Flexibility in the workplace is a key theme in almost every organization and it is often pursued by endeavors to introduce resilience in employment and the expectation of relevant benefits. Nevertheless, it should not be disregarded that employees are individuals with emotions and perceptions and the climate of insecurity that has been building up is likely to shake the trust and most importantly the commitment towards their employers. The diagram below shoes the Atkinson (1984) model.
In this context, Atkinson (1984) suggested a division of employees into two main groups, core and peripheral workers. Core workers, are skilled employees participating in decision-making, enjoying significant opportunities for training and development and are relatively well-paid and secure.
Furthermore, the core groups play a vital role in the organization. These workers are employed on a full time basis and are very innovative employees. They are hard working employees where they are aware about the mission and vision of the organization. Additionally, they know the organization goals and objective and they work with high team spirit and with creative ideas so that in the future the organization will achieve its objectives. These workers are very devoted to their work and carry their duties and responsibilities well.
The core groups are highly skilled workers with greater experience and know other technical knowhow of the organization. They like to work with the participative style of leadership where the take part in the management decision making process and on the other hand the management also like to delegate their tasks to these core group employees so that they will feel more valued at their work.
For this type of workers the organization does not want to lose them as they are not easily replaceable. These employees are very devoted to their work. They always like to work harder and harder and if in case the management is facing problem for example if it is a very challenging to survive in the competitive business environment, in this case the core employees might come with new and creative ideas so that the organization will not lose competitiveness in the market in which it is operating in. Thus, the organization tries their best to retain these types of employees. The management provides them with a safe place of work and with many other fringe benefits so that they will be satisfied with their job and will always be loyal with their work. The management also provides them higher salary and also sends them for more training so that they will be more multi skilled employees and more career development opportunities for them. This core group is the greatest asset for the organization thus, to guarantee the success and visibility of the organization in the turbulent business environment, the management should try their best to retain these types of employees.
However, the peripheral group is the opposite of the core workers.
The peripheral group is composed of employees who are numerically flexible because
their skills are in plentiful supply in the labor market, and so they can be easily replaced, or
they are only needed to complete particular tasks (irrespective of the scarcity or otherwise of their skills), or
They are only needed at peak times across the working day or week.
Peripheral workers are low paid as they do not possess high knowledge and the required expertise. They are not so skilled and lack experience and knowhow of doing things in the organization. These employees are easily replaceable by the management as there are a pool of such types of employees available In the labor market. Furthermore, they received a low wage than compared to the core workers. The peripheral workers are in a short terms of contract of employment with the organization and enjoy little security in their job. Their degree of autonomy inside the organization is limited.
Additionally, the peripheral workers can only be needed at peak times for example, if a firm is producing clothing the demand for the clothing can increase when New Year is approaching and in this specific period the firm get big orders from client and the firm also needs to deliver the clothing on a specific time. In that case, the firm can take the peripheral workers to work so that the order could be completed on time and the delivery could also be made to the client on the respected time. This will maintain a smooth relationship between the firm and the clients and in the future also the client could rely on the firm to make further deliveries. Thus, the peripheral employees could be appointed for a shorter period of time and these workers has little or no autonomy at their work.
(JAYMALA)
Forms of flexibility
The most famous distinction of labour market flexibility and can be grouped in three main forms of flexibility they are identified by Atkinson as:
Functional
Numerical (Internal and External)
Financial
Functional
Functional flexibility or organizational flexibility is the extent employees can be transferred to different activities and tasks within the firm. It has to do with organization of operation or management and training workers. This can also be achieved by outsourcing activities. Job rotation is a label given to functional flexibility schemes.
Moreover, it allows management to move workers around jobs and tasks as the need calls. Functional flexibility is associated with the core work-force within this model and job security is exchanged for employee versatility. Functional flexibility implies increased on the job training to allow for movement, and a redefinition of working time. Thus, the working day for the core worker will reflect product or service requirements rather than traditional forms of Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. The collapsing of pay scales assists in the movement of workers around jobs and functions.
Numerical (Internal and External)
Numerical flexibility is associated with the peripherial work-force within the flexible firm model. Numerical flexibility allows management to match the need for workers with the number employed and this can be achieved through the use of a variety of short term employment arrangements that include: short term contracts, part-time employment, job sharing, self employment, contracting out, homework, and franchising.
External numerical flexibility
External numerical flexibility refers to the adjustment of the labour intake, or the number of workers from the external market. This can be achieved by employing workers on temporary work or fixed-term contracts or through relaxed hiring and firing regulations or in other words relaxation of Employment Protection Legislation, where employers can hire and fire permanent employees according to the firms' needs.
Internal numerical flexibility
Internal numerical flexibility is sometimes known as working time flexibility or temporal flexibility. This flexibility achieved by adjusting working hours or schedules of workers already employed within the firm. This includes part-time, flexi time or flexible working hours/ shifts (including night shifts and weekend shifts), working time accounts, leaves such as parental leave, overtime.
Financial
Financial or wage flexibility is in which wage levels are not decided collectively and there are more differences between the wages of workers. This is done so that pay and other employment cost reflect the supply and demand of labour. This can be achieved by rate-for-the-job systems, or assessment based pay system, or individual performance wages.
Financial flexibility allows the cost of labour, as indicated by hourly rates and contract prices, to reflect the supply of, and demand for labour. Thus, compensation packages can fluctuate according to marketing worth of any given labour requirement. Thus financial flexibility supports the implementation of functional and numerical flexibility.
Other than the 4 types of flexibility there are other types of flexibility that can be used to enhance adaptability. One way worth mentioning is locational flexibility or flexibility of place. This entails employees working outside of the normal work place such as home based work, outworkers or tele-workers. This can also cover workers who are relocated to other offices within the establishment.
(AURELIE)
Advantages of flexibility
A flexible workplace is one of the key success for most organizations. This means that through a flexible working way the organization will be able to remain success and will last for a long run. An organization will be able to compete among its competitors and will have an edge over its competitors as well.
Flexibility improves elements such as retention. Employee retention refers to the various policies and practices which let the employees stick to an organization for a longer period of time. By being able to retain the employees, an organization saves much cost as there will be no need to recruit new employees.
More employees' satisfaction as it enables the workers to adjust working life and working hours to their own preferences. This means that the employees can choose their working times accordingly through the job flexibility.
It tends to focus on employees with specialized skills who are difficult to replace. This means that the employees who work on a flexible basis are more talented and skillful. This is so as they get the opportunity to work on a flexible way.
It is an adequate method as it enhances the flexibility for both workers and employers that is 'capable of quickly and effectively mastering new productive needs and skills'.
Reduced stress and increase the morale of employees.
Greater productivity and satisfaction for both the employers and employees.
(HINAINA)
Criticism of Atkinson model
Disadvantages of flexibility
According to Bryson and Blackwell (2006), peripheral employees have few career opportunities and development as they are not directly employed by the organisation whereas core employees are employed on a permanent basis with promotional avenues, job security and they are offered trainings as and when required to upgrade their skills and also to improve quality of work. All these facilities enable mainly the core subordinates to remain loyal toward the organisation. However this is not applicable to peripheral employees who may find it hard to be committed to the business organisation.
It is argued that a lower commitment of flexible workforce results in a high rate of staff turnover. Loss of employees can definitely create a financial burden for the business as it has to invest in the recruitment and training process to put the right people in the right place. As such the key activities of the organization are likely to be affected in terms of lower productivity and low staff morale.
Hom and Griffeth (1995) identified that another reason for turnover relates to conflict between the demands of work and family which has become worse due to the number of single parent families. A recent research in the United States suggests that 33% of women were compelled to leave their jobs.
This model is inappropriate as it does not offer the opportunity to workers to undertake extra responsibilities such as job enrichment which involves providing an employee with more work responsibility and challenges so as to improve work performance. Hence employees are less likely to perform above and beyond the basic requirement of their job contracts.
The objectives and purpose of the organisation may be affected in the long term. This implies a low level of performance resulting from the presence of unenthusiastic staffs. When employees are not properly motivated this gives rise to a series of problems such as retention problem and the reputation of the organisation becomes unsafe.
Mc Govern (2004) found evidence that non standard employment (part time, temporary) increased workers' exposure to 'bad job' characteristics such as low pay, no sick provision, no insurance benefits and no access to a recognised promotional ladder).
Warren argues that accepting pervasive job insecurity result both in increasing social exclusion and lowered morale of those working for the firm. Hence this model has contributed to a decline in citizenship behaviour which can be valuable to organisations to motivate and retain a healthy workforce. The point is that organisations must not focus solely on profit maximisation but it should also contribute toward social welfare and benefit.
In order to safeguard the rights and interest of employees, the government is required to review and make modification in the Employment Act Law. This is essential because firms can hire and fire those flexible workers easily as they are offered poorer terms and conditions of employment.
(VEDNA)
How far is Atkinson model applicable?
As mentioned earlier the flexible firm model was introduced by John Atkinson in UK in the mid-1980s. The model was presented during a period of double recession. To understand whether the model is relevant in today's business world or not we have to consider the economic situation.
Furthermore we must not forget the fact that when the model was introduced most businesses was adopting Taylor's motivational approach that is according to them employees will be willing to work no matter the time range if they are given a fair pay for their effort. However nowadays employees are using different motivational approach. And as such the criteria's on which the model was derived has been altered and we don't know of certain that the model could be relevant in today's world.
The past society was mostly a patriarchal one where it was expected that women was supposed to stay at home and look after the children but nowadays we can see that more and more women are entering the working place despite the fact that Mauritius is still considered to be patriarchal society. Women are working full-time as well as part-time or temporary and are still looking after the children Thus we can say that in such situation Atkinson flexible firm model cannot be considered as relevant as women are working as full-time workers but also found themselves as part of the contractual workforce.
Moreover, the Atkinson flexible firm model illustrate that the full-time workers are considered as the core groups and are provided with functional flexibility whereas the peripheral group are attributed to the numerical flexibility. However we can see that in today's world the full-time workers are asked to do more overtime and the overtime is considered as numerical flexibility which according to Atkinson model should be attributed to the peripheral group.
Therefore we may conclude by saying that despite the fact that the Atkinson flexible model still plays an important role in today's business world we cannot be certain that it is totally relevant as there are certain loopholes which need to be further analyzed as the situation which exist when the model was first introduced is not the same as the situation of our modern industrial society.
(HINAINA & CINDY)
Conclusion
Rather than flexibility representing a fundamental shift in the way work is organised, many believe that it is more about intensifying the control of capital over labour by using new management techniques and that it is a capitalist solution to a fundamentally scientific management problem: that of utilising the knowledge of employees for the purpose of rationalisation.
Although changes are taking place in the organisation of work, they do not necessarily constitute a paradigm shift. The attempts to develop a general theory based on flexibility to explain the changes in work organisation have not been able to capture the range of changes that have occurred. Nor have the theories put forward been able to predict or explain the consequences of flexibility on the realities of working life.
Jaymala, Aurelie, Hinaina, Vedna, and Cindy
