TY - JOUR

T1 - The perceived fairness of layoffs in Germany

T2 - Participation, compensation, or avoidance ?

AU - Pfeifer, Christian

N1 - Funding Information: The dataset was conducted in the research project ‘‘Labour and Fairness – The Acceptance of Employment and Wage Adjustment in Germany’’ (‘‘Arbeit und Gerechtigkeit – Die Akzeptanz von Lohn-und Beschäftigungsanpassungen in Deutschland’’) by the Institute of Empirical Economic Research, University of Hannover, and the Institute of Sociology, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, and was financed by the Hans Böckler Stiftung (Struck et al., 2006). In a representative telephone survey more than 3000 individuals between the age of 20 and 60 years were asked several scenarios and questions about fairness perceptions of layoffs and wage cuts in summer 2004. To control for individual characteristics, we gathered sociodemo-graphic and occupational information. Since our research team was interested in an East-West German comparison, about half of the respondents were located in East Germany and the other half in West Germany. Funding Information: This work is part of the research project ‘‘Arbeit und Gerechtigkeit – Die Akzeptanz von Lohn-und Beschäfti-gungsanpassungen in Deutschland’’, which was financially supported by the Hans Böckler Stiftung. The author would like to thank the members of the research team in Hannover (Knut Gerlach, Tatjana Sohr, Jena (Christoph Köhler, Alexandra Krause, Olaf Struck), and Nürnberg (Gesine Stephan) for helpful comments and support. Any remaining shortcomings are, of course, my own.

PY - 2007/8

Y1 - 2007/8

N2 - This study analyses to what extend and under what circumstances layoffs are accepted in Germany. Principles of distributive justice and rules of procedural justice form the theoretical framework of the analysis. Based on this, hypotheses are generated, which are tested empirically in a telephone survey conducted between East and West Germans in 2004 (n = 3036). The empirical analysis accounts for the different points of views of implicated stakeholders and impartial spectators. Key findings are: (1) The management of a company can increase the acceptance of layoffs if the employees get some participation rights. (2) For impartial spectators generous compensation for those made redundant leads to a higher degree of perceived fairness. But job alliances are not even preferred to layoffs without measures to soften the blow of job loss. (3) Implicated stakeholders accept job alliances and perceive wage cuts as more fair than layoffs. However, compensation does not have the expected impact.

AB - This study analyses to what extend and under what circumstances layoffs are accepted in Germany. Principles of distributive justice and rules of procedural justice form the theoretical framework of the analysis. Based on this, hypotheses are generated, which are tested empirically in a telephone survey conducted between East and West Germans in 2004 (n = 3036). The empirical analysis accounts for the different points of views of implicated stakeholders and impartial spectators. Key findings are: (1) The management of a company can increase the acceptance of layoffs if the employees get some participation rights. (2) For impartial spectators generous compensation for those made redundant leads to a higher degree of perceived fairness. But job alliances are not even preferred to layoffs without measures to soften the blow of job loss. (3) Implicated stakeholders accept job alliances and perceive wage cuts as more fair than layoffs. However, compensation does not have the expected impact.

KW - Economics

KW - distributive justice

KW - downsizing

KW - fairness

KW - job alliance

KW - layoffs

KW - procedural justice

KW - severance pay

KW - works councils

KW - Gender and Diversity

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34547262856&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/6741e19b-40ef-3b46-bec2-21182a788d38/

U2 - 10.1007/s10551-006-9217-z

DO - 10.1007/s10551-006-9217-z

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 74

SP - 25

EP - 36

JO - Journal of Business Ethics

JF - Journal of Business Ethics

SN - 0167-4544

IS - 1

ER -