Impact of Downsizing on Employee Commitment and turnover intentions in Public and Private Sector: Moderating role of social support

Abstract

Due to economic crisis, organizations all over the world are adopting a number of different schemes to handle emerging problems. Downsizing or retrenchment of employees is frequently used by organizations when they face hardships at the marketplace. Under these circumstances, lack of commitment is the most crucial counter action which organizations have to face. This study intends to examine the impact of downsizing on organizational commitment and turnover intentions of surviving employees in the moderating role of social support. The target audience for this study was four public and private sector organizations located in Islamabad. The sample size consisted of 333 employees of upper and middle level management which were selected through simple random sampling. The result shows that downsizing is positively related to employee turnover intention and has significant negative impact on employee commitment. However, social support as a moderator enhanced employee commitment. This study will help the managers to comprehend when and how to apply downsizing so as not to harm the employee’s commitment. The study will further assist managers to implement downsizing and social support to achieve the objectives.