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1.2 Definitions: what is meant by "restructuring"

Restructuring is the reorganisation of business operations aimed at increasing efficiency and profit. It may be represented as:

It could entail a change in an organisations’ geographical scope as well as a reduction in overall staffing numbers, and in cases of large organisations, it will impact upon supply chains. It affects not only multi-nationals and large organisations, but very often Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). The concentration of attention on the former at the expense of the latter means restructuring in SMEs is known as ‘silent restructuring’.

The toolkit will consider restructuring in terms of what has been called `socially responsible restructuring` or SRR . If restructuring has been principally considered in terms of short-term shareholder gain, SRR may be thought of as contributing to long-term stakeholder value. As such SRR would involve a wide variety of stakeholders (including social partners) with different interests that may or may not coincide.

If restructuring implies any one of a number of events, SRR suggests a more fully managed process, involving,

• Anticipating change and its implications, especially for the workforce;
• Embracing a thorough consideration of alternatives to the sharper effects of change, such as redundancies;
• Seeking sustainable and responsible solutions to these changes through constructive, in-depth and continuous dialogue between social partners and the wider stakeholders;
• Evaluating the effect and process of change

For the individual worker, restructuring may impact upon them in some or most of the below possible ways: