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- March 2023 (Revised May 2023)
- Background Note
Workforce Change: The Hidden Costs of Layoffs and Managing Staff Reductions
By: Sandra J. Sucher, Marilyn Morgan Westner and Christopher Diak
Globally, over the past fifty years, more companies have used layoffs to cuts costs during periods of decreased demand or economic downturns. But layoffs have far-reaching consequences, generate hidden costs, and harm the company in myriad ways. This note reviews ways...
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- March 2023
- Case
Layoffs in the Tech Industry: 2022-2023
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner
A wave of mass layoffs swept through the tech industry, dominating news from 2022 through spring 2023. Empirical research and longitudinal studies demonstrate that layoffs rarely provide a viable long-term solution to financial problems. Why did so many tech companies...
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- December 8, 2022
- Article
What Companies Still Get Wrong about Layoffs
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner
Research has long shown that layoffs have a detrimental effect on individuals and on corporate performance. The short-term cost savings provided by a layoff are often overshadowed by bad publicity, loss of knowledge, weakened engagement, higher voluntary turnover, and...
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- January 2021
- Article
State and Local Government Employment in the COVID-19 Crisis
By: Daniel Green and Erik Loualiche
Local governments are facing large losses in revenues and increased expenditures because of the COVID-19 crisis. We document a causal relationship between fiscal pressures induced by COVID-19 and the layoffs of state and local government workers. States that depend...
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- Article
The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Outcomes and Expectations
By: Alexander Bartik, Marianne Bertrand, Zoë B. Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca and Christopher Stanton
To explore the impact of COVID on small businesses, we conducted a survey of more than 5,800 small businesses between March 28 and April 4, 2020. Several themes emerged. First, mass layoffs and closures had already occurred—just a few weeks into the crisis. Second, the...
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- July 2019
- Teaching Note
AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow
By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg
A Teaching Note for the "AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow" case study (HBS#820-017). The case describes how AT&T designed and implemented a program to retrain 100,000 of its workers. The case first reviews the technological forces that compelled AT&T to...
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Keywords:
AT＆T;
Workforce;
Future Of Work;
Telecommunications;
Unions;
Technological Change;
Layoffs;
MOOCS;
Strategic Planning;
Employees;
Training;
Labor;
Learning;
Labor Unions;
Technology Adoption;
Talent and Talent Management;
Transformation;
Telecommunications Industry;
Communications Industry;
United States
- July 2019 (Revised May 2020)
- Case
AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow
By: William R. Kerr, Joseph B. Fuller and Carl Kreitzberg
By the late 2000s, rapid changes in the telecommunications industry forced AT&T’s management team to take on a task that CEO Randall Stephenson called the “biggest logistical challenge” they had ever seen: retraining 100,000 workers by 2020. In 2012, internal company...
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Keywords:
AT＆T;
Workforce;
Skills;
Future Of Work;
Telecommunications;
Unions;
Technological Change;
Layoffs;
MOOCS;
Strategic Planning;
Employees;
Training;
Competency and Skills;
Labor;
Learning;
Labor Unions;
Technology Adoption;
Talent and Talent Management;
Telecommunications Industry;
Communications Industry;
United States
- 2019
- Working Paper
Labor Market Shocks and the Demand for Trade Protection: Evidence from Online Surveys
By: Rafael Di Tella and Dani Rodrik
We study preferences for government action in response to layoffs resulting from different types of labor-market shocks. We consider the following shocks: technological change, a demand shift, bad management, and three kinds of international outsourcing. Respondents...
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- October 2018 (Revised March 2019)
- Background Note
Note on Managing Workforce Reductions
By: Ethan Bernstein and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Each individual who enters an organization will, at some point, leave. And yet most future leaders spend significantly more effort learning about recruiting than departures, despite the sensitivity and challenges associated with the latter. This note is intended to...
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- May 2018
- Teaching Note
AT&T: Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century
By: Daniel P. Gross and William R. Kerr
Teaching Note for HBS No. 718-486.
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Keywords:
AT＆T;
Bell Telephone;
Phone Lines;
Phone Operators;
Mechanical Switching;
Layoffs;
Technological Change;
Transition;
History;
Innovation and Invention;
Technological Innovation;
Information Technology;
Disruption;
Change Management;
Communications Industry;
Telecommunications Industry;
United States
- May–June 2018
- Article
Layoffs That Don't Break Your Company: Better Approaches to Workforce Transition
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta
Today layoffs have become companies’ default response to the challenges created by advances in technology and global competition. Yet research shows that job cuts rarely help senior leaders achieve their goals. Too often, they’re done for short-term gain, but the cost...
