Section Fourhypothesized that organizations having previous experience
with layoffs will reduce their workforces through methods that
are less severe, because their managers are predicted to have
more timely insight of surpluses. With this recognition, they
should take remedial action more quickly and should be in a
position to rely more on attrition or redeployment. It has also
been hypothesized that companies having less slack in their
resource base are more likely to reduce employment by
resorting to more severe approaches, such as layoffs.^61
The Carlson Travel Network, a large travel agency that
had conducted layoffs, provides an example of short-term
problems related to layoffs. One important client, who had
planned to travel to Taiwan after completing business in Japan,
found while in Japan that he could not travel to Taiwan without
a visa. This necessitated his flying back to Minnesota before
going on to Taiwan. An inexperienced agent had made a
mistake. Eventually, Carlson’s quality of service improved to
desired levels and the company obtained desired efficiencies.
However, this and other problems occurred during the learning
period.^62 As noted earlier, in conducting layoffs, companies
must be careful not to deplete their knowledge base such that
their distinctive competencies are lost.^63