Work flexibility and its individual consequences

The concept of "employee flexibility," and its implementation, have taken a central place in industrial sociology and human resources management during the last several decades. The two types of flexibility most often adopted in the workplace are functional and numerical. Employees and their labour unions approve of functional flexibility more often than numerical flexibility, which is usually rejected. This study is designed to examine the associations between functional and numerical flexibility with job rewards. Using 2002 General Social Survey (GSS) and Current Population Survey (CPS) data, the findings reveal significantly higher rewards for functionally flexible jobs while rewards associated with numerically flexible jobs vary significantly between and within two major categories - standard and nonstandard jobs. Among those with nonstandard jobs, independent contractors have significantly better opportunity for job rewards than other groups, such as regular part-time or on-call workers. The paper ends with a discussion on the theoretical significance of the findings and their policy implications.