Leadership
Leaders of firms that have been forced to downsize lately face various challenges. One challenge is convincing the stakeholders of the benefits of downsizing to the organization. Downsizing, can be an important corporate strategy. However, the leaders are faced with a tough task of convincing everyone that the layoff will benefit the organization. It can be quite a challenge for a leader convincing the stakeholders and instilling into them the long-term success benefits that an organization will realize upon the reduction of the workforce.
The second challenge is a leader engaging the employees who have been left in a one on one discussion of the effects of the downsizing. After pointing out to the long-term success benefits of layoffs in an organization, leaders tend to separate themselves from the dialogue as into how the layoffs have cost the organization personally. However, many employees readily accept an open dialogue. Leaders shy away from explaining how the move to downsize was a touching one and that that it was under unavoidable circumstances, yet, it’s this statements that portray the leader as a real person as they mind their actions. In the same context, leaders shy away from giving the employees who have been left a chance to express themselves and what they are going through, steps which are crucial in repairing the employees and the leaders.
There are ways that are used by leaders to engage their employees in the face of layoffs and bad financial news. Ways include ascertaining that the employees who have been left see novel opportunities such as career paths and by making them clear, ensuring that the left employees do not do tasks that were previously done by the laid off employees by rightsizing the tasks, and appreciating the left employees for having novel and beneficial behaviors.
The following are two articles discussing the two challenges aforementioned. Forbes (2011) described how Bank of America (BoA) gave a statement of its plan to layoff around 30, 000 staff in the upcoming years. The statement comes amid a similar move by U.S. Postal Service of laying off a similar number. This comes due to the shares of BoA trading low thus making the bank have have difficult in servicing its large loans. The BoA statement released by its CEO is in the league of other companies that plan similar moves namely Merck that was planning to lay off 13, 000 employees a move that it claimed could be cost-effective, profitable and a competitive one as a result of its drugs patent loss. Another company, Borders, laid off 10, 700 employees due to its bankruptcy protection fail and the closure of its stores. Next in the league was Cisco which laid off 6, 500; General Motors announcement of cutting 47,000 jobs, 2009; Circuit City laying off of 34,000 employees. Between 1993 and 2011, IBM topped the U.S charts of lay-offs after its announcement of firing 60,000 employees; and treading hot on its heels, a combined figure of 50,000 by Sears and Citigroup, two companies. Moynihan, was struggling to control the bank over the tough times.
The second article is about the move by the Citigroup Inc. CEO to trim the bank’s employees (Eric, 2005). The move would trim the employees by around 2% whereby out of the 262,500 staff it has, 4,500 would be laid-off. The bank attributed the downsizing move to the lessened trading, world economy that was on a slow pace, the lack of consistent investors, increased taking of loans and other removal of charges on consumers such as those on debit cards. The reduction of the employees in the bank has been 100,000 lower than the number that it had by the end of 2007.
Servant leadership can help in addressing the challenges faced by leaders in convincing the stakeholders that as a corporate strategy, the lay-offs and downsizing can benefit the long-term success of the organization; also, in engaging the employees in an open dialogue. One of the ways is an attentive servant leader. In an organization setting, a dialogue between the leaders and the employees is a vital tool when making decisions. Thus a servant leader must be in the capacity of listening to fellow staff lower in the rank than him or her and be supportive to them in identifying and implementing decisions. A servant leader need be an intent listener of others. In the challenges that I chose above, downsizing and lay-offs, a listening servant leader should give the left employees an ear, identify the desire of employees and assist in its implementation. An example is after the employees complain of being bombarded with more work that was done by laid-off employees; he should listen to them, identify their will and assist in tackling that will such as by rightsizing.
The second is having a sense of self-awareness. This assists the servant leader in identifying ethical issues and values of those involved in. It also enables the servant reader to have a holistic perspective (Zeinab & Zeinab, 1999). In the setting above, after downsizing, the servant reader is able to view the wills of the employees in his or her own shoes thus making judgments that would not be otherwise termed oppressive.
The third is having an insight. A good servant reader need have the ability to see the possible outcome of an issue by reviewing what has been learned in the past, the present trend and how the future is likely to materialize. Using this, a servant leader can figure out whether downsizing employees is likely to be of beneficial importance to the long-term success of an organization in the long run or if the move will not only bombard the employees with lots of work unnecessarily but also be of no importance to the organization.
The forth is envisage. Servant readers should dare dream and envision their organizations beyond the daily routine. Such as the example of Citigroup bank CEO who cushioned the bank’s possible losses by laying off employees. Such a move showed that he had a foresight. In the context of the chosen challenges above, the servant leader may have been trying to increase the returns of the organization by cutting on the payroll.
The fifth one is healing whereby after the departure of employees, the servant leader seeks to rebuild the trust among him and the employees by giving the employees a platform to express themselves. This is achieved by having an open dialogue with the employees and listening to their experiences.
Lastly, is being persuasive. Many leaders wrongly instill authority by the oft repeated saying, “exercising my powers.” This often involves the leaders coercing the employees into doing what they desire to be done. However, a servant leader need be a convincing leader rather than a coercive leader. In the context above, the leader should persuade the employees into accepting the new environment and filling the jobs left by the laid-off employees through a dialogue rather than forcefully making them do it.
Situational leadership, the adaption of the form of leadership based on the change of an environment, can effectively address the downsizing and laying off issues. This leadership style is tailored to a specific setting. In the context above (after downsizing and laying off), it can be used to address the issues. Ways include soliciting the input of the employees by giving them a platform whereby they can reshape the working environment after the lay-off. Another way include reshape the tasks that the employees left do in order the tasks can be appealing to them as jobs that are appealing boost the morale of the employees and their productivity.
Three values needed by leaders to effectively address these issues; one of them is courage which is crucial since it defines the willingness of the leaders will be in a position to handle risks in tough times. Job conditions are bound to be stressful immediately after lay-offs but the leaders need not give in even when the going gets tough. The second value is integrity by adhering to the values and beliefs of the organization. Servant leaders should explain to the employees how the downsizing issue is being managed and addressed based on the core beliefs of the company. The last value is conviction whereby the leaders don’t falter on their visions as they steer the organizations through the dampening moments of the organization after lay-offs. In such morale breaking moments, the leaders need be confident and plan when the conditions at the workplace can be better.

Reference
Dash, E. (2011). International Herald Tribune. Citigroup to Lay off 4,500 Workers. Retrieved on March 22,2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/business/citigroup-to-lay-off-4500-workers.html#
Forbes. (2011). BoA Plan To Slash 30,000 Jobs: The Years’s Biggest Downsizing, By Far. Retrieved on March 22,2012 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/09/12/boas-plan-to-slash-30000-jobs-the-biggest-downsizing-of-the-year-by-far/
Karake-Shalhoub, Z. & Karake, Z.A. (1999). Organizational downsizing, discrimination and corporate social responsibility. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group.