ABSTRACT
This study provides insight on the perception of the work environment for county employees impact by downsizing in Extension Services. The researcher proposes that when employees feel helpless in their environment, they are unable to perform at the level needed to do the job. Brockner, Glover, and Blonder (1988) write, “Workers are bound to worry about their own job security. Layoff-produced stress, in turn, has the potential to influence a variety of survivors' work-behavior and attitudes … Stress tends to reduce employees' involvement with their jobs and the organization (manifested by such outcomes as reduced productivity, greater absenteeism and turnover, and lower job satisfaction” (p.437). Or the employees' affective states and levels of productivity may be systematically altered, state Brockner, Davy, and Carter (1985). They state, “Their co-workers' dismissal may engender perceived job insecurity (i.e., anxiety) in the survivors. Consequently, the survivors may work harder in order to avoid meeting a similar fate”.
