The document discusses organizational change and presents information from studies showing that organizations expect to cut an average of 15% of their workforce, mergers are affecting millions of workers, and over 12,000 companies have changed hands in the past five years. It also notes that the trend of takeovers is increasing and that US manufacturing needs to dramatically increase productivity to remain competitive. The document poses questions about how organizations are responding to changes and how those responses are affecting personnel management. It includes a quote about the need for "managers of adaptation" who can think beyond the status quo to reimagine products and procedures before crisis makes change unavoidable.