan 2005 *

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