Job Security And Flexibility

This book examines the relationship between job security and job flexibility. Through an innovative conceptual approach, the concept of job flexicurity is presented to highlight the labour market dynamics between job flexibility and employee security. The dynamics of labour market mechanisms are placed within ideas of rigidity, security, flexibility, and plasticity to explore the interplay between different employee considerations. Particular attention is given to the Romanian labour market with an empirical case study that expands upon the ideas discussed. This book aims to analyse how job security and flexibility impact worker well-being and happiness. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in labour economics and the job market.

Flexibility is an ambiguous concept. This book contributes to expounding the importance of clearer concepts in the debates on economic systems, labour markets and work organization. The authors place 'flexibility' in a new theoretical context as juxtaposed to 'stability'. Much terminological confusion and is resolved by this suggestion.

Flexibility at Work shows you how to obtain the business benefits of flexibility whilst addressing the needs of both employer and employee. Peter Reilly breaks down flexibility into five different types, from functional through to financial. He introduces a model of how mutual flexibility might be developed and the preconditions necessary to make it successful. Along the way he cites much evidence of how employers are introducing alternative working arrangements that provide benefits to both parties.Flexibility can reduce costs, improve quality and service, increase productivity, hedge against change, and meet supply needs.

This book casts light on the empirical relationship between labor market deregulation through non-standard contracts and the three main dimensions of worker security: employment, income and social security.

Since the oil crisis of the 1970s, increased labor market flexibility seems to have become an indispensable ingredient of economic success. This book examines the critical issues that affect labor market flexibility and job security in the main industrialized economies of the United States, Japan, West Germany, the United Kingdom, and Europe, in an attempt to more fully understand the complex forces at work within such labor markets. Employment Security and Labor Market Flexibility originated from The International Symposium on Labor Market Flexibility in Yokohama, Japan, in 1986, in which scholars in economics, industrial relations, and labor law scholars scrutinized the similarities and differences of the labor markets in these countries. They focused on three main topics: wage flexibility in response to changing economic conditions, the legal and institutional framework for employment security, and international comparison of employment adjustment. Comparison of wage flexibility as well as numerical and functional flexibility among these countries were examined by both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The labor market cannot be treated in the same way as other markets because it deals directly with human beings who are less likely to obey the immutable laws of the market mechanism. Nevertheless, Kazutoshi Koshiro asserts that it is still important to build a framework on which to understand and assess the role of labor flexibility in the competitive process, and it is with this framework in mind that these chapters have been assembled into one volume. Individual chapters compare the relative flexibility of compensation and employment over the business cycle in the United States with that of Japan; analyze the relative flexibility of Japanese wages; unravel some of the underlying forces that comprise the employment security situation in the United States; study the important relationship between economic conditions and the labor market and explain the difference between the employment protection legislation of the United States on the one hand, and Europe and Japan, on the other; and compare the nature of labor markets and employment adjustment techniques of the United States, Europe, and Japan.

This book examines, through an innovative conceptual approach, the relationship between job security and job flexibility. The concept of job flexicurity is presented to highlight the dynamics of the labour market. The concepts of rigidity, security, flexibility and plasticity are investigated to explore the interplay between different employee considerations. It provides readers with a new configuration of the dynamics of labour market mechanisms and emphasizes the influence of the concept of positional (vector) flexicurity. The important economic impact is demonstrated both on the employer (optimization of the structure of the employees, depending on their qualification and productivity) and the employee (the possibility - without prohibitive costs - to change the job to optimize their reward). Particular attention is paid to the Romanian labour market with an empirical case study that extends the ideas discussed. The book, both theoretically and instrumentally, will be relevant for researchers, students, and practitioners interested in labour economics and the labour market. Emil Dinga is Senior Researcher for fundamental research in Economics at the Romanian Academy and supervisor for doctoral and post-doctoral programs in economics. His innovative researches on Theoretical Economics, Philosophy of Social Sciences, Epistemology and Economic Cybernetics, was rewarded in 2022, by the Romanian Academy with the "Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen" Prize. Monica Florica Dutcaș is Researcher, Human Resources Expert, and Management Consultant. Her academic work takes place at a research centre of the Romanian Academy and focuses on public policies mix regarding the labour market, theme of the doctoral thesis. Her entire work targets helping companies and employees to achieve organizational transformation. Gabriela-Mariana Ionescu is PhD in Management at Bucharest's University of Economics Studies, and now is a PhD student at the Romanian Academy's School of Advanced Studies. She authored a number of scientific papers and book chapters on economic and social issues. Her research interests include social justice, social innovation, and economic and social inequality.

This is the era of flexibility. Under constant pressure to be adaptable, organizations increasingly adopt employment practices such as zero-hours contracts, the casualization of the workforce and the use of temporary and agency labour. These flexible practices are central to debates about the changing nature of job quality and its causes, trends and consequences. Arguing that job quality is central to understanding contemporary work, this book explores the internal and external pressures for flexibility in workplaces, professions and sectors and how this pressure shapes workers’ experiences of job quality. By studying job quality dynamics via case studies from organizations and occupations in the UK, Poland, Belgium and Sweden, the volumes illustrates the diversity of practices and experiences, as well as market pressures and institutional arrangements which effect working lives. Finally, the editors propose a policy debate on the new concept "flexiquality" - a combination of flexibility and job quality that can be beneficial for both management and workers.

Modern workplaces are following a strong trend of increasing flexible working practices and approaches, offering more flexibility in working times, working places, work organization, and work relations as the result of new information and communication technologies. This book brings together a group of internationally recognized experts in the field of flexible work to examine the psychological and social implications of these practices, describing the current state of research and empirically-based practices in this field. It focuses on organizational, job, and individual factors related to the quality of working life, and identifies potential risk groups where the benefits of flexible work are suppressed or not realized. Ideal for organizations implementing or considering implementing flexible work, for professionals and researchers in work and organizational psychology, and for HR professionals, this volume is an invaluable overview of rapidly changing work norms and their impact on working life.