New employment practices beyond external and internal flexