“Survivor syndrome” – a management myth?

Research has indicated that employees who remain within an organization after significant downsizing or delayering will experience adverse effects as profoundly as those who have left. This phenomenon has been labelled the “survivor syndrome”. This article first of all examines data from an employee opinion survey in a large UK financial institution following sequential and significant restructuring. The empirical findings contradict some propositions suggested in former studies in that evidence of “survivor syndrome” was not apparent. Second, the article explores possible reasons for the non‐existence of the syndrome. The findings are discussed in the light of the process of the redundancy programme.