Flexible work organization and working time flexibility as flexibility strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

In many countries, economy without small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can hardly be imagined—they offer more jobs than large-scale enterprises and significantly contribute to the economic success in many countries. The globalization pressure, social, economic, and political changes as well as technological innovations force SMEs to alter their organization and their market strategy. In order to survive current situations, SMEs need agile structures and speedy decisions. The following article deals with flexibility strategies and their application in industrial SMEs focusing on the measures of the internal flexibility. Measures like working time models, short time work, job rotation, job enlargement, profit/cost/investment center as well as team and group work particularly belong to this. This article offers an insight into the practice of the internal flexibility of SMEs, indicates which goals are pursued with those measures, which constraints and drivers during implementation and realization are experienced and how satisfied the enterprises are with the measures. Finally, it goes into detail about the application pairings.