What would you do? Employee narrowly survives layoff, complains about transfer

Dealing with the fallout of a layoff or restructuring is one of HR’s toughest jobs. Imagine this scenario:
A company needs to cut staff, but is able to get by with minimal layoffs — however, the plan also requires many employees to be moved around among different departments.
One employee in particular is spared from the chopping block, but must be transferred to a different department than he’s used to, for a job with less prestige than his previous position.
And instead of being grateful for his continued employment, he won’t stop complaining about his new role. He still completes all his tasks, but only satisfactorily, and his toxic attitude is killing morale.
His manager comes to HR for advice. We recently asked three HR managers how they would respond:
Response #1: I’d have to personally sit down with the employee and explain that we’re all in a tight spot right now and need to work together to get through it. I’d also get specific examples of his bad behavior from the manager to help me outline any changes he needs to make.
Response #2: The key would be making sure the employee understands why the change was necessary. He was obviously a good enough worker that we decided we had to keep him, so its possible there’s some failure in communication that led him to believe he was being demoted or that he isn’t valued. I’d sit down with him to set the record straight.
Response #3: Sounds like the employee needs to be warned about his actions — and fired if the behavior continues. Morale is probably bad enough as it is without a constant complainer, so we’d need to stop the problem before it gets any worse.
What about you? If you were in this situation, how would you handle it? Give us your opinion in the comments section below.