Sensitivity to Prevailing Contingencies: Downsizing, Restructuring Efforts and Moderating Risk Factors

Abstract

Reported accumulated knowledge related to downsizing or restructuring efforts may well be accounted for by the behavior analytic paradigm. It seems paradoxical that while research on aversive control procedures is reduced to a minimum due to animal welfare and ethical considerations within behavioral sciences, corporations throughout the global economy continue the application of large-scale aversive control procedures in the name of economic gains. Adding to the paradox, firms state they downsize for economic reasons, while a vast amount of studies indicates the overall economic outcomes are uncertain, quite often negative, if not detrimental. As downsizers regularly seem to violate the norms of economic rationality, indications are classic economic and organizational theories fail to explain the phenomenon. Known functional effects of aversive control procedures derived through applied scientific method predicts in part the reported adverse human, and subsequent economic consequences. Prediction allows for control, thus estimation and moderation of risk factors. When knowledge is available, why is it not applied?