"Flexibility is a term frequently used in the context of EU employment and industrial relations […]. [I]t includes three dimensions.
- [The] employers' desire for variable (flexible) labour inputs, in terms of numbers employed or hours worked, to match changes in demand for products or services. It can also refer to changing the tasks and skills of employees to increase productivity. The first type is sometimes described as ‘external', ‘quantitative' or ‘numerical' flexibility; the second as ‘internal', 'qualitative'; or ‘functional' flexibility.
- [The] employees' desire for variable (flexible) contractual arrangements and working conditions to match changing private and domestic needs. Flexibility may concern different forms of contractual arrangement (including ‘atypical work'), particularly as regards working time, to suit better work-life balance."
- The labour market's "[f]lexibility […] as a policy response to ‘labour market rigidities', which some economists regard as contributing to unemployment."
(Eurofound,
Flexibility,
Dictionary, visited 2009-10-14)
Workplace Flexibility
Workplace Flexibility 2010 defines
flexibility as:
- flexibility in the scheduling of full-time hours (e.g., a range of flexible work arrangements, including flextime and compressed work weeks)
- flexibility in the number of hours worked (e.g., reduced hours, such as
part-time or part-year)
- The ability to have career flexibility with multiple points for entry, exit and re-entry into the workforce (e.g., extended time off and career on- and off-ramps)
- The ability to address unexpected and ongoing personal and family needs (e.g., short-term time off and episodic time off)
(adapted from Alfred P.,
Workplace Flexibility: Definition,
Sloan Foundation, Georgetown University Law Center, 2004, visited 2009-10-14)