The quest for a balanced manpower capacity: different flexibility strategies examined. With teamwork towards a flexible firm?

To cope with permanent fluctuations in demand, organizations are challenged to organize their manpower capacity in a flexible way. Different strategies of manpower planning are being used for this purpose. Using data from the 2002 Panel Survey of Organisations Flanders, we first verify to what extent temporal, contractual and functional flexibility strategies are applied in Flemish organizations. Subsequently, logistic regression is used to analyse the link between these flexible work strategies and a 'fitting manpower capacity'. While the results show a negative association between the use of temporal or contractual flexibility measures and a balanced manpower capacity, functional flexibility seems to be positively related. The different logics in which numerical and functional flexibility proceed can be labeled as 'curative' versus 'preventive' strategies of flexibility. Further analyses discern between various interpretations of functional flexibility and assess whether different team types make a contribution to a fitting manpower capacity. The analyses will be based on a large dataset. The representatives of about 500 Flemish establishments that are confronted with changing demands, filled in a questionnaire on the work organization, flexibility strategy and manpower capacity. This information allows us to analyse which role teamwork can play in realizing a fit in manpower capacity.status: publishe