How can we define organizational flexibility? There are many definitions for flexibility. In the sense of managing human resources, flexibility can be defined as the organisation adapting to size, composition, responsiveness and the people . their inputs and costs required to achieved organisational objectives and goals. Organisational flexibility can also be defined when work gets done, where it gets done and how work gets done.
Organisational Flexibility includes:
The need for flexibility in the workplace
The need for organisational flexibility is very important. When looking at why there is a need a for flexibility there are factors that are creating the need for flexibility in the workplace. Things are changing all the time, which means an organisation, must be able to take on these changes. Aspects such as social, technological, economical, legal, political and other global factors in which a business operate within are changing all the time, so organisations should be able to adapt when these changes happen. So in other words they need to be flexible. As it says there is a need for flexibility in the workplace, but there is also a need for flexibility in the workforce, meaning the staff. As change happens, how work gets done too changes therefore the workforce should also be flexible.
Those aspects I mentioned above, I find is not the factor of change that requires the workplace to be flexible. Another factor I find to be important is the employees. People are changing. Their needs and wants are changing, their ways are changing, how they live is changing and how they work is changing too. Therefore some people are not wanting to work normally, having a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 job. People are wanting to be more flexible with their time, therefore wanting to work less hours, certain days of the week, have time off or whatever it may be. Therefore some of the workplaces might benefit if they make themselves flexible in the sense of offering these things to employees. So the workplace should be flexible with that factor too.
There are some aspects that have allowed flexibility to be put in place in the workplace:
I suppose in the past organisations were very structured, rigid. And today there still has to be structure in the workplace, as an organisation wont work if there wasn't some form of structure. In today's workplace, heavily structured organisations, with rigid job specifications, with strict management styles won't work. The workplace is changing due the ever changing and not predictable environments. Therefore that is why there is a need for organisational flexibility.
Types of Organisational Flexibility
There are a number of different types of organisational flexibility. They are:
