Wall Street Journal
What is one reason that led the Wall Street Journal to downsize and restructure?
- a decline in print advertising, leaving the WSJ about 30% off budget.
- staying relevant by adapting to a dominant digital environment.
- conducting audience research to determine that consumers value a more digestible newspaper.
What was one of the downsizing strategies used by Toys R Us?
Store closures & liquidation sales
What is work redesign?
Focuses on work processes and assesses whether specific functions, products, and/or services should be changed or eliminated
What major challenge did the news industry face that led most outlets to restructure?
Declining print revenue
Name one reason why Toys R Us employees were upset in the restructuring process
- The elimination of staff and full-time positions frequently meant more work per employee
- Toys R Us initially said they were not planning to pay severance after the layoffs
Name 3 reasons why organizations downsize
any of the following:
- declining profit
- business downturn or increased pressure from competitors
- merging with another organization (effort duplication)
- new technology
- need to reduce operating costs
- desire to decrease levels of management
- getting rid of employee “deadwood”
- major disruption (ie: COVID-19)
What three downsizing strategies did the Wall Street Journal use?
Workforce reduction
Work redesign
Systematic change
What three factors led to the decision to restructure at Toys R Us?
Immense competition & loss of market share
Changing consumer behaviors
Increased debt & large interest payments
What is the Amazon Effect?
Example of how jobs are changing, consider a warehouse worker at Amazon whose previous job was to stack small bins weighing up to 11 kilograms during a 10-hour shift. Now the worker is employed by the company to monitor several robots in the warehouse and troubleshoot when problems arise.