Corporate loyalty,does it have a future?

A promotion of concepts of corporate family and employee participation as well as euphemisms which stress employee-employer long-term continuity makes the loss of loyalty flowing from downsizings and mass firings as well as corporate restructurings more difficult both for the employer and employee. The promotion of reciprocal obligations between employer and employee misleads both into a belief system which is to their mutual disadvantage.Corporate semanatics that soften employment realities and the implications of dislocation with positive rhetoric increases the sense of failure and guilt on the part of both employer and employee. Unrealistic expectations create hostility. If employment dislocation is seen as part of a continual economic evolution, not shrouded in semantic double-speak, loss of employment no longer becomes an outrageous afront to the dignity of those involved but rather a normal process of economic change and renewal.Brian A. Grosman, LL.B., LL.M., Q.C., is one of Canada's leading employment lawyers. He has taught law at McGill University and at the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan and is the past founding Chairman of the Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan. He is the author of numerous legal articles and six books. His last three books deal with employment relationships. His most recent book is entitled Corporate Loyalty: A Trust Betrayed and was published by Viking-Penguin Books Canada in 1988.Mr. Grosman practices law in Toronto where he advises corporate employers and executive employees on management and individual rights.