Flexible Firms and Labor Market Segmentation

Abstract

Employers in all industrial societies have sought greater flexibility in their employment systems. This article discusses some key ways in which employers have sought to restructure their workforces to become more flexible and the consequences of such restructuring for workers and jobs. The author argues that U.S. employers' use of numerical and functional flexibility strategies has led to a division between organizational insiders (standard employment relations) and outsiders (who have nonstandard work arrangements). The consequences of working in nonstandard employment relations differ depending on workers' individual and collective control over skills and other valued resources.