Shake-ups that leave us shaken but not stirred

 John recently resigned from his job with a European airline because of the way it handled heavy
redundancies in the wake s of September 11. 'The whole experience was a disaster,' he says. 'I was
one of the last to leave and now all the original group that I started with are gone.' John, who
worked in the finance department, says the redundancies were announced in an unplanned way and the
workload was redistributed without any  consultation, let alone assistance or incentives. 'People
were already overworked, but when they were also given duties above and beyond their job
specification,  they began to leave in droves,' he says. 'On top of this, the change was not
communicated well. We should have been consulted.'

Workplace change has become a  constant for most employees. Yet it often fails to achieve its
stated objectives and has unforeseen consequences of the kind experienced in John's case. A new
study by OPP, which specialises in applied business psychology, seeks to explain why. Poor
communication is often to blame, as are change imposed from above  and an absence of obvious
benefits. The study, based on a survey of 1,001 people at all levels in large UK organisations,
finds that workplace change has left 58  percent feeling demotivated and less committed. Fourteen
percent have left their jobs as a result and 49 percent have considered doing so.