Ethics

Downsizing is the act of reducing the number of employees in an organization either temporarily or permanently. A company may reduce the number of employees due to increase in the cost of production or when there is reduction in the amount of work that can be done by the employees. The employees create a great cost to the organization especially when the organization is not making profits. Downsizing is one of the strategies that organizations have to eliminate the excess costs of production especially when the organization is not performing well. Organizations lay off employees when the economy is performing poorly. The global meltdown of 2008 caused many organizations to lay off their employees to cater for the increasing costs of production as well as the reduced prices for the products in the market. Most of the organizations had to downsize their workforce to cater for the increasing costs of production and the decreasing profits from business activities during that period. There are both positive and negative effects of downsizing to the organizations as well as to the employees. The communities and the families of the employees are also affected by downsizing.

Thesis statement
Downsizing has a negative implication to the employees, communities, and families of the employees
The implications of downsizing to the employees
The impact of deterioration of health to employees due to stress. Downsizing increases the stress that the employees have. This is caused by lack of adequate sources of finance to cater for the needs of living. The employee has no income to support his needs and this creates stress which result into poor health. Stress creates some toxins in the body which affect the health and normal functioning of the body.

When employees are disturbed by a lot of stress, they indulge in activities that they feel would reduce the cases of stress. For instance, increased or cases of smoking and use of other drugs. The person may become an addict to drugs such as tobacco, alcohol and other dangerous drugs. People believe that drugs reduce stress and they are tempted to use them when they are encountered with stress.

Downsizing creates poor career development to the employee since they are forced to shift to other activities not related to their careers (Edwards, 2005). Employees who have lost jobs are ready to accept any job that they get irrespective of the relevance of the job to their career. This creates conflicts between the employee and their aspirations to climb the career ladder. This may reduce the productivity of the employees and hence affect his development in career.

The employees who remain in the company after others have been sacked suffer from job insecurity. Some employees opt not to take sick leave to avoid job loss.  They perform their duties in bad health and this affects their performance. The organization suffers reduced performance by the employees. The performance of the employee is influenced by the morale from other employees they are working with. Organizations have informal groups which help the employees discuss and solve some problems they encounter in their daily activities. Once some employees are downsized, the remaining employees lack colleagues to solve some informal problems that they encounter. This reduces the performance of duties and the overall output of the organization is affected.

Employees are motivated by the security of their jobs. Downsizing reduces the motivation that employees have in their work place. Employees perform poorly when they are negatively motivated. The management should conduct the process of downsizing in a professional manner to avoid the negative impacts which happen when employees are demotivated. The management should explain clearly to the employees the purpose of downsizing to create understanding to the employees. Employees are motivated when they realize the importance of the policies to downsize the workforce.

Employees lack trust with the management when the organization conducts the process of downsizing in unprofessional manner. The employees can perform their duties poorly when they do not trust the management. The employee turnover increases when they lack trust with the management. The management may take much time and resources to rebuilt trust once the employees lack trust in them.

Employees have extra workload once the organization implements the policy to downsize the workforce. Increase in the workload reduces the productivity of the organization. The quality of products reduces when employees have an extra burden. The efficiency in production decreases when employees have too much obligations to meet. Efficiency in work affects the overall activities of the organization and the commodities produced may be inferior. Downsizing results to production of inferior products by the employees.

The implications of downsizing to the communities of the employees
Employees are members of a community which is indirectly affected by the loss of jobs by an employee. Employees support some community projects and when they are sacked from their jobs the community cannot obtain the services funded by the employees. Some communal services and products are basic to the people obtaining them and this creates a large number of dependants within a community.

Downsizing reduces the employees available to perform a specific activity in the community. This increases the demand for the services that the community requires. The overall effect is the reduction in the quantity of commodities the community can obtain. This increases the prices for commodities due to the increase in demand. Price increase creates market instability and the market equilibrium is not balanced.

Through the tax that the employees contribute to the government, the community is able to obtain some services and products. The government uses the money collected from the taxes to develop the economy. The community benefits from the public services and goods provided by the government. Downsizing reduces the tax that employees contribute to the national treasury. The community suffers from the reduction of the goods and services that the government delivers to them through the funds from taxes.

The implications of downsizing to the families of the employees
The families of the affected employees suffer the loss in the finances that employees support them with. The employees who are sacked do not have adequate money to cater for the needs of their families. The activities of the families are affected since there are no finances to support them.

Some spouses withdraw support to their partners once they are sacked from their jobs. This may create conflicts within the family due to the reduction in finances to support family activities. The spouses may neglect family duties since they have inadequate money to do their obligations. Most people rely on employment as the only source of income. They make no other investments and this creates a great risk in their lives. Job loss is usually accompanied by panic and sudden change in lifestyle. Some people are unable to manage the transition between the job loss and their future life. Downsizing comes as a surprise and people are not psychologically prepared to encounter the problems associated with the loss of jobs.

Most families breakup when one of the couple is sacked from hisher job. People neglect their family duties when they do not have any source of income. The employees who have lost jobs have stresses which cause them to change their behaviors. Such sudden change in habit causes conflicts in the family which may end up in family breakup. If the loss of job is not well managed, it may create family breakup when the members of the family do not take the transition period carefully.

Conclusion
Downsizing has more negative than positive impacts to the employees, their families and the community. The management of any organization should conduct the process of downsizing in a professional manner to avoid the negative implications of the process. The organization may create a long-term negative impact on the employees when it carries the process of downsizing in unprofessional manner.  The families of the sacked employees ought to manage the transition when one of their members is sacked from a job. Spouses should support each other during the time of job loss to avoid breakups. The family members should give moral support to the people who have lost jobs to reduce the stress associated with job loss. People should not result to using drugs to reduce stress after job loss.  They ought to start other activities to keep them busy to avoid the stress. Organizations can use other methods of cost reduction when the economy is performing poorly than using the strategy of downsizing. Some of the strategies are reducing the work hours, reduction on the rate of payment, use of work shifts among others.