Pandora's Box: The Paradox of Flexibility in Today's Workplace

Abstract

The principal actors in the production process are employers and workers; however, historically, labour has always been portrayed as the flexible variable. This has not changed but what may be new is the way flexibility is extolled and used. Strategies such as the restructuring of capital, investment practices of capital and international trade agreements are often discounted from the discourse and hidden in economic agendas. One must not also forget the hierarchical nature of the capitalist system and its constant quest for an increased margin of profit. Consequently, the discourse on flexibility may serve to mask that pervasive motive in the current global market. Though a long-standing concept in economic history, flexibility is also a descriptive adjective for most market-related concepts (e.g. flexible specialization, the flexible firm, wage flexibility, production flexibility and labour market flexibility). In this article, I examine the uses, abuses and misuses of the concept of `flexibility' as applied to the balance of power between capital and labour.