Kim Cameron

Kim S. Cameron discusses humane downsizing in Forbes interview

June 15, 2020


Center for Positive Organizations (CPO) co-founder and core faculty member Kim S. Cameron discusses layoff strategies in the Forbes interview “Survivor’s Guilt And Survivor’s Envy: How Downsizing Impacts Those Who Stay.”

The conversation explores how different approaches to shedding jobs can impact the morale and performance of employees who keep their jobs.

“General Motors and Southwest; those are two completely contrasting or conflicting kinds of approaches. On the one hand, you’re going to have to shed employees. On the other hand, you can make big sacrifices in order to keep people; it pays off in the long run,” Cameron says.

“… I think the companies that emerge out of this (COVID-19) crisis the best, in terms of reputation, revenues, customer loyalty, and so on, are going to be those that have done that very thing: sacrificed for employees, stayed very firm on their core values, not given up virtuous practices because it’s inconvenient.”

Cameron is the William Russell Kelly Professor Emeritus of Business Administration; Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at the University of Michigan.