INTERACTIVE EFFECT OF JOB CONTENT AND CONTEXT ON THE REACTIONS OF LAYOFF SURVIVORS

A field survey and laboratory experiment examined the determinants of survivors' reactions to job layoffs. Independent variables included (a) change in the perceived intrinsic quality of the content of survivors' jobs relative to before the layoffs and (b) context favorability, as determined by (a) the perceived fairness of the layoffs and (b) survivors' perceptions of their co-workers' reactions to the layoffs. Both studies revealed similar Job Content x Context interaction effects on the primary dependent variable of commitment: Change in job content was more strongly (positively) related to survivors' organizational and task commitment when the context was more favorable.