Relevance of the Flexible Firm Model in Modern Organizations

This report provides an analysis of the flexible firm model and its continued relevance in contemporary organizational structures. The report examines the importance of flexibility in employment, driven by social and economic changes, and the role of human resource practices in adapting to a diverse and dynamic labor market. It explores the concept of flexible labor utilization, which enhances employee capabilities and participation in decision-making. The report highlights the focus on high-performance work systems, functional and numerical flexibility, and the externalization of workforce elements. It references the evolution of labor market strategies and the impact of these changes on employment relations, including the use of temporary workers and the emphasis on core competencies and skills. The analysis concludes that the flexible firm model remains relevant, particularly in its ability to enhance functional flexibility, adapt to technological changes, and respond effectively to market shifts by managing workforce composition.

Is the ‘flexible firm model’ still relevant as a guide to how employers deploy labor in
organizations in 2019
The social and economic changes have underscored the need for the organizations mainly
for a better flexibility in the system of employment. It is seen that the importance of human
resource practices help the organizations to adapt to the rapid development, with great diversity
and labor market. The “flexible firm” highlights about how the organisation is formed to help the
employees in working towards a flexible manner (Kalleberg, 2001). The research empathizes on
the flexible labor utilization which helps in enhancement of the employee ability to perform for
the different jobs and then participate in the decision-making processes.
Considering the relevance of the model in 2019, the organizations still believe in
following the same more for employers to deploy labor. The employers are focusing on high
performance work systems with increased functional and internal flexibility that helps in
examining the processes of externalization. It helps in designing the reduced costs and providing
a better numerical flexibility. In 1980, the labor market conveyed the survey in Malaysia,
Thailand about how the workers are focusing on adopting the strategy of labor
decommodification of the core employees and indulging in extreme labor commodification. With
this, one could measure the labor securities in the difference countries and produced a proxy
measure of degree of ‘informality’. With time, the opportunity has arisen to measure the changes
in the structure of social income to address the industrialization factors (Standing, 2016).
There has been a major emphasis on the high-performance work organization with
focusing on planning over the commitment and planning over the complete analysis at work. The
organization externalized workforce includes the different standards of the employment
relations. They work on limiting the durations of employment with use of the short-term

temporary workers who have hired for the finite period on as-needed basis. As per the study. the
organizations are working on combination of functional and numerical flexibility (Lagge, 2005).
The analysis is about the performance practices that needs to be taken care of, for the core
occupations, which are found to be less significant.
Hence, according to the analysis, “Flexible Firm Model” the employees effectively to
work on the functional flexibility and work on high level skills, knowledge and experience. The
model is helpful in the flexibility of employment and at work. The employees have found
different innovative ways to make the size and composition of the work forces, more flexible.
The flexibility is discussed in the work structures as well which helps in working on the new
technologies and allow the employees to response to the market changes under the changing
composition of the workforce.
References
Kalleberg, A.L., 2001. Organizing flexibility: the flexible firm in a new century. British journal
of industrial relations, 39(4), pp.479-504.
Lagge, K., 2005. Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities. Personnel Review,
pp.416-416.
Standing, G., 2016. The precariat, class and progressive politics: A response. Global Labour
Journal, 7(2), pp.189-200.