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- January 2018 (Revised May 2018)
- Case
AT&T: Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century
By: Daniel P. Gross and William R. Kerr
By the 1930s, AT&T dominated the American phone industry, serving 10 million telephones and employing over 100,000 switchboard operators. But beginning in the mid-1910s, the company began changing from manually operated switchboards to mechanical switching systems that...
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Keywords:
AT＆T;
Bell Telephone;
Phone Lines;
Phone Operators;
Mechanical Switching;
Layoffs;
Technological Change;
Transition;
History;
Innovation and Invention;
Technological Innovation;
Information Technology;
Disruption;
Change Management;
Communications Industry;
Telecommunications Industry;
United States
- July 2017 (Revised September 2017)
- Case
Donald Trump Calls Carrier Corporation
By: Andy Zelleke and Brian Tilley
This case examines the influence of political pressure on corporate decision-making. It questions whether fidelity to domestic operations ought to be a corporate social responsibility, and thus it challenges the limits of “social responsibility” as a corporate ideal....
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Keywords:
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Board Decisions;
Political Influence;
Layoffs;
Offshoring And Outsourcing;
Manufacturing;
United States;
Mexico;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Decision Making;
Job Cuts and Outsourcing;
Political Elections;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Corporate Governance;
Technology Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
Connecticut;
Indiana;
Mexico
- October 2016
- Supplement
Moshe Kahlon: Telecommunications Reform and Competition in Israel's Cellular Market (B)
By: Joshua Margolis, Amram Migdal and Kerry Herman
The case complements “Moshe Kahlon: Telecommunications Reform and Competition in Israel’s Cellular Market (A),” HBS case number 417-017, which addresses reforms to regulations in Israel’s telecommunications industry initiated and implemented under the leadership of...
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Keywords:
Market Reform;
Political Leadership;
Industry Regulation;
Regulatory Reforms;
Economic Sectors;
Private Sector;
Public Sector;
Values and Beliefs;
Ethics;
Geography;
Geopolitical Units;
Country;
Government and Politics;
Government Administration;
Government Legislation;
Leadership;
Leadership Style;
Leading Change;
Market Design;
Market Participation;
Duopoly and Oligopoly;
Supply and Industry;
Industry Structures;
Telecommunications Industry;
Communications Industry;
Public Administration Industry;
Israel
- December 2015
- Teaching Note
Nokia's Bridge Program (A) & (B)
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Susan J. Winterberg
This teaching note is designed to be used in conjunction with the cases "Nokia's Bridge Program: Redesigning Layoffs (A)," HBS No. 615-013, and "Nokia's Bridge Program: Outcome and Results (B)," HBS No. 615-014. Instructors could also assign "Layoffs: Effects on Key...
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- February 2015 (Revised May 2015)
- Supplement
Nokia's Bridge Program: Outcome and Results (B)
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Susan J. Winterberg
Nokia's leaders reflect on the Bridge program, lessons learned during its implementation, and the business benefits it brought to the company. Nokia's Bridge program resulted in 60% of employees knowing their next step the day they exited the firm. It also helped...
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- February 2015 (Revised August 2016)
- Case
Nokia's Bridge Program: Redesigning Layoffs (A)
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Susan J. Winterberg
"Not another Bochum." Nokia Board Chairman Jorma Ollila was clear in the goals he set for the 2011 restructuring that Nokia's new CEO, Stephen Elop, had decided was necessary to address the dramatically changed competitive environment the company faced in smartphones...
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- October 2014
- Case
Honeywell and the Great Recession (A)
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Susan J. Winterberg
CEO Dave Cote spent six years turning around an ailing Honeywell and in 2008 Cote and his team face a new challenge: how to respond to the Great Recession. Cote does not want to give up the gains he made in transforming and unifying Honeywell. With a fall-off in...
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- October 2014
- Supplement
Honeywell and the Great Recession: The Economic Recovery (B)
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Susan J. Winterberg
Five years after the Great Recession, Honeywell's CEO Dave Cote and his executive team reflect on the choices they made to manage costs and earnings forecasts during that uncertain time. They discuss which cost cutting measures they decided to take and their personal...
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