Organizing flexibility: The flexible firm in a new century

Abstract

Research on organizational flexibility should examine the linkages between numerical and functional flexibility. Unfortunately, studies of each type of flexibility generally neglect the other. Moreover, the most popular conception of the interplay between these two forms of flexibility - the core-periphery model - is incomplete in important ways. I discuss evidence and limitations of the core-periphery model of the flexible firm, and outline some promising attempts to conceptualize how organizations may combine functional and numerical flexibility. I focus mainly on the USA and the UK, though I also review evidence and issues involved in cross-national differences in organizational flexibility.