A survey of the attitudes of retrenches towards retrenchment/early retirement: A study of selected private sector.

Abstract

The psychological and behavioral effects of retrenchment/"early retirement" on the affected employees has received scanty attention in the Kenyan context. This research project reports a study of retrenches from the private sector in Nairobi and the handling of retrenchment by organizations. The first objective was to determine the attitudes of retrenches towards retrenchment programmes and to find out whether or not there were any organizational interventions programmes. Further the study sought to find out whether intervention programmes had any significant effect on the attitudes of the victims towards retrenchment programmes or not. The population of the study comprised of all those retrenched from the private sector and living in Nairobi. The sample consisted of forty retrenched persons from different organizations. Data was collected by the use of a questionnaire which was designed to measure the three dimensions of attitude comprising cognitive (knowledge of retrenchment especially prior to retrenchment), affective (liking or disliking of retrenchment), co-native (the reaction of the retrenches towards retrenchment). Descriptive statistic was used to summarize the data while Chi-square statistic using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to test the relationship between the retrenches' attitude towards retrenchment and the existence or non-existence of organizational intervention programmes. The results indicate that most retrenches view retrenchment programmes very negatively and that the handling of the process by the employer is very important to the victim's attitude and psychological comfort. Further, the results indicate that there is a relationship between the retrenches' attitude towards retrenchment and 'existence or non-existence of intervention programmes. Specifically, advance notification, counseling, extended benefits and retraining programmes were found to be significant factors. I recommend that employers plan their workforce properly to avoid sudden job losses and that active employees be prepared in advance for lay offs. It is suggested that further research looks into the future of the employment contract particularly the effects of information technology and E-commerce.