Inside the new organization: a blueprint for surviving restructuring, downsizing, acquisitions and outsourcing

Purpose – To describe a model of interpersonal competencies for surviving and thriving in today's new, leaner organization. Our work is based on interviews and surveys of individuals who have been chosen to staff resized organizations and the managers who have made those selections. Design/methodology/approach – Over the last 15 years, the authors found that clients in the organizations with which they consulted were often struggling with understanding what interpersonal competencies the new leaner, horizontally‐structured organizations required of their employees. Several formats were used to gather answers to those questions. First, information first surfaced informally. Then, intrigued by what individuals in these informal sessions were relating, the authors sent open‐ended written surveys to other clients as well as to participants in work‐conferences and training sessions. In these written surveys two major questions were posed: “What are the characteristics, skills and competencies of the employees who have survived re‐sizing in your organization?” and “How will the employee's role in the organization change due to new structures: leaner, more horizontally structured, more cross‐functional and team based?” Content analyses of the responses allowed us to develop what appears to be a blueprint for individual success inside the new organization. Findings – A model for survival and success inside the new organization was constructed based on the survey data collected. In addition, the recent literature in the areas of organizational and business re‐design, and the writings of the most well‐respected business writers was searched to validate the model and to provide a context through which it could be understood and successfully applied. Two complementary core values – personal initiative and the capacity for collaboration – were found to be essential for organizational survival. Similarly, four additional skillsets – mental agility, personal visibility, team facilitation and boundary spanning – were determined to lay the groundwork for success inside the new organization. Research limitations/implications – Although broadly based from Fortune 500 companies to small entrepreneurial start‐ups, the individuals completing the surveys were exclusively clients of the authors. The roughly 250 surveys that were content‐analyzed comprised roughly 40 percent of the total survey base. Surveying a larger respondent population and analyzing the responses by organization size or type would help to refine the model. Practical implications – The organizational survivor model provides a clear and dynamic blueprint for all people wanting to sharpen the skills necessary to survive in today's business world. Individuals wanting to make themselves indispensable to their employers as well as people desiring to put themselves on track for success in their next job. In addition, the findings will also prove invaluable to human resources and training departments in search of a teachable model for creating interpersonal excellence. Originality/value – This paper fulfills a need for a sound, data‐based, real‐world grounded guide for individual success inside the new organization. Self‐assessments, practical suggestions and recommendations assist readers in increasing their personal impact and value and making themselves indispensable in their organizations.