INSEAD · a key element in the labour market as the lay-off severance payment. ... “I felt personal and physical wastage”. ... as absenteeism

INSEAD

CONSULTING AND COACHING FOR

CHANGE

Executive Master Thesis:

Not without my money

Severance Payment in corporate lay-offs: The two

sides of the coin

Ana Cartón

[January 18, 2013]

Not without my money Executive Master Thesis

2 Ana Cartón

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to provide a psychological perspective on the current

Spanish Crisis, and in particular the emotional meaning for the individual of such

a key element in the labour market as the lay-off severance payment. Though

there are becoming more available references on emotional and psychoanalytic

perspective on the crisis, little references can be found in the academic

literature on this particular context. The study explores 18 talking narratives from

people who left a consulting company, due to a lay-off or voluntary, since the

crisis started in 2008. The methodology is qualitative and grounded. The results

show how individuals that, although declaring a dissatisfactory situation at work,

decide to wait for the severance payment due to two main reasons: 1) the

individual act in line with what is socially accepted. 2) Severance payment

becomes a Transitional Object, able to provide security to get out of the

Organization. The other side of the severance payment is its high cost for the

individual in terms of Self-esteem and Self-efficacy, which leaves the individual

in a worse condition in the labour markets once the lay-off is executed.

Keywords: Crisis, consulting, Spain, social defenses, identity, Transitional

Object


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1. INTRODUCTION

Juan= “My time was getting to an end”. “I felt personal and physical wastage”. “I

felt not loved and very disappointed”

Santiago= “I felt asphyxiated”. “I’m just a perishable goods and then anything

can happen”. “I felt a lot of stress and pressure” “I felt I was betraying my own

interest, what I promised myself to do, but couldn’t make it happen”

Andrés= “I shouldn’t have tolerated certain behaviours at work, neither for me,

nor for my team”. “I had a lot of pressure and you think you are not doing it

correctly”. “My self-esteem went down. I believed the message I got every day

at the office that I was not worthy”

Felipe= “It was like a boiler at the point of exploiting”. “I was extremely

depressed”. “I felt people were not important any more in the office”. “I was

locked up in myself”. “I was emotionally affected”.

Tomás=”It was a big frustration, I lost pride in my work, I felt unsatisfied,

irritated, depressed, like a big wastage”. “Sometimes I felt I needed to shout”. “I

didn´t know how to motivate my team”. “I didn´t believe in myself professionally”

Mateo= “I felt like a part of my senses were blocked in the organization”. “Every

morning I told myself: They own my time but not my head”. “I felt frustrated,

morally ruined, what had happened with my life?” “My self-esteem went down”.

“I couldn’t imagine myself working in a work-set similar to this again.”


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Table1= Extract form participants’ narratives. (Disguised names to keep

confidentiality)

Common for all these persons is that, despite their dissatisfaction, none were

disposed to change their work without first receiving the severance payment, SP.

But, what makes a top consultant, trained in the best schools, with a good career

track record, working for a leading firm, feel like this? And what stops them from

proactively change this situation? Why do all of them wait for the SP?

SP and, more in general, Employment Protection Legislation, EPL, were SP

represents its highest cost, was originally aimed at easing economic conditions for

those employees who were laid-off. Literature around SP and EPL analyses its

effects mainly in unemployment rates or certain individual behaviours like

absenteeism, though agreement has not been achieved among different authors.

This paper takes a different approach to the existing literature around SP, by bringing

an emotional perspective to the concept, trying to answer the question of what

emotional role SP plays for the individual, and how those emotions have a crucial

role in individuals’ behaviours to face career decisions. This is analysed in the actual

Spanish financial crisis context, where unemployment rates are extremely high, being

among the highest rates in the European Union during 2012, and generating high

anxiety levels in the individual. It is precisely in this context when an emotional point

of view for the SP is more relevant, as new dynamics in the labour market are

entering in order to cope with the anxiety. Understanding the impact of these

dynamics at the individual identity level will provide some light on current labour

market situation.


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Literature providing point of view on emotions during crisis is reviewed, as is the

recent work done by David Tuckett (Tuckett, 2011), and Halina Brunning and Mario

Perini (Brunning & Perini, 2010). The psychoanalytic perspective from these two

references is complemented with social defenses literature that digs into how groups

react to anxiety situations. And additionally Transitional theory, developed by

Winnicott, will be reviewed to provide insight on how the separation anxiety could

impact the individual´s relationship with objects (Winnicott, 1971). Finally, identity

literature will be covered, as identity provides a sense of self for the individual as a

construction of personal, organizational and social identities (Ashforth, 2001).

Results are generated using Grounded Theory methodology, based on talking

narratives, gathered with semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions. The

results in this paper are based on a sample composed by 18 individuals who

changed job since the Spanish financial crisis started in 2008. 11 participants left

their former company, consulting firm, with their legal SP and 7 others without.

Implications of this paper are relevant for the different professionals supporting

individuals’ career development when a dissatisfaction situation exists and

understanding the key role that SP provides for the individual as a Transitional

Object. SP provides security for the individual to face employment separation, but is

relevant as well for the organization where the individual works.

The paper is structured as follows. Literature Review of different streams is reviewed

in Section 2. Methods are described in Section 3. Section 4 includes developed

grounded theory at two different levels: social and personal. Discussion and


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Conclusion in section 5 includes a summary of main results together with identified

paper limitations and suggestions for future research.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The Literature Review relevant for this study draws upon three major sources of

literature, 1) Employment Protection Legislation, available literature to understand

possible relevant influences on individual behaviours. 2) Psychoanalytic perspective

on anxiety management at group level. I will review the social defenses theory and

explore “how groups develop and deploy collective mechanism to contain the anxiety

of working” (Hirschhorn, 1988, p. 143). Also included in this section is Transitional

Theory (Winnicott, 1971) in order to understand how individuals relate with objects

not only in infancy stages of development, but also in adult professional life. 3)

Identity Constructions, as a sense of self that integrates personal and character

traits, together with the different organizational and social role the individual plays

(Ashforth, 2001).

EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION LEGISLATION

Talking about changing work in Spain is talking about SP. Spain has the highest EPL

in Europe as of 2011 (Casquel & Cunyat, 2011) and among the highest in a

worldwide comparison as of 2011 (Rebollo, 2011) whose effects are crucial in order

to understand the labour market situation since the legislation was implemented.

There are two factors determining SP amount (detailed conditions for SP are

described in Annex 1), wage and tenure at the company.


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There is a considerable amount of literature on EPL. Especially important in the

available papers has been the implication of EPL in unemployment rates, most

relevant lately with the rise of unemployment due to the current financial crisis and

the labour market legislation in the process of being reformed. Regarding this issue,

it doesn´t seem to be an agreement in the literature. While some authors find high

firing cost positively correlated with high unemployment (Siebert, 1997), other

authors are ambivalent on the final balance of this relationship (Blanchard, 2007;

Nickell, 1997); or even see a positive effect of SP in employment rate (and welfare)

(Alvarez & Veracierto, 2001).

Disagreement seems to be present also regarding the relationship between

employment protection and absenteeism. While some authors defend that there is no

relationship (Frick & Malo, 2008), some others see a clear positive correlation (Ichino

& Riphahn, 2005). But during the last years some positive effects of EPL have been

reflected in the literature: The job security provided by EPL increases employee

motivation to invest in the company, in the cases of big corporations (Suedekum &

Ruehmann, 2003), or increasing company commitment in European economies

(Harcourt et all, 2004).

Recent analysis on the Spanish market relates the high EPL with the high rate of

temporary contracts (Casquel & Cunyat, 2011; Rebollo, 2011).

In summary, the impact of EPL at macro and organizational level is reflected in

literature, though with a significant level of disagreement in terms of its effect on

unemployment. The same disagreement seems to be present regarding EPL effect

on individual behaviours, as absenteeism. But no literature has been found in terms


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of the emotional impact of SP/EPL for the individual, where it seems to be a gap, and

how this emotional impact affects the individual´s behaviour in terms of career

adaptability such as the “readiness to cope with changing work and working

conditions” (Super & Knasel, 1981, p.195), area where this paper aim at making a

contribution.

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVES

In understanding how anxiety is managed by individuals in an attempt to cope with it

and still develop their task at work, I will use the theoretical framework of social

defenses and try to understand which the implications are at social and

organizational level are (Hirschhorn, 1988; Jaques, 1951; Menzies, 1988; Sandler,

2010; Sutherland, 1985; Sievers, 2010; Tuckett, 2011).

