View article

Drawing on the organizational justice literature and the construct of necessary evils, this paper examines the experience of layoffs from an under-researched perspective: that of managers. Using qualitative and quantitative data that allow us to compare managers that had direct involvement in terminating employee jobs versus those who did not, we find that managers’ direct involvement in layoffs predicts their exit intentions. Managers’ organizational justice perceptions regarding the layoffs moderated this relationship. In addition, the positive relationship between managers’ direct involvement in layoffs and exit intentions was partially mediated by managers’ views regarding organizational change. As expected, the severity of the layoff outcomes moderated the relationship between managers’ layoff involvement and positive view of change. Contrary to our hypotheses, procedural justice did not …