Managerial accounts of downsizing
分析了502份澳大利亚企业年报中管理者对裁员的讨论，识别出九个关键主题，并归纳为三种语言：战略语言、过程语言、成本与关怀语言。
Downsizing remains a popular management technique for restructuring organizations. This is despite evidence that, by itself, downsizing often fails to deliver promised benefits and can result in a range of staff and other problems. Within the management literature some have responded by identifying ‘best practices’ in downsizing, whilst others have argued for downsizing to be used strategically, not just for cost reduction. The study reported in this paper explores management accounts of downsizing, and the extent to which a strategic language can be detected. It is based upon a content analysis of 502 annual reports of Australian organizations over a 7-year period and it identifies nine key themes present in managers' discussion of downsizing. Further analysis suggests that managerial accounts of downsizing fall into three ‘languages’: a strategic language, a process language, and a cost versus consideration language. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.