Downsizing in a religious, nonprofit organization: Exploring the psychological contract of the survivors and how they make meaning of it

Problem;Research conducted in for-profit organizations has shown that downsizing causes significant distress to the survivors who remain with the organization to the extent that it can affect their performance for the organization. No research has been conducted regarding the survivors of a downsizing in religious, nonprofit organizations primarily because downsizing in nonprofit organizations is a relatively new phenomenon.;Historically, the common thought was that when one went to work for a nonprofit organization, they were willing to take lower pay for the greater job security offered by working for the nonprofit. It was only after the concept of corporate reengineering and downsizing became popular and had been in practice in the for-profit organizations for a while that non-profit organizations considered following that path. Therefore, this study explores the impact of a downsizing on a religious nonprofit organization from the survivors' perspective.;Methods;This study is a narrative inquiry of 16 survivors of a downsizing in a single religious nonprofit organization. Selection criteria required the participants in this study to have been employed with the organization for a period of 2 years prior to the downsizing event and remained employed after the downsizing event. Seventeen people met the criteria; 16 individuals chose to participate. Participants were asked to write an essay answer to each of three questions. The data from those essays were coded and analyzed. In addition to the primary data collected, historical information about the organization was collected from published and unpublished sources and analyzed.;Results;From the stories of the participants of this study, six major themes emerged. Those themes were: Working Conditions, Mission and Calling, Leadership, Security and Morale, Community, and Spiritualty . These themes and their relevance to the survivors were informed by the survivors' awareness of the history of the organization.;Of the six major themes, Mission and Calling, Religion and Spirituality , and Community took on a different role than the other three themes since they were more of a relational nature, more existential, and reflected a more proactive participation on the part of the survivors in making sense of the their situation, while the other three themes tended to be reactions to conditions the survivors found themselves in and tended to be more rational or temporal in nature.;The six major themes and the survivors' understanding of the history of the organization were discussed and provided insight into the nature of the construct of the psychological contract these individuals had. One factor that emerged, which could have a significant impact on the nature of the psychological contract, was an awareness of God, coupled with a perception of how God worked in their lives and in the organization.;Conclusions;There are significant issues that management should consider prior to choosing to downsize a religious nonprofit organization. These issues are related to such things as the employees' perception of their relationship to management and how management fits into the organization, as well as issues surrounding ownership of the nonprofit organization as compared to for-profit organizations. If a downsizing is unavoidable, then there are specific steps management should take to mitigate the effects of the downsizing on the survivors as well as the organization. Since this study was an exploration, it exposes areas for future research into the nature of the psychological contract employees have with the nonprofit, religious organization.