Discuss the survivor syndrome and the ways in which organisations can help to combat this syndrome. Provide some examples of survivor syndrome in South African organisations and how this syndrome was dealt with or not dealt with
In the recent years turbulent global and domestic economic trends have had a dramatic effect on the shape, nature and direction of many organisations. In order to survive in the current economic environment and to ensure the attainment of organisational goals and profitability, organisations have to continuously adapt and change to new forms of organisations that are flexible and that are constantly creating new innovations (Bloise, Cook & Hunsaker, 2003 as cited in Ndlovu & Parumasur, 2005; Chipunza & Berry, 2010). To achieve this organizations often choose different strategies to meet their goals such as mergers, acquisitions, closure, workforce restructuring and downsizing (Probst, 2003; Stoner & Hartman, 1997 as cited in Hovens, 2011). Organisations need to be aware of the issues that organisational change poses to their employees. The manner in which an organisation recreates their workforce can have immense implications for both the terminated and surviving employees. Recent research has been concerned with the defects of organisational change, particular through downsizing and reduncy, on those employee that remain with the organisation- “the survivors” (Appelbaum, Delage, Labib & Gault, 1997; Hovens, 2011; Ndlovu & Parumasur, 2005; Wolfe, 2004). The primary purpose of this paper is to review the prominent research relating to the after- effects of change, define the existence of survivor syndrome and to provide some strategies on how it may be moderated.
In South Africa, research has indicated that at least fifty seven percent of the organisations surveyed had downsized twice or more over the two-year period and that many more firms are in the first stages of restructuring (Westermann-Winter, 2007; Wiesner, Vermeulen &...