The Worldwide Toy Company had recently undergone a dramatic restructuring exercise that has reduced the number of staff by 25% (from 2510 employees to 1883 employees) and the number of distinct structural departments by 30% (from 37 to 26 departments). The restructuring was stimulated by a recent collapse in Worldwide’s market share for its previously best selling toys. This collapse appeared to be precipitated by moves from competitors to improve both product quality and customer service.
A survey of Worldwide Toy Company middle and senior management employees was conducted in the context of the major restructuring that happened in the company. The general aim of the survey was to understand whether or not people had difficulties with the restructure and to see if patterns of difficulty bore any relationship to any other attitudinal and demographic indicators. Specifically the following research questions were addressed:
1. How supportive of managers and how committed to managers do respondents feel that Worldwide was during the planning and implementation of the restructuring?
2. What were managers’ belief in need for the restructure, acceptance of the new structure and feelings of comfort with their place within the new structure at Worldwide and what were managers’ general levels of perceived stress and intention to stay with Worldwide as a consequence of the restructuring?
3. Do the gender and management level of the manager differ with respect to:
(a) feelings about Worldwide’s support and commitment to managers through the restructuring process?
(b) managers’ belief in need for the restructure, acceptance of the new structure and feelings of comfort with their place within the new structure at Worldwide and managers’ general levels of perceived stress and intention to stay with Worldwide?
4. Can certain predictive relationships, hypothesised based on behavioural and organisational research change literature, be supported in the case of the change process at Worldwide:
5. Can patterns of change resisters’ and change accepters’ be identified from managers’ belief in need for the restructure, acceptance of the new structure and feelings of comfort with their place within the new structure and are these patterns related to gender, management level, organisational support of employees, organisational commitment to managers, perceived job role stress levels and intentions to stay at Worldwide?