| As organizations downsize to reduce costs, employees who remain with an organization are often less productive and experience survivor syndrome, which results in increased costs. The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the supervisor behavior that is most beneficial in mitigating the negative impact of downsizing. Data collection was based on the Job Stress Survey (JSS), Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)—Self and Observer, and the Coping Scale for Adults (CSA). The target population consisted of supervisors and employees from financial, government, manufacturing, nonprofit, retail, and service organizations—located in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio—that had downsized in the past 5 years. The LPI (Self) was taken by 263 supervisors. The LPI (Observer), the JSS, and the CSA were taken by 402 employees. The data were analyzed using frequency distributions, central tendencies, means, standard deviations, percentages, and various data arrays to describe the variables. The results revealed that all employees needed specific leadership behaviors pertaining to inspiration, encouragement, and challenging the process to ensure that they achieved the best performance results. Results also revealed that the most severe and frequent job stress events occurred because of a lack of organizational support and stress due to inadequate pay and insufficient staff. Dealing with the problem and optimism were identified as the most frequent coping styles used to address problems and concerns. |
