The management of the job-loss situation is becoming of central importance to
top management and human resource executives in the current climate of
redundancy. The current nature of severance packages and the provision of
outplacement may be interpreted as a move towards normative practices within the
policy making of many UK organizations. Reports on the results of a recent
survey of over 600 UK organizations. The survey covered organizational
perspectives on redundancies and the use of outplacement in the event of
redundancy. The results indicated a change in corporate values in the 1990s.
There appeared to be a move towards normative practices in the management of
redundancy and in particular in the use of outplacement as a moderator of the
potentially detrimental impact of the redundancy situation.