When anxiety provoked in task development is too high to handle, certain

mechanisms, social defenses, activates in order to help groups and individuals to

cope with the situation. Social defenses drive certain “pattern of behaviour that

gripped the group into a relatively specific group mentality in opposition to work

activity” (Sutherland, 1985, p.58). Bion called those patterns basic assumptions

(Pines, 1985). Tuckett, in his analysis of Fund Managers called it Groupfeel as “a

state of affairs where a group of people orient their thoughts and actions to each

other based on a powerful and not fully conscious wish not to be different and to feel

the same as the rest of the group” (Tuckett 2011). These patterns create a certain

culture and beliefs for the group, magically created, not guided by any particular

leader, just as a not fully conscious individuals’ agreement, where members reinforce

each other in their way of thinking and behaving (Hirschhorn, 1988; Tuckett, 2011)


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At the organizational level, social defenses can also be active as procedures, norms

or routines intended to depersonalize the work place in order to manage anxiety

generated by the task development (Jaques, 1951; Menzies, 1988; Hirschhorn,

1988), in what Hirschhorn called Organizational Rituals.

As pointed out by Menzies, many of these social defenses fail in reducing anxiety

and even worse, limit the available mechanisms for the individual to be able to

provide reassurance and satisfaction in their jobs (Menzies, 1988). The impact at the

individual level is multiple: the individual gets a sense of safety from his fusion with

the group, by acting as the rest of the group; he loses his distinctiveness; avoids

reality-testing and enters into a fantasy world that reinforce the behaviours that

follow, as well as being hostile for those not following, the group behaviour

(Hirschhorn, 1988; Jaques, 1951; Menzies, 1988;; Sutherland, 1985; Tuckett, 2011).

Social defenses also provides feeling of Worthlessness as “Unconsciously we link

the threat from without with a feeling of our worthlessness, as thought “good” people

would or should never face such a threat” (Hirschhorn, 1988, p.48); and “feelings of

being de-skilled” when facing unfamiliar task” (Sutherland, 1985, p.62).

Additionally the social defenses provoke a regression to the early phases of

development, to the primary self. In this situation the individual becomes dependant

on the organization, “Because of the incomplete differentiation of self and object,

relations in the primary self are characterized by identifications and urges to have

omnipotent magical control with regressive clinging to objects for security against the

threat of ‘going to bits’” (Sutherland, 1985, p. 74).


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The Transitional Objects concept was initially developed by Winnicott, defining it as

the one that help the infant to face change and uncertainty in moments of separation

from loved ones, giving him a sense of autonomy and control (Winnicott, 1971). The

use of Transitional Object for the individual is not restricted to the infant period,

instead has proved to also help the individual in his professional work places in the

adult development. Literature captures different environments where Transitional

Objects provide positive benefits for the individual and the group setting. One

example developed in literature is how support systems for team collaboration take a

Transitional Role in different situations. In system development projects with virtual

teams, Information and Communication Systems could play the Transitional Object

role, providing the team with greater trust and cooperation (Thomas & Bostrom,

2008). Another example is the Group Support Systems used in Strategy Negotiations

within a Top Management Team, a multi-user system where different participants can

contribute simultaneously; the system encourages individuals to collaborate,

facilitating a better output from the negotiation, as all participants can have an on-

time situation with a better picture of available alternatives (Ackermann & Eden,

2011). But also Models and Methodologies can function as Transitional Objects

facilitating a learning environment in Information System Development projects

(Wastell, 1999). In a different work setting, Hirschhorn has also worked on the idea

that Transitional Objects, as for example different teaching techniques, can improve

learning processes in organizations and make it more effective (Hirschhorn, 1988).

Another Transitional Object context is the culture-based conflict resolution where

elements like rituals and dialogues focused on understanding each other and create

a sense of community help to create a transitional space where exploring new


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alternatives is fostered (Nan, 2011). Ribak’s work, describes mobile phones as

Transitional Objects, but in a different setting, teenagers (Ribak, 2009).

In summary, literature available shows what are the sources and effects of social

defenses in different organizational settings. One of the important impacts on the

individual is a regression to early stages of development, where relationship with

objects can change in order to provide security and comfort to face an uncertain

reality. In this area, literature provides different examples on how Transitional Object

plays that role, providing security, in changing and uncertain scenarios. My

contribution in this area will be to provide a specific example of social defenses in the

area of career adaptability behaviours in the Spanish consulting industry,

understanding how this state of regression changes the relationship we hold with

certain objects, such as SP.

IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

I will use identity as a concept to understand how individuals make sense of the

different forces that are acting in their self-definition; social, organizational and

personal, in order to keep a positive sense of self and integrity between self and

behaviour (Ashforth, 2001).

Social and Organizational Identity is created based on the perceived overlap

between personal identity and identity from the different groups the individual

interacts with (Elsbach, 1999; Ashforth, 2001). Individuals look for a positive sense of

self through positive attributes in the organization, or other groups they relate or want

to relate to, but also looking for integrity, identifying characteristics of the organization

that are in line with their self-preferences (Ashforth, 2001; Ebaugh, 1988; Elsbach,


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1999). And the coherent overlap among identities constitute the Global Identity, that

evolves in time as we continue to integrate those aspects of jobs developed, roles

taken at different organizations, groups we get related to, society, etc. that we

understand to be in line with one-self along the time (Ashforth, 2001). A person holds

multiple identities, but not all of them are valued the same. Ashforth created the term

identity salience to determine those identities more relevant for the individual in terms

of self-image, goal and purpose (Ashforth, 2001).

Petriglieri worked on Identity threat (individual perception of a possible risk in keeping

a positive sense of self and integrity), constructs a theoretical predictive model on

possible threat responses. Identity protection responses, as “directed toward the

source of the threat and involve no change to the individuals’ threatened identity”

(Petriglieri, 2011, p. 647) have prevalence when identity at threat is socially

supported. Identity-restructuring responses at different levels, as “directed toward

changing an aspect of the threatened identity” (Petriglieri, 2011, p. 648), will be put in

place when the threat is stronger in terms of magnitude or frequency (Petriglieri,

2011). A job change, and the dynamics to realize that work from the identity

perspective, could also be an example of identity threat (Ashforth, 2001; Ebaugh,

1988; Ibarra, 1999).

Volkan developed an interesting work on large-group identity threats that elaborate

the idea that when large groups shared anxiety due to a large group identity threat,

the group regress as a whole, reactivating chosen traumas and glories from the past.

(Volkan, 2010).


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How the different individuals balance between personal and social identities, how

they resolve inconsistencies, and the effects of trying to keep equilibrium when

identity is at threat, will depend on the balance between inner preferences and

external requirements, where final relationship between individual and organizational

identities will be determined by the magnitude and relevance of attributes that are in

conflict with each other (Ashforth, 2001; Elsbach, 1999; Kreiner & Ashforth, 2004).

The equilibrium – disequilibrium creates new ways of relationship: becomes

disidentification when individuals define themselves in opposition to organizational

characteristics (Ashforth, 2001; Elsbach, 1999; Kreiner & Ashforth, 2004). Or schizo-

identification (Elsbach, 1999) or ambivalent identification (Kreiner & Ashforth, 2004),

when at the same time the individual feels identified with certain of the organization’s

attributes and disidentified with others, or neutral identification, where the individual is

neither identified, nor disidentified (Elsbach, 1999; Kreiner & Ashforth, 2004).

A crucial role in organizational and individual identification is the maintenance of a

Psychological Contract (Kreiner & Ashforth, 2004). A psychological Contract is the

non- explicit norms that regulate expectations for both sides of the contract, the

organization and the employee, based on mutuality, fairness and reciprocity

(Rousseau, 1995 as cited by Kreiner & Ashforth, 2004, p. 9; Schein, 1980 as cited by

Alvesson, 2000, p. 1104). The effect of the psychological contract break is a sense of

betrayal for the individual (Kets de Vries & Balazs, 1997, p. 18) and the individual

disidentification with the organization (Kreiner & Ashforth, 2004, p. 9).

Of particular interest is the work developed by some authors regarding Identity

construction in consulting firms and knowledge-intensive companies. They conclude


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that to ensure employee loyalty, the company looks for a high organizational

identification in the employee as a way to control his behaviour with the use of

cultural artefacts as organizational design, reporting procedures, target setting, yearly

evaluation process, time management, compensation scheme (Alvesson & Willmot,

2002; Alvesson & Kärreman, 2007), with the Leaders acting as the expression of the

corporate culture (Alvesson, 1992). Consulting companies construction of elite

identities as “The Best and the Brightest” is the bases for high organizational identity

from the individuals where they define themselves in terms of organizational

attributes in an attempt to gain positive distinction (Alvesson & Robertson, 2006;

Alvesson & Empson, 2008), as “identity is invariably related to self-esteem as

aspired-for identity is attributed a positive social meaning” (Alvesson and Willmott,

2002).

Related also with consulting firms is the work developed around the effects on

individuals who feel disidentified but remain in the company, generating feelings of

self-alienation as “experiences of work where the ‘truth of oneself’ is considered false

and contrived” (Costas & Fleming, 2009, p. 354) and creates a “‘depressing’

awareness that one’s life is defined by corporate lived self” (Costas & Fleming, 2009,

p. 366). The cause of this self-alienation in consulting firms is due to three main

reasons: the time demanding work schedules that avoid the individual to play with

new identities; the failing way in how consultants craft new identities that results in a

sense that the authentic self does not exist; and the organization identity construction

based on tied normative control and personal authenticity encouragement at the

same time (Costas & Fleming, 2009).


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In summary, there is a vast literature available on identity construction, relationship

between personal and social identity, and different responses to threatening

situations and events. My contribution in this area is to dig into how individuals, living

in a situation where multiple identities are at threat, prioritize certain identities and

sacrifices others, based on identity salience for each one of the them, and shed

some light on what is the cost of this prioritization in emotional terms.

Finally, taking into account the different literature streams used, this paper wants to

contribute in providing a new way to interpret current Spanish labour market based

on these three literature streams. Social defenses change individual social identity,

where new pattern of behaviour are socially recognize, where SP realization is

socially supported. These behaviours can limit the available responses that the

individual has at hand to face identity threats.

3. METHODS

The methodology used for this case is qualitative. As the focus of the paper is to give

an emotional perspective on events related to the current crisis, I wanted to

understand how the events that the crisis brought are experienced by a certain group

of people and how those events are interpreted by them, studying the decision

process they went through, and what behavioural alternatives appeared.

In this study a Grounded Theory Approach has been followed, “A specific

methodology developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) for the purpose of building

theory from data” (Corbin & Strauss, 2008, p. 1). Therefore no preconceived

hypothesis are constructed for the analysis to be validated with the data afterwards;


16 Ana Cartón

on the contrary it is an approach that want to unfold what is behind the data provided

by the participants. This open-ended approach allows me to have a broader view of

the situation, from society to individual, taking into account, at least, all possible

factors considered important enough for the participants to be brought into the

conversation, not only a predefined set of hypothesis.

USE OF NARRATIVES

As grounded theory is the methodology used, I wanted to gather the people’s stories

in an open way where important events and experiences would come to the

conversation, and narratives were found to be a good approach based on literature.

Narratives have proved to be a good way to capture identity construction used by

many authors. Identity takes form as we tell our life stories, determining not only how

do we interpret the past but how we project into the future. Telling our story is what

makes us recognize it (Bruner 2004). It also proved to be a good way to capture

people’s career experiences (Chudzikowski et al, 2009). Sveningsson & Alvesson

incorporate an interesting nuance in the narrative as constructions of self-identity

cause, the narrative not only serves to create a positive and integrative discourse but

sometimes also a fragmented and conflicting one (Sveningsson & Alvesson, 2003).

Even though integrative and positive views of oneself make an important part of the

narratives analysed, my main interest is in understanding participant experiences and

how they interpreted them. My interest is not in analysing the truth in them, what I

understand as the truth, but how the individuals live certain situations, how

individuals experience events, i.e. how individuals see their own life (Bruner, 2004).


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RESEARCH CONTEXT

SPAIN

Spain is immersed in a deep crisis. At least this is the message we Spanish people

receive every day from all media. With 4.8M unemployed as of October 2012 (26%

unemployment rate and 55,9% for youth unemployment), news about lay-offs is a

continuous flow:

- Construction sector reduces 2.2 million of direct and indirect employees since the

beginning of the crisis

- Public sector eliminated 230.000 work places in 2012

- 35.000 lay-offs in the banking system since 2008 and another 15.000 planned for

2013

- Many companies have presented an ERE (regulatory employment expedient), and

some of them, various since the crisis started. Among many others; Telefónica

(6.000 employees), Iberia (4.500), RTVE (4.000), Bridgestone (2.463), Roca

(1.900), AENA (1.600), Nissan (1.500), Ono (1.300), Iveco (1.000), Ryanair (800),

Delphi (800)...

- 10% increase in Spanish homes with all members unemployed, 1.7M homes in

total for 2012 (“El número”, 2012) as of October 2012

And lay-offs have a great impact on Spaniards’ quality of life. And “As more and more

companies go out of business and many others fight for their survival, a growing

number of people are going through – or will go through – their own ‘mini-disasters’


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(Menzies, 1989) as jobs and opportunities are lost and families live through the

related negative economic and social consequences” (Sandler, 2010, p. 187):

- 200% increase in house evictions since 2009 (“Los embargos”, 2012)

- People with no home has doubled since 2008, in 45% of the cases due to a job

loss (“El 45%”, 2012)

- 21% increase in number of homes living out of grandparents rent, a total of

423.000 homes in 2011. (Morel, 2012)

- Spain´s economic inequality has reached "a record high" since 1995, and holds

highest economic inequality in the 80/20 ratio (comparing earnings form 20%

richest population and 20% poorest population) from Eurostat among the 27 EU

countries. (European Commission, 2012).

As a result, a high anxiety level has settled in the society, and an example of that it’s

that anti-depressive drugs’ consumption has increased 30% since 2006 and there is

a 14% increase in the consumption of tranquilizers, mainly due to working and

economic reasons (“Con la”, 2012).

In understanding the possible impact of the crisis news on the individual, it’s

important to consider what are the main values and believes in the Spanish culture.

Using the Hofstede framework, if there is a factor that defines Spain it’s the high

score in Uncertainty Avoidance (Hofstede, 2001). Implications are that Spaniards

generally feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and are then more

prone to feel anxiety in front of uncertainty. “Those with high uncertainty avoidance

prefer stable jobs, a secure life, avoidance of conflict, and have lower tolerance for


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deviant persons and ideas“ (Treven, Mulej, & Lynn, 2008, p 30). “Change is not

always (viewed as) improvement and can produce unintended consequences or

reverse results with negative outcomes“ (Treven et al., 2008, p. 36). Additionally

Spain scores very poorly in Long Term Orientation. Pragmatic and relaxed

approaches to life are not particularly welcome (Hofstede, 2001). “The short-term

orientation, a western cultural characteristic, reflects values toward the present,

perhaps even the past, and a concern for fulfilling social obligations” (Treven et al.,

2008, p. 36).

This analysis is in line with other sources. A clarifying example of Spaniards search

for certainty and stability is that 72% of the Spanish population would like to be a civil

servant (based on survey from www.monster.com in July 2010), mainly due to secure

and stable salary for life and better working hours, more than vocational reasons. In

contrast only 4% of the population (currently not entrepreneurs) declare

entrepreneurial intentions (Global Entrepreneur Monitor survey). This same survey

positions Spain as Very High in Fear of Failure. In the case of university students, the

percentage with entrepreneurial intentions amounts to 8%, in contrast with 70% in

the U.S. (Barómetro Universidad –Sociedad, from Consejo Social de la Universidad

Complutense de Madrid).

So, in summary, Spaniards highly values certainty, security, short-term focus, with a

high fear of failure and a strong sense of social norms that need to be followed.

SALESCORP

In order to have a less variable sample I decided to include participants all from the

same company. A Consulting firm was chosen due to the accessibility of possible


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participants as well as being a good example of well developed Organization identity

in employees that could eventually add interesting perspective in the analysis.

The participants selected all developed the main part of their career in one of the

biggest consulting firms in Spain. The firm has an extensive international presence,

and went through a change in ownership structure around 10 years ago. All selected

participants come from consulting services, either Systems or Business consulting.

Systems consulting focus on providing advice, as well as deploying information

systems for the client. These projects usually start with business requirements

gathering, followed by system development, test of the system and implementation.

Systems tend to optimize a particular business process, as for instance Client

Relationship Management, Inventory Management, Finance Payment and

Collections or Billing Process. The linkage with international teams based in low cost

overseas locations is frequent in order to be cost competitive. Consultants providing

these services mainly relate with Client’s IT departments, and, depending on the

Client structure, a continuous relationship with other Client areas are also common.

Among consulting services projects, those with a system focus are longer in time and

bigger in terms of people involved.

Business consulting projects are focused on helping the client solve business related

issues providing advice and, in some cases, also helping during the implementation

phase. Examples of Business consulting project could be defining a new market

entry strategy, product portfolio optimization, process efficiency design or a cultural

assessment. Business Consultant mainly interacts with C-levels at Finance,


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Marketing, Sales, Logistics, Client Management or Human Resources areas.

Projects duration usually range from 3 to 6 months.

NORMS AND PROCEDURES1

Below I will describe the most significant norms and procedures that characterize

consulting firms:

Time Report: Every month every employee must report how he has spent every hour

of his time, doing a time report. The time assigned is accumulated in ‘project

accounts’ generating a cost for the project impacting the margin. Individual

productivity is measured based on chargeability, i.e., time that can be charged to a

client. Chargeability is a significant factor in order to assign resources, as every

individual must achieve a chargeability target to be granted continuity in the

company.

Evaluation/Promotion process is yearly run where supervisors meet to agree on the

individuals’ performance, assigning a value to each individual under already fixed %

categories, following a normal distribution curve. As an example only x% of

individuals can be valued as Top Performers, as well as y% of the individuals are

asked to leave the firm every year, setting up the rules for an ‘Up or Out’ promotion

system. A top performer can be promoted to next level every 3 years, becoming an

associate after 12 years, moving from analyst to consultant, project leader,

1 Additional reading to understand consulting context is recommended (Ibarra, 1999; Maister, 1993)


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experienced project leader and associate level. Performance will determine the final

compensation for the individual, career progression and also training accessibility.

Role assignment: Individuals change role internally every 3-4 years when promoted

but the role also use to change from project to project, i.e., every 3 months to 1 year

period. An individual is often managing different projects at the same time, and

different roles must be carried out in parallel.

Recruitment: SalesCorp has a reputation for recruiting some of the best prepared

people in the market. The firm has been chosen as one of the preferred places to

work for young talents this year. Experienced hires are scarce and as a result the big

majority of employees have mainly developed their full career inside the firm.

Methodology: A good set of methods such as other client project references,

guidelines for structuring a presentation, document templates, power point

presentation colours and images are available and encouraged to use.

SAMPLE

The study includes a total of 28 participants, of whom 18 belong to the selected

Primary group, on which the work will focus, and an additional group of 10

participants with the purpose of contrasting the Primary group. I took a triangulation

approach, not only asking the primary group, but also including additional observers

to better understand and contrast the situation.

PRIMARY GROUP

As the focus of the paper is to understand work-changes during the current Spanish

crisis, I selected Spanish participants who have left the company after 2008. To


23 Ana Cartón

better understand the impact across the company, I decided to include mid-level

management, so that dynamics above and below this level can also be represented. I

included only executive positions, from project leader, experience project leader to

associate, with individuals who have developed their careers mainly in SalesCorp,

i.e., with considerable career-time spent in the company, from 7 to 17 years of

service. No other criteria were used for the selection of participants. Both

participants’ categories who left the company with SP, 11 participants, and

participants who left without SP, 7 participants, can be found in the sample.

All of them were based in Madrid at the time when they were working for SalesCorp,

except for one living in Barcelona. 2 of the participants are women and 16 men. 3 out

of 18 were part time employees at time when they left the company.

The participants worked in Telecommunications or Financial Services (Banking and

Insurance) industry. Clients for whom participants work are big corporations, either

Spanish or international firms operating in Spain or in any other of the possible

locations managed from the Madrid office.

Participants were working as Project leader (mainly focus on project development

and ensuring project recurrence), Experienced Project leader (supervise various

projects and mainly focus on generating new sales, client relationships as well as

internal development activities as recruiting and training) or Associate level

(Relationship management and strategy setting for Client accounts and high level

project supervision) at SalesCorp.

All of them had a traditional career progression with 3 to 4 years in each of the

previous role categories within SalesCorp and no previous lay-off experience. All of


24 Ana Cartón

them went through SalesCorp´s tough recruitment process and developed their

career in SalesCorp, where the “Up or Out” process needed to be passed every year.

All of them have bachelor degree or engineer studies and in the majority of the cases

hold an MBA degree in a top business school in Spain.

Below I have included in Table 2 the participants’ demographic summary.

Table2

In terms of Age, it ranges from 31 to 40 years for those who left without SP and from

35 to 46 years for the group who left with SP. If associates are removed from the

sample, age range in those who left with SP is 35-41. This age difference between

the two groups can also explain the difference in terms of children. Seniority is at a

great extend determined by age, because between 3-4 years are required to be

spent in each of the levels. It is also important to note that there is an informal


25 Ana Cartón

agreement in the company that ensure an economic compensation for all associates

who leaves before retirement. All associates in the sample left SalesCorp with SP.

For the Experienced Project leaders, both situations occur. In the case of Project

leaders, the sample includes only individuals who left without SP.

Regarding previous work experience, for more than 70% of those who left with SP,

previous professional experiences have been developed, with 5 participants with 2

previous jobs before joining SalesCorp, 1 participant had 4 previous jobs before

joining and 2 participants had 1 previous job. For those who left without SP 2 of them

had 1 previous job and 1 participant had 2 previous jobs. It seems that a demand for

the profile exist in the market, as 7 out of 11 participants who waited for the SP had

received job offers in the period following 2008, and among the ones that left without

SP got 5 out of 7 participants had received previous offers before leaving.

In terms of % provided income at home, income situation seems to be similar for both

groups, even more if associate effect is removed from the sample.

CONTRASTED PARTICIPANTS

I looked for additional points of view in order to have a broader understanding of the

context, clarifying what could be more specific for my sample and what could be

generalized. All these additional interviews were conducted during September,

October and November 2012, with the following groups:

Non-SalesCorp employees: I wanted to have a contrasted view on how SP is

conducted and the impact of the crisis in different businesses, discriminating what

issues are consulting specific and what are not. 3 additional participants were


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included with no professional relationship with SalesCorp. 2 of them have changed

job without SP in the last 3 years. The third declared unsatisfied in his current job

although no change of work is contemplated until a possible exit with SP can be

materialised. Participants provide a view from different sectors such as Construction,

Food Industry and Tourism. The same interview dynamics were followed as with

SalesCorp employees: same questionnaire, recorded interviews of 1 – 1,5 hours etc.

I started my fieldwork with this group, to allow me to get in touch with the interview

dynamics and refine the questions.

Additional Sales-Corp employees: I wanted to contrast how SalesCorp employees,

that did not follow my selection criteria, lived the same experience. All of them

worked in the consulting area as Experienced Project leader. Following the same

dynamics as used for the rest of SalesCorp participants I interviewed 1) Participant

who is currently working for SalesCorp, who declare unsatisfied with current job

although no work change is contemplated until reaching an exit with SP. The

participant has 18 years of service for SalesCorp, with no previous professional

experience, and provides me a perspective on how the dissatisfaction period within

SalesCorp is experienced. 2) Participant with more than 18 years experience with

only 3 of them working at SalesCorp, experienced hire who left the company in 2010

without SP. He gives me a very good perspective on the impact of years of services

and seniority on decision to wait for SP. 3) Participant with 17 years of professional

experience, 9 of them at SalesCorp. He left the company before the current financial

crisis without SP and provided a very good insight on SP dynamics even before the

current crisis started.


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All 3 interviews were recorded and notes were also taken.

Headhunters: Their opinion were very valuable for this case, providing a very

insightful view on the new dynamics created in the labour market. Four Spanish

headhunters operating in the Spanish market, and also internationally, were

interviewed during September and October. Interviews were done face to face in 2

cases and via telephone in the other 2. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended

questions were conducted with initial scrip shown in Annex 3. One interview was

recorded but the rest were not, due to confidentiality issues expressed by the

participants. In all cases notes were taken during the interview.

DATA GATHERING

I identified an initial list of possible candidates that was expanded by additional

references provided by participants in the interviews.

All interviews took place during October and November 2012. Candidates were

initially contacted by e-mail. Data gathering has been done in 2 steps, interviews and

e-mail exchange of information. When possible, interviews were done face to face in

Madrid (12 participants) or by telephone due to participant restrictions (not based in

Madrid, or limited time available). When face-to-face, meeting was held either at the

participant´s current office, in a meeting room, or at a close-by café. Only the

participant and I were present in the interview, which had a duration ranging from 40

min. to 2,5 hours, initially planned for 1 hour. After the meeting I sent an e-mail to the

participants in order to fill in demographic questions and satisfaction score.


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Interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner, with a list of initial open-

ended questions to cover, with the aim of opening a narrative that could be richer in

terms of content. Initial script for the semi-structured interviews can be found in the

Annex 2.

All interviews were recorded, and additionally I took extensive notes of relevant

comments, significant moments of silence and physical expressions in all of them.

The ‘tape-recorded’ effect counts in some of the interviews, when participants felt

more relaxed with the tape off and shared additional information outside of the

interview´s “official time”.

DATA ANALYSIS

Once each one of the interviews had been done and recorded, I did transcript the

conversation into text, in a maximum of two days after the conversation took place.

All conversations were done in Spanish as well as the transcriptions.

Data analysis started with a text analysis of the transcribed interviews where an

initial sense-making was done with the raw data, identifying concepts that appeared

in the narratives. At this level Vivo-Terms were used “Concepts using the actual

words of research participants, rather than being named by the analyst” (Corbin &

Strauss, 2008, p. 65) examples: chain, feel like a number, treasure chest, wad of

money, psychological contract. Then an initial grouping of related ideas took place,

comparing incidents reported in different interviews in order to be able to group them

in categories. Analysis of the data was done at the same time as additional data


29 Ana Cartón

gathering was also taking place. Frequency analysis helped to identify major entities

within the text.

Contrast and comparison was done next, where previous identified categories were

related together trying to establish hierarchy among them and additional grouping. At

this point I got the help of two independent observers to check the narratives.

Narrative transcriptions were shared (with no confidential information), and two

meetings were held in order to review results. 1 Spaniard observed from outside the

consulting world. 1 non-Spanish observed living in Spain since 10 years ago, with 7

years of professional experience in a Business consulting company. An initial review

of identified themes and categories were shared.

Looking for causal relationships was the next task performed, and the search for

negative cases, “cases that do not fit the pattern” (Corbin & Strauss, 2008, p. 84) in

order to open up the range for possibilities. This task occupied a considerably part of

the analysis, reviewing narratives again to check for validity. Example of relationship

could be: “Emotionally wastage” with “Unsatisfied period”, “SP” with “longer time” and

“top position”. As the relationships started to emerge, new questions arose and

became important for the analysis (example: How have you used your SP?) and

were included in the following interviews, in the case of pending ones, or requested

via e-mail. Once concepts and relationships were contrasted, I shared them with two

SalesCorp participants, to validate if it also made sense to them.

For the following interviews I changed dynamics to include also an initial validation of

theory grounded from the initial data, refining and complementing the initial work.


30 Ana Cartón

Once a more or less stable grounded theory was developed, literature was included

in the analysis in order to identify commonalities and being able to give names to

certain categories. In describing the grounded theory, the literature was used as an

additional informant.

4. RESULTS

Results presented in the following pages are organized in two main sections.

In the first section I will work on how the crisis impacts the participants’ social

environment and SalesCorp. In this section I will base the analysis on the full sample

of participants, 18 narratives in total, to show what the new socially recognized

patterns of behaviour are and how individuals experience the crisis at SalesCorp.

In the second section I will focus on the impact of the crisis on the individual and how

the different dynamics generated by the crisis sometimes act in opposite ways. I will

consider the full participants sample in this initial point, with total of 18 participants.

Finally impact in terms of Emotional and Economic Cost is taken into account. In this

last section I will use the sample of participants who left SalesCorp with SP, 11

participants, and those who left without SP, 7 participants, separately.

CRISIS IMPACT AT SOCIAL LEVEL

Social defenses can act on many different levels. In this chapter I will review findings

in relation to both social participants’ environment and organizational level at

SalesCorp. In the cases analysed in this paper, anxiety provoked by the current

financial crisis is not delimited to a certain company or group of people but, based on


31 Ana Cartón

the analysis, to a considerable amount of Spaniards. It’s neither delimited to the

development of a specific task, still the whole spectrum of social defenses possible

impact on other activities is not in the scope of this paper, I will work only on the

social defenses in relation to the individual´s work adaptability.

DIVIDED STATE OF MIND

My first findings in the social environment area shows how five years of crisis has

generated a divided state of mind in the group participating in the analysis.

Participants report negative feelings in relation with crisis news, and also a reflexion

that these negative news seem to occupy the whole time and space of the news,

while positive news tends to be avoided. Tuckett describes a Divided State of Mind

as the one where people tend to focus only on the news that reaffirms their

behaviour, almost ignoring those that go against it. In this situation reality checks are

avoided, and people find it difficult to handle ambivalent relationships, like in the case

of good and bad news regarding a particular financial product (Tuckett, 2011).

Regarding the question concerning how news about the crisis affect them, 89% of

the participants reply with negative feelings, as shown in Table 3. Together with

these feelings, comes the recognition that the participants have a difficult time in

looking objectively at their situation. “We are not able right now to see any positive

aspect in reality”, a “Tiredness feeling of listening the same story all over again”,

“Crisis covers everything”.

And as will be shown below, this state of mind is translated to the expected

behaviour on how career management must be carried out.


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Table 3

NEW SOCIALLY ACCEPTED PATTERN OF BEHAVIOUR

All participants regardless of how they face their particular situation (if they left

SalesCorp with or without SP) agreed that what was expected from an individual

thinking about changing job is the following, evidence show in Table 4.

“Do not move”, it´s a recognized behaviour that promotes the individual to almost

disappear from the work place.

“Grip the chair”. Participants stated that they felt privileged to have a job in this

crisis situation, and by this, not being part of the crisis, as a way to differentiate, a

positive-distinctiveness response to the employed identity threat, “Individuals’ efforts


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to distinguish their threatened identity in a positive rather than negative way”

(Petriglieri, 2011, p. 648). But there is also a second effect, as participants reflect

they tend to relativize the dissatisfaction, “Even if you are burnout, you stay at your

work”. So at the same time there is an importance change in the identity threat

response in relation with self-interest and personal identity, “changing the importance

of the threatened identity” (Petriglieri, 2011, p. 648).

As a result, people tend to hold on more to the job, as stated by Alvesson

“Organizational identity can provide a focus for member identification in an insecure

employment context” (Alvesson, 2008). And this effect is magnified in an organization

such as SalesCorp with which individuals are highly identified. Having a job is what

would save us from being in a disaster, protect us from changing our quality of life. If

you have a Job you do not need to lose what you already have, it protects you from

eviction, from changing kids’ school etc. Then job becomes a Phantastic Object “

imaging (feeling rather than thinking) they can satisfy our deepest desires” (Tuckett,

2011, p.xi), that has the power to save us from disasters.

“Only change job for a brilliant opportunity”. When asked to describe what is

recognized to be a brilliant opportunity, the following characteristics arose: a salary

increase around 20%-30%, in a consolidated big company, financially healthy, in a

position with higher responsibility. However, according to the headhunter

participants, due to the crisis these opportunities seldom occur. “There is always a

risk in changing job. You will only change in this situation if the risk is compensated”

as said by one participant, so therefore opportunities that could have been accepted


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before are not so now since we request a plus to compensate for the risk of changing

job.

“People only leave their jobs if they can have their money”. There seems to be

only two possible options to change job: a great opportunity outside, as described

before, being more difficult in current crisis times, or change job because you receive

your SP before you leave your former company. SP option is seen as less risky, as

this admits the individual to maintain his quality of life for longer periods, considering

SP legislation in Spain.

These patterns are reinforced from the social environment. As so, when participants

communicated their intention to leave SalesCorp, they received, from their

environment (family, company, spouses and friends), in 15 out of 18 participants,

comments encouraging them to proceed as the expected behaviour exposed before,

to follow the general tendency. There are reasons for our environment to ask for

consistency and not to break the implicit contract we once created together (Ibarra,

2003), but those reasons are now expressed in terms of socially accepted

behaviours:

Parents mainly transmit a risk avoidance orientation. In 4 cases participant’s parents

explicitly expressed their discomfort with the intention to leave the company: “Any

change will generate an alert on them”. 6 other participants recognize they haven´t

even told their parents as “They will not understand, as they come from a generation

were the most valuable thing was to remain at the same job for 50 years”

SalesCorp mainly transmits a risk oriented emotional message. “Considering the

crisis situation leaving the company is very risky”, “You are irresponsible for changing


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in this situation”, “You are crazy if you leave now”, “It’s really cold outside”, are

messages from SalesCorp given to 8 out of 18 cases during the crisis period. “There

are messages focused on generating fear” as one participant explained it. Apart from

SalesCorp’s use of pejorative rhetoric to discourage people to leave the company as

a loyalty tool (Alvesson, 2000), I would like to highlight how the company links

irresponsibility and craziness to take a different route as the expected to get by

through the crisis, generating confusion, insecurity and negative impact on the

identity (Alvesson, 2000).

As one of the participants said “The same people that have supported your career

and have been your role model for years, now completely disagree with your decision

in a very hard way. That was the most difficult thing to bear for me when leaving”

Couples generally support the participants, but in 4 out of 18 cases clearly

transmitted a discomfort in the anticipated contract change: “What will happen if I got

fired too”, “Can we keep our living status if you change job?” or even “ OK as long as

we (the family) will maintain our economic standard”.

