Taya, Travaglione and Jordan Current Research in Industrial Relations, Volume 2 257 Downsizing Strategies in the Public Sector: Destruction or Renewal?

Downsizing or rightsizing, whichever terminology is used to describe the retrenchment of employees, is a strategy that management continues to use throughout both public and private sector organisations. Numerous public sector organisations have been downsized to such an extent that it is questionable whether they can still effectively carry out their public sector charter of inter alia community service providers. This paper investigates the process of downsizing in Main Roads Western Australia. The authors critically analyse the downsizing strategy used in this organisation. The conclusion reached is that downsizing has many pitfalls and, even in a very well planned process, the benefits are few