Organizational Response to Decline in the Israeli Electronics Industry

This study explores rigidity in responses to decline in the Israeli electronics industry. A comparison is made between the public and the private sectors of this industry. The public sector was found to be more rigid in its level of politicization and in its use of employee-termination strategies, whereas the private sector was more rigid in downward communication and in the use of alternative cutback strategies. Only a weak tendency was found in both sectors towards greater administrative intensity in decline. The findings suggest that rigidity and flexibility are not polar terms, and call for a re-evaluation of the meaning of organizational rigidity.