Other significant people (friends, colleagues at work, rest of family) mainly focus on

realizing the SP. As expressed by one participant “It seems as if you are stupid if you

lose your SP”

Headhunting participants confirm these new socially supported patterns of behaviour.

Since the crisis started, is getting more and more difficult to convince an employed

candidate to change job. “People avoid risk, and wait for the SP”. 6 out of

11participants who left with SP declared that they refused new job opportunities while

waiting for the SP to be realized.


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Table 4


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Social environment then become the guardian of the new rules, not always serving

the participants to take comfort sharing the situation but as a resistance, expressed

by the participants, as “The environment is a change stopper“, “It’s very difficult to go

against the group”. As stated by Tuckett “The social context serves to legitimate

some actions and ways of thinking and knowing at particular times and places or to

stigmatize others” (Tuckett, 2011, p. 65).

But what is interesting to note is that the behaviours that are socially supported are

just the opposite of what a career developments plan would suggest, i.e. focus on

reality orientation, long term vision, exploration or decision making (Ebberwein,

Krieshok, Ulven, & Prosser, 2004; Murtagh, Lopes, & Lyons, 2011). Avoiding

unemployment becomes the individual target with a short-term focus, promoting

passivity and trying to avoid reality check regarding these perceptions.

SALESCORP PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT BREAK

SalesCorp has had to adapt to the new market conditions imposed by the crisis.

Participants declare a higher pressure to achieve targets in an increasingly difficult

market. It becomes more and more difficult to sell a project. It’s necessary to increase

the number of sales pitches (proposals) in order to sell. More effort is required in

terms of time dedicated. As one participant express it “Working in the project during

the day and writing proposals at night”, “I worked 14 weekends in a row”). But also a

bigger effort in terms of work conditions, like opening new markets outside the

country with an increased amount of time spent away from home, with a negative

impact in participant’s work-life balance.


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Higher pressure to achieve targets and continuous waves of lay-offs create a feeling

of negativity, uncertainty, discouragement and fear in the work place. Under this

scenario organization and individuals adapt their behaviour in an attempt to control

the situation and manage the anxiety: 1) Tasks are assigned to a superior level than

the corresponding one (example, the project leader does the consultant task, the

level below him). Participants reflected, “There’s a task degradation”, “My career then

consist of a cumulative task exercise, but not in developing new skills”. A main

reason could be to avoid errors and ensure a good result, but could also be to ensure

one´s own place in the project, so the individual prefer to do a low quality task in

order to have work assignment. 2) Information request overload: participants spend a

considerable amount of time providing information to the level above. Information

requests have increased and the same event needs to be reported to many different

persons. 3) As a measure to become more competitive under these market

conditions, SalesCorp installed a cross-functional organization that sometimes

created a confusing responsibility assignment. “I had 4 bosses in my last project, all

of them asking for different objectives”. 4) Move the anxiety to the level below.

Participants declared a big frustration when seeing how very talented resources were

not able to respond to their expectations: “Nobody was valid for me”. “Resources

have become civil servants” “I became very demanding”. 5) Participants also suffered

anxiety from the level above “We were managed by fear”. Crisis situation impacts all

organizational levels, top management even at a higher degree. Participants

perceive a high pressure on the levels above “My bosses have even worse life than

I”, which has a high impact in the role model as a pillar of consulting business culture.

6) Avoid change in the work place and stay in your comfort zone. “Do not take risk”.


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Participants reported a less active role at work, thinking twice before taking proactive

initiatives.

But the higher pressure in an increasing difficult work condition is accompanied, as

the other face of the coin, with a decrease in career development options; the career

gets longer with fewer promotions and salaries freeze. Participants express this

mismatch as, ”The Psychological Contract is broken”. “I give a lot and do not receive

accordingly” there is a disconnection between expectations and reality that is faced

as they progress on the ladder. Participants felt betrayed.

CRISIS AT INDIVIDUAL LEVEL

Crisis generates many new dynamics at different levels, as I have described above,

or reinforce already existing ones in a high normative culture such as consulting

business. The way individuals and groups manage anxiety and develop defences to

cope with it could have a vicious circle effect for the individual, generating even more

anxiety, as participants reported, see Table 5.

People loose their sense of value, of uniqueness; they feel like a number, “Like a

piece in a machine”. “This deprivation (individuals lose a feeling of personal

significance in their work) disorganize the most developed adaptive functioning of the

social self leading to the increased dominance of the primary self with its insecurities

and more primitive compulsive relations” (Sutherland, 1985, p. 74).

A second effect is that there is limited sense of reality. Participants agree that once

they are out of the company they discover “There’s a world outside SalesCorp!!!” a

reality that can only be seen once you are outside. An illustration of the limited sense

of reality is that just 1 participant out of 18 actively looked for job opportunities while


40 Ana Cartón

in Sales Corp. Another 4 combined official work with the crafting of a new

opportunity, a plan B, for when they would be out of SalesCorp. What is interesting to

note is that these 4 people took some kind of initiative to distance themselves from

the organization (mainly in terms of MBA, or time off). In the majority of the cases,

there’s a belief, and not contrasted with reality, that changing job in this situation is

almost impossible, “Where am I going to be better off than here?” perfectly

summarize this thought.

Participants who left the company, with or without the SP, recognize these dynamics

indistinctly.

Table 5


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EMOTIONAL COST OF WAITING FOR THE SP

In the following Results sections I will focus on the difference in behaviour by

participants who left the company with the SP, 11 people, versus the 7 participants

who left without SP. The results below will be discussed within a context of three key

aspects: emotional cost, SP symbolic value and economic reality.

Participants who left the company with SP and declare dissatisfaction period

before leaving: All participants who waited for the SP, 11, reported a higher

significant cost in terms of self-steem and self-efficacy, see Table 1. They declared

dissatisfaction periods ranging from 1 to 3 years. The threat of job loss (Kets de Vries

& Balazs, 1997) together with being in a toxic environment where no action must be

taken, just waiting for the employer to offer an exit with an attractive SP, have a

significant impact in their moral and self-esteem. This cost is even more significant in

consulting business, where resources need to have a high self-confidence in order to

take the role of expert when selling and implementing projects (Alvesson &

Robertson, 2006).

I would like to highlight that these participants who left SalesCorp after a recognized

period of dissatisfaction, express a high attachment to SalesCorp, in contrast with

those who left without SP. They reflect on internalized culture and norms “My

professional identity has been crafted around SalesCorp”, “When I left I knew that the

context where I had grown up professionally was broken. I lost the working dynamics

that had filled up my life completely”. These participants recognize an imprint in them

“I will never be in a company with such strong imprint in me; it’s already a part of me”,

“SalesCorp requires that you as a person forge the way you are, to be able to stay in


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the company. If you do not accept, you cannot be here; it will be too much suffering”.

They also express a high level of pride to have once belonged to SalesCorp: “The

loss of pride of not working for SalesCorp was the greatest obstacle to overcome

when I left the company”.

So, in summary, the participants who reported higher organizational identity were

also the ones with a higher emotional cost during their time at the company. These

individuals played double threat response while still at SalesCorp waiting for the SP:

they positively distinctive as been employed, and at the same time reduce

importance of self, personal identity and self-interest.

Participants who left the company without SP and do not declare

dissatisfaction period before leaving: An emotional cost of remaining at SalesCorp

while feeling dissatisfied also appears in the 3 participants who left without SP. In

these cases, the duration of the dissatisfaction time seems to be the main driver for

the emotional cost intensity. 1) 1 participant left the company without SP due to

personal reasons, and declared himself against SP policy, “(SP) doesn´t go well

along with me. I haven neither time not willingness to negotiate”. Cost is expressed

as “I had thrown away my career”. 2) 1 participant left without SP due to a brilliant

job offer in terms of salary, company background and job role. He reports a positive

view on SP. Emotional cost is reported as “Hurt”, “Not recognized”, “Ruined” 3) 1

participant decided to leave SalesCorp after 6 months of dissatisfaction. Emotional

cost is expressed in terms of the future, if he would have remained at SalesCorp.

Self-efficacy is shown in his narrative “Personally, I know I can overcome the

changes”


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Participants who left the company without SP and do not declare unsatisfied

with the time at SalesCorp, 4 participants do not include in their narratives signals

of low self-steem or self-efficacy. On the contrary, they feel they can achieve more.

“At a personal level I know I can overcome changes”, and also express a self-

development motive for the change “I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and

learn” “I wanted to prove to myself I can do it well also in a different place”, “It was

the right moment for my personal project, as I was not creating so much value in

SalesCorp”, “My work is very vocational, and I couldn´t do it anymore at SalesCorp”.

There’s a sense of realizing one’s own targets that motivates the change.

Participants in this group hold a negative view on SP, mainly as a barrier to a

freedom of deciding on one owns future “I want to be free to decide on my own”.

So the fact of living in this toxic environment, while feeling dissatisfied, has an impact

on the emotional state of mind, that gets worse if we wait for the SP, as it is not

accepted to look for new alternatives and risking the job. The individual is trapped in

a dissatisfactory situation while not fully supported to take proactive actions.

SP MEANING FOR INDIVIDUALS

Under these circumstances of low self-esteem and self-efficacy, participants who left

SalesCorp with a SP declare they would never have left the company without the

money. So what is the meaning of the SP for the participants? See Table 6.

The frustration experienced in the breaking of the psychological contract is rewarded

with the SP, as reported by 7 out of 11 participants who realized the SP: “The SP

gives a meaning to my suffering that my suffering has served for something”. And,


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even if it’s money that the company has the final word in term of paying or not, the

individual views it as belonging to him, as “It’s my right to have it”.

SP also serves the participants to face, 7 out of 11, a possible failure in a new job.

Additionally, 7 out of 11 participants who left with SP include in their narratives the

idea that SP is required because “What if I leave without SP to a new job, and then I

get fired 3 months later? I can’t risk doing that”. When asked if they knew someone at

SalesCorp who had been through those circumstances, none could be identified. But

the SP provides them with comfort and helps them to go through difficult or uncertain

circumstances. And SP allows the individual to create an intermediate safety zone, a

neutral experience zone, a resting space where participants can spend time looking

for a good job: “Allows me to live for some years without working, while I find a job I

like.”

SP loses its meaning as the reality is faced “I thought it was going to be more difficult

to find a job but it wasn´t. I haven’t needed the SP”. In fact when asked how they

have used this money, 8 out of 11 have not touched it, and 3 used it for training,

amortizing a mortgage loan or for the payments of a second residence. None of them

used it to keep up a living standard, which was the initial purpose, “To afford

payments until I get a job”.

The characteristics described above are key characteristics of a Transitional Object

as defined by Winnicott (Winnicott, 1971), where the SP provides enough security for

the individual to separate from his current job (Phantastic Object). For the individual

the SP, the Transitional Object, do belong to him, it’s his right to have it and to do


45 Ana Cartón

whatever he desires to do with it, allowing him to create a transitional space, a safety

zone where the individual feels safe to experiment and look for a new job.

Table 6


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IMPACT FOR THE FUTURE

During the analysis it was noted that waiting for the SP also has an impact on how

individuals face the labour market searching for a new job, compared to those who

changed job while still employed at SalesCorp.

Regarding job search, the majority of the participants who left with SP and decided

to look for a new job, were focusing on minimizing the unemployment period by

accepting the first job available. On the contrary, those who changed job without a

lay-off, rejected previous opportunities before leaving SalesCorp:

For the participants who left with SP, 5 out of 11 had a new job before leaving

SalesCorp, i.e. had a concrete opportunity in mind or accepted first available

opportunity once the decision to leave had been taken. 2 out of 11 spent less than 5

months to find a new job, dismissing job offers before accepting one. 4 out of 11

participants decided to make a significant change in their careers, creating their own

company or moving to new professions.

For the 7 participants who left without SP, 5 out of them dismissed previous job offers

before taking the decision to change.

Regarding Economic terms, participants who waited for the SP ended up with

inferior compensation conditions in the new job than the participants who left without

SP, as shown in Table 7.

It seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, as just 1 participant got a salary increase

when moving to a new job, as participants who left with SP in the interviews reported

the belief that it would be very difficult to find another job where they could have


47 Ana Cartón

similar economic conditions: “You can’t have this money for being in a rose garden.

It’s difficult to receive this money outside”. “Before the crisis we thought we could

change for the better. But today it’s not common that the change of work

compensates in terms of money. In general, people who change lose purchasing

power”, “You have a lot of uncertainty when you are about to leave SalesCorp,

whether you will find something similar, that allows you to live as well as you are

living now”.

Participants’ worries about keeping the standard of living they have got used to while

at SalesCorp. It seems to be very much in line with the analysis made by Paramio &

Zofío that concludes that for the Spaniards, standard of living (“material and

quantitative monetary aspects relating to purchasing power” (Paramio & Zofío, 2008,

p 686)) is preferred in detriment of quality of life (“social and personal qualitative

aspects relating to the use of time free from work” (Paramio & Zofío, 2008, p. 686)).

Based on Paramio and Zofio analysis, Spaniards are able to sacrifice worse working

conditions at work if that means improving the standard of living.

For the majority in the group of participants that waited for the SP, compensation

seems to be the most significant satisfaction factor while working at SalesCorp,

based on their response to satisfaction factors while at SalesCorp but also as

reported in the interviews “The only element that compensates you to stay is the

money”. “My salary was very good, but at the end it was a barrier. You convince

yourself that the work you are doing is very well paid and that this is enough”. “This is

just work and that’s all? I’m rewarded economically and this is the price I will have to

pay (for the dissatisfaction)”.


48 Ana Cartón

This behaviour could probably be better understood with Sievers reflection on the

function of money in the context of the current Financial Crisis, with the monetization

of the ego-ideal. Sievers analysed the financial markets using the work developed by

Wolfenstein who stated that “Dimensions of selfhood that are not commoditized –

that can not be measured by money – are alienated and devalued” (Wolfenstein,

1993, as cited by Sievers, 2010, p.123). But these reflections can also be used in this

paper, where the emotional cost for staying unsatisfied at work had a price, SP

money.

This behaviour can be contrasted with the one shown by participants who left without

SP, who express a non-economic driver in their change. In this case money takes the

opposite role “I can’t understand why some people prefer to pay a very expensive

school for their kids instead of spending more time with them”. Still, as data shows,

non SP participants achieves an average of 10 - 15% salary increase, conditions that

couldn’t be accepted by the group of those who left with SP, who claimed that a

brilliant opportunity with more than 20%-30% salary increase would be necessary for

a job change. However the SP participants finally end up well below this level. In this

sense, one can observe that the SP could be “amortized” within a few years.

These patterns are consistent with comments from headhunter participants who

identify a stronger position when the employed candidates changes to a new job,

while the unemployed ones show higher anxiety levels at recruitment interviews

wanting to get out of an unemployment situation and therefore reduce expectations in

terms of compensation.


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Table 7


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5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The current Spanish financial crisis has a clear impact on Spaniards anxiety levels, of

special importance in the labour market with 25% unemployment, a continuous lay-

offs flow in a culture ruled by Uncertainty Avoidance and a Short-Term orientation.

Employment is then perceived as a Phantastic Object that separates the individual

from a possible disaster, as seen in the news everyday.

In this anxiety environment social defenses are put in place in order to cope with it.

Social defenses can be recognized at society and organization levels. Regarding the

social environment that surrounds the individual, a new pattern to face career

adaptability tasks is put in place, due to a not fully conscious agreement between the

individuals. New socially recognized behaviours are supported, where changing job

is easily understood if done under two alternatives: SP has been realized; or

changing to a new job that can be considered a brilliant opportunity. The last option,

though, is not realistic under current labour market conditions.

Social defenses, as new Organizational Rituals, are also recognized in this paper.

Behaviours like incorrect task assignment, information request overload, confusing

responsibility assignment or projections are identified in participants narratives.

Social defenses acting at both social and organizational level depersonalize the

workplace, limiting the sense of value perceived by the individual at work.

Additionally it limits the individual’s capacity to check the reality.

The organizational adaptation to the crisis, where higher effort is required but less

career opportunities are available, break the psychological contract between the


51 Ana Cartón

individual and the organization. This situation can create a dissatisfaction that is

managed by each individual in a different way.

For the participants who recognized dissatisfaction but decided to remain in the

company to realize the SP, a high cost in terms of self-esteem and self-efficacy is

identified. Under these circumstances, SP is perceived as playing a Transitional

Object role 1) providing security for leaving the company 2) compensate the

frustration for the separation; the psychological contract is broken but at least I can

take the money 3) allows the individual to create a transitional space after the lay-off

to look for new opportunities under safer conditions 4) individuals perceived the SP

as a right, as it belongs to them.

But waiting for the SP has also an important impact for the future. The main focus for

participants who wait for the SP in looking for a new job is to avoid an unemployment

period. In the majority of the cases, first job offer available is accepted. In economic

terms, this group tend to have lower salaries than those who left without SP.

The implications of this paper are significant at different levels. Looking at the country

perspective, participants recognize a need to start building on a new state of mind

“An optimism social work need to be done in the country”, “It’s enough of always

listening the same negative news about Spain. I think is done on purpose, so if they

are able to generate enough fear, we will accept whatever cut downs are necessary”.

