Balancing Flexibility—Meeting the Interests of Employer and Employee

Flexibility is a difficult concept because it is used in a number of different contexts, both in the world of work and in the political arena. It is advocated by some political leaders, business gurus, and employers as the necessary condition for the survival of national labour markets in a fast-moving world of growing global competition. It is also seen as the necessary response at the workplace to these selfsame volatile business conditions. Others, especially trade union leaders, reject the benefits claimed for flexibility, seeing it as a means to cut wage costs and increase employment insecurity. Getting beyond the rhetoric, is it possible to see flexible work arrangements achieving mutual advantage to employers and employees? This article suggests that it is possible to do this, but only through employers understanding the different needs of their individual employees; the workforce for its part has to understand the business imperatives behind the need for change. A “dealing” process is outlined to indicate how the interests of the parties might be recognized and reconciled.