Austerity policies being announced leads to an overall drop in employee well-being, job satisfaction and engagement before cuts are even implemented, according to new research.
Academics looked at the UK Government’s 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review when Chancellor George Osborne announced a budget reduction of 19% over four years to a host of government departments. The Office for Budget Responsibility predicted it would lead to the loss of almost half a million public-sector jobs by 2015; around 10% of all public-sector employment.
Professor Tina Kiefer, Warwick Business School, revealed her research had found evidence of an immediate drop in employee job satisfaction, well-being and engagement among public-sector workers. Six months after the announcement, as more changes were implemented, they fell even more. However, if the changes were innovative rather than salami-slicing, public-sector staff reported an increase in well-being, job satisfaction and engagement in their job.
Professor Kiefer said, “The announcement had a clear short-term impact, while the organisational changes themselves affected employee well-being, attitudes and behaviour over the longer term.” Not many would have expected the actual announcement, rather than the subsequent changes, to affect public-service employees in this way. She added, “An announcement about cuts is an event with ‘real’ impact that signals potential changes to employees’ jobs and career prospects. It also hit home the scale of change, which may have confirmed, or been worse than, employees’ expectations.”
The results highlight the importance of understanding employee reactions to nationally instigated policies, rather than merely focusing on what happens within an organisation when organisational changes are implemented.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