Crisis justifies everything, covers everything. But as shown in this paper, implications

are significant, at least, on an individual level. A reflection needs to be done in terms

of what state of mind would better help Spaniards to get out of the current crisis.


52 Ana Cartón

Another important reflection for the Spanish Government and other policy maker

institutions is how the current EPL generates a subordinate effect that may not have

been planned in advance. The pervasive effect of waiting for the SP is against the SP

original aim of easing economic conditions of the unemployed ones. Based on the

results of the analysis this could have another considerations, because there is a

positive economic impact in receiving the SP money, but also a negative effect on

lower salaries in the new job, apart from the emotional effect.

At an organizational levels this paper has many implications, as Social Defenses also

impact the organization, and lowering the efficiency in task-performance is just one of

them (Menzies, 1988). As shown in the paper, promoting loyalty through strong

organizational identity or attaching self-steem to career progress, have also its

drawbacks. An implication of the results in this paper is the need to open a

discussion to understand how companies want to relate with employees to be able to

generate growth on both sides in cases like the ones shown in this paper, and to get

out of the crisis together and reinforced.

For the individuals that pay a high cost in terms of self-esteem and self-efficacy, one

implication is the need to look for reflection spaces. When dissatisfaction starts to

appear while still in the company, a space to understand ones own vision and

interest has probed to be crucial. Participants recognize a lack of reflective space at

SalesCorp “I do not have time to think, just to produce”. Additionally, as identified by

Alvesson and Kärreman in Management Consulting Firms “There is little socially

acknowledged space for people to rationalize failures” (Alvesson & Kärreman, 2007).

Looking for reflecting moments inside and outside of the company can bring a lot of


53 Ana Cartón

benefits, as shown, both for the organization and for the individual. Based on

participants’ narratives, a great benefit is recognized for those who manage to find

time for that reflecting moment while in SalesCorp, in order to proactively change to a

more satisfactory situation. 2 participants took time off while doing MBA or related

training. Work developed by Petriglieri and Petriglieri regarding Business Schools as

Identity Workspaces are worth to be mentioned here (Petriglieri and Petriglieri, 2010),

with the development of a reflecting community helping the individual to clarify own

interests and targets. In this line of thought is Kets de Vries and Korotov work on the

idea that transformational programs can help the individual develops their own

reflecting capabilities (Kets de Vries & Korotov, 2007). This can also serve the

organization in the design of possible training programs.

This reflection space has also proved to be beneficial for the individual once

emotional cost has already been paid for, helping to recover from it. A good example

of it is this paper´s interviews. Ebaugh include this effect in his book as “The

Therapeutic Impact of the Information Interview” (Ebaugh, 1988). At the end of the

each interview I asked the participant how they felt to talk about SalesCorp again and

to revive sometimes not so pleasurable events. Participants recognize a positive

effect “It’s first time I tell my story all in a row. It helped me to make sense of what

happened”, “It’s good to look back. The conversation helps me to look to what

happen under a new perspective”. Participants needed to craft their identity back

after the lay-off event and become an Ex-SalesCorp.


54 Ana Cartón

LIMITATIONS

All participants in the primary and contrasted sample of this paper are Spaniards,

holding a bachelor degree, and in majority of cases also a MBA. All of them have

managed a team, and worked with top management in different organizations. There

is a specific professional profile represented in this paper, so limitations can be found

in the participant profile used.

In terms of organization, all participants come from the same big corporation, from

the consulting services sector. Though the contrasted sample includes participants

from other sectors, caution is needed in order to generalize the results in this paper

into a broader context.

Issues regarding gender or part-time collaborations are beyond the scope of this

paper. Although women participants or part-time employees’ reflections were in line

with the rest of the participants and different patterns have not been identified, the

limitation of my sample avoids me to generalize in these terms.

FUTURE RESEACH

Identity is created based in the many different aspects of the individual. More than

employed or not, there are many other factors determining identity. An interesting

future research could be to understand how the situation presented here impacts on

the identity at country level, how individuals perceive being Spanish after the crisis.

As stated by one participant “(I feel) Deep personal uprooting from this miserable

society. It’s disheartening. This is not a good place for your kids’ future”.


55 Ana Cartón

In terms of the generalization of this paper to other contexts I can see different lines

of action. This paper is grounded in Spain in the moment of the current financial

crisis. But similar situations could be found in other countries with high levels of EPL

and increasing unemployment rates, examples like France, Belgium, Portugal or

Greece could be of special interest.

Interviews conducted for contrasting purposes in sectors outside consulting

confirmed that same patterns are replicated in sectors like Construction, Food

Industry and Tourism: “My friends will tell me I’m stupid if I leave my job without SP.

It’s a lot of money”, as stated by one of them. Patterns repeat with the same

references “What if I leave my current job and get fired after three months? and

without SP”. A larger sample needs to be analysed in order to conclude that results in

this paper can be generalized. In terms of company size, only big corporations were

included in the primary and contrasted sample, so future research could also

consider this factor.

Additional axis for generalization could be found at individual level. Factors as level in

the organization or individual training level could be worth to be included.

Following participants in this study over the time could give a better understanding to

what is the final impact of the crisis for them. The paper reflects on the cost that

waiting for the SP has for the individual in terms of job accepted and in economic

terms of the new job. But how the cost, measured in self-esteem and self-efficacy, is

influencing the individuals’ professional development in the coming years could be a

very interesting stream of future research. And on a more macro-level, how these


56 Ana Cartón

dynamics appearing at individual level help or hinder the country to get out of the

current crisis.


57 Ana Cartón

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ANEX

ANNEX 1.- SPANISH SEVERANCE PAYMENT LEGISLATION

I have included here only the description of unfair dismissals, the ones that applies to

participants in the sample. Full text of new legislation can be found here (Real

Decreto-ley 3/2012, 2012)

Spanish legislation for individual lay-offs established until January 2011, a SP for

unfair dismissals (that applies in 90% of the cases in Spain) of 45 days per year of

service with a maximum of 42 months. Starting February 2012 changes in the

legislation has been done. For the new permanent contracts signed after 12th of

February 2012, SP will apply 33 days per year of service with a maximum of 24

monthly salaries. But for the contracts signed before the reform a double calculation

need to be done. Years of service before 12th of February will apply 45 days per year

of service, and the later with 33 days per year of service, with a maximum of 24

monthly salaries. If this amount is overcome with years of services previous to the

reform, then it will apply a maximum of 42 monthly salary, that can’t be increase with

the later part after the reform. New legislation also introduces what is called

“objective lay-off”, where causes from the employee can justify the lay-off (mal-

adaptation to work functions, absenteeism); but also due to economic, technical,

organizational or production reasons from the employer company. Reasons used by

the company for the “Objective lay-off” are mainly economics where the new

legislation introduces major changes. This cause can be used when the company

shows current or planned losses, or a persistent (3 quarters in a row) income or

sales decrease. In the case of being approved by the judge, SP will apply 20 days


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per year of service, with a maximum of 12 monthly salaries. In case of not being

approved by judge, SP will apply 33 days per year of service with a maximum of 42

monthly salaries

ANNEX 2.- INITIAL SCRIPT FOR SALESCORP PARTICIPANTS

Initial script for the semi-structured interviews for SalesCorp participants:

- Which has been your experience of changing job?

- Which factors did facilitate/difficult the work change?

- What was your satisfaction level before leaving the company?

- What was the Cost/Risk of not changing job?

- What was the reaction of your environment?

- What has been your experience during the current crisis?

- How do you feel when watching TV or reading the paper?

- How do you think the crisis has impacted people in the decision of changing

job?

- How do you evaluate the balance of your change?

- How do you see yourself professionally in the future?

The demographic and motivation follow-up e-mail contained the following closed-

ended questions:

Professional History:

- Years of service at SalesCorp


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- Previous experience:

- Number of previous jobs:

- Year since MBA or similar:

SalesCorp evaluation (at the moment of leaving SalesCorp):

- General

- Compensation

- Supervisor Relationship

- Culture

- Career development

- Possibility to achieve results

- Creativity at workplace

New job search (from 2008 until leaving SalesCorp):

- Hours/week dedicated to look for a new job

- Offers rejected:

Situation at the moment of change:

- Children:

- % Provided income

- % Compensation change


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ANNEX 3.- INITIAL SCRIPT FOR HEADHUNTER PARTICIPANTS

- How do you think the crisis has impacted people in the decision of changing

job?

- How has the recruiting process changed in the last years?

Documents

INSEAD · a key element in the labour market as the lay-off severance payment. ... “I felt personal and physical wastage”. ... as absenteeism