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A scenario study and a field survey were used to investigate why managers often lay off employees in a curt, abrupt fashion. The extent to which mismanagement (versus external conditions) caused the need for layoffs was found to affect managers' reported feelings of discomfort and the time designated for dismissal meetings with employees. Further results showed that mismanagement was also related to managers' anticipation of negative consequences from actions by layoff victims, such as hostile confrontations and sabotage.
Cameron, Freeman, and Mishra (1993) suggested that the very best downsizing organizations implement layoffs in ways that are consistent with good management practices. They reported, however, that managers at many downsizing organizations experience enormous pressure to abandon sound management principles and that some downsizing managers "distance themselves from employees to avoid criticism and antagonism" (Cameron et al., 1993: 50).
The present research focused on truncated dismissals (notification meetings in which managers minimize the time they are in contact with employees) as a form of managerial distancing during layoffs.
Truncated dismissals illustrate how tough times produce tough bosses. Rather than allowing a few extra minutes for a layoff notification meeting, a manager might exhibit distancing by minimizing contact time. Because a manager's sensitivity to layoff victims can benefit an organization (Brockner, 1994), research needs to determine when distancing is most likely to occur.
Anecdotal accounts suggest that abrupt dismissals are common. For example, eight-year old Marisa Means witnessed her father's abrupt dismissal firsthand on "take your daughter to work day"; with no advance warning, father and daughter were escorted off-site by a security guard (Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 1995). Folger (1993), noting the prevalence of abrupt dismissals characterized by insensitivity, cited other examples that included the method used to notify laid-off employees at Kodak's Rochester plant: Some employees' pay envelopes contained only their usual paychecks, whereas others contained a pink slip along with the check. At Allied Bank of Texas, department heads called meetings to read the names of laid-off employees in front of their co-workers (Marks, 1993).
Although curt, abrupt layoffs such as these have been described as necessary security measures (e.g., Dubose, 1994), they can also be abusive. Interpersonal distancing is consistent with blaming the victim and with related rationalizations that condone abusive treatment, such...