Flexibility, Politics & Strategy: In Defence of the Model of the Flexible Firm

Stephen J. Procter, Michael Rowlinson, Louise McArdle,, John Hassard and Paul Forrester
Additional contact information
Stephen J. Procter: Department of Management at Keele University
Michael Rowlinson: School of Management and Finance at the University of Nottingham
Louise McArdle,: Department of Organisation at the University of Central Lancashire
John Hassard: Department of Management at Keele University
Paul Forrester: Department of Management at Keele University

Work, Employment & Society, 1994, vol. 8, issue 2, 221-242

Abstract: This paper offers a defence of Atkinson's model of the flexible firm. It takes issue with two arguments against it: that the model needs to be understood at a political level, as part of a wider `post-industrial' vision; and that the observed increase in flexibility offers the model no support because of its `non-strategic' nature. On the first of these it is argued that flexibility operates on a different level from flexible specialisation and other varieties of `post-industrialism' and that to consider them together confuses rather than illuminates the debate. On the second, it is argued that the criticism relies on an unnecessarily restrictive view of strategy. Rather than being regarded as `plans', strategies should be regarded as `patterns' in decision-making. On the basis of this alternative conception the paper suggests ways in which the flexible firm model might be recast.

Date: 1994
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/095001709482004 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:8:y:1994:i:2:p:221-242

DOI: 10.1177/095001709482004

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Work, Employment & Society from British Sociological Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().