Hattersley Electrics is a division of the Hattersley Group PLC, a United Kingdom based manufacturing conglomerate whose main markets were, until recently, the high tech aerospace and the defense industries. In recent years both the recession in the airline industry and the contraction in defense spending by European governments have hit the division. In order to overcome these Hattersley Electrics has embarked upon the process of repositioning itself within the electronics marketplace niche of advanced civilian communications equipment. As part of this it has changed its manufacturing foci and chosen to downsize and restructure its workforce.
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Initially the workforce was not resistant to change due to the extensive efforts made by management to keep them involved and informed at all stages. This involved restructuring the division (Fig. 1) into cells and reducing the workforce from 380 to 250. After this restructuring the works council informed the division’s management team that the workforce were concerned about the longer term effects of these changes. In particular they highlighted possible loss of employment, future job security, a lack of division identity, a lack of direction from senior management and a lack of employee involvement in recent d