TURIN, ITALY --

"It is in everybody's interest that restructuring is carried out in a manner that does not put the high value of the organization's human capital into jeopardy. It is important that fair management practices, communication and good industrial relations are applied throughout the change process. Socially sensitive restructuring therefore makes also good business sense".

--Goeran Hultin, Executive Director (Employment)
--International Labour Organization, Geneva

Restructuring takes many forms and the term is used to mean a wide variety of different actions. We will define restructuring as the deliberate modification of formal relationships among organizational components undertaken with a view to achieving meaningful and long-lasting results (long-term survival, renewal, gaining of competitiveness, acquiring additional core competence and entering new markets, etc.). The concept of socially sensitive restructuring foresees the achievement of balance and consciously takes into consideration the interests and concerns of all the stakeholders who are affected by the changes and decisions. Social partnership is a corner stone of the ILO approach to restructuring.

Course objectives
To provide participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote, guide, facilitate and assist socially sensitive enterprise restructuring and take compensatory measures to counterbalance the negative impact of change on people.

The course will provide you with the opportunity to:

• Understand benefits, ways and means of reducing the negative social impact of enterprise restructuring and downsizing
  
• Widen your vision of change options to optimize choice of a way of restructuring with the balanced economic and social priorities
  
• Foresee the potential negative social consequences of restructuring and to adjust the plan of action accordingly
  
• Discover how to build and benefit from partnership between management and workers in implementing major organizational change
  
• Find ways and means to retain and facilitate development of alternative employment in the process of organizational downsizing

Methodology
An action learning approach enables participants not only to acquire new knowledge but also to design a specific project to implement on returning to their home country. The course is based on traditional and modern training methodology and computer-aided technology: presentations by leading practitioners, consultants and researchers, business and communication games, video-supported case studies, role-plays, company visits, video-conferences and group discussions.

Language: English

Course content
The course content embodies a balanced approach to restructuring. It arms participants with the tools for achieving highly effective enterprise restructuring without sacrificing the quality of working life or harming local communities.

Main subject areas:

• Introduction into corporate responsibility and socially responsible enterprise restructuring
  
• The patterns and forms of enterprise restructuring and social repercussions
  
• Balancing of economic and social priorities of restructuring
  
• Ways and means of transforming structure without causing a damage to organisational culture
  
• Development of social expertise of the restructuring projects
  
• The role of enterprise management, workers' organisations and local government and methods of joint work
  
• Development of new workplaces (both connected with the enterprise and alternative ones) to compensate for workforce downsizing
  
• Socially responsible approach to the closure of workplaces and dealing with the released workers
  
• The partnership based organisational change
  
• Enterprise restructuring and local economic development

Cost of participation
The cost of participation is US$ 4,400 payable in advance by the participant's sponsoring organization.

This covers:

• tuition fees
  
• the use of training facilities and support services
  
• training materials
  
• accommodation and full board on the Centre's campus
  
• a standard daily allowance of 18 Euro
  
• study visits
  
• routine medical care and insurance

Grants for the training programmes conducted by the ILO Turin Centre may become available through development projects sponsored by United Nations agencies, international or regional funding bodies, bilateral technical co-operation agencies, governments or private enterprises. Candidates are encouraged to contact these organizations and agencies in their countries to enquire about the availability of grants.

Application
Applications to attend the course, supported by a nomination letter from the sponsoring/funding institution, should arrive not later than 1 September 2003.

THE ILO TURIN CENTRE'S FACILITIES
Located in an attractive park on the banks of the River Po, the Centre's campus provides a congenial environment in which to live and study.

It comprises 21 pavilions, housing:

• fully equipped modern classrooms;
  
• conference halls and meeting rooms fitted out for multilingual simultaneous interpretation;
  
• a computer laboratory;
  
• a computerized documentation centre linked to various data banks;
  
• an inter-active language laboratory.

For further information, please contact:
INTERNATIONAL TRAINING CENTRE OF THE ILO
Enterprise Development Programme
Viale Maestri del Lavoro, 10
10127 Turin (Italy)
Tel. ++39 011 69 36 456, -302
Fax: ++39 011 69 36 589, -564
E-mail: j.hardy@itcilo.it or SME@itcilo.it

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