a) During an economic downturn, a firm must carefully consider its options and assess the feasibility and applicability of alternatives to downsizing. Analyse these alternative means and discuss their effectiveness in terms of the strengths and the weaknesses of each alternative.

b) Assume you are the HR director of your present organisation (or any organisation of your choice), the corporation-wide downsizing seemingly is the only options for cost-reduction in order to keep the organisation survive in the economic downturn. Based on (a), which alternative strategies to downsizing will you choose? Discuss some of the effective ways to conduct for the alternative strategy you selected.