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Wilkinson Sword Group Ltd has announced a closure, in phases, of its razor production plant in Cramlington, Tyneside, UK, yet the quality of its highly trained and motivated, world class workforce is evidenced in an increase in output since the announcement was made in Oct 1998. Far from being demoralized, company employees have maintained performance improvements achieved since roughly 1995. With plant closure only months away, 250 remaining workers from an original force of 450 people have sustained efforts to produce roughly 52,000-60,000 units per shift compared to 25,000-30,000 per shift in the past. The company has established an on-site job shop which has found placements for 70 people. However, the employees' track records ought to impress prospective employers.

British Telecom (BT) was compelled to abandon its bureaucratic, process-oriented management style when it realized that it could not compete effectively in the liberalized UK telecommunications market without a highly motivated, customer-centered workforce. Employee morale and motivation declined in the early 1990s when the company reduced its personnel from 250,000 to around 110,000. In response, BT implemented a new approach called '... for a better way of life,' which sought to change the way people worked and give them a sense of excitement, belonging and involvement in the business. Under the new divisional managing director Stafford Taylor, employees were encouraged to take personal responsibility for meeting customer needs, take decisive action to meet these requirements, take calculated risks to exceed customer expectations and sharpen their instincts for finding ways of contributing to corporate success.

Corporate restructuring at Allied Domecq Spirits & Wine has left many of its managers demoralized by the loss of many of their colleagues as well as of opportunities for promotion. Formed by the merger between Allied Lyons and the Domecq group, the firm in recent years has been working to transform itself into a truly international business organization and to make the transition from food production towards the retailing, sale and marketing of its leading brands. To ensure that its executives are up to the task of propelling the restructured organization toward success, Allied Domecq's HR department introduced a developmental workshop intended to help managers respect their own abilities and reassess their career aspirations. The success of this program has encouraged the company to offer it to a larger cross-section of its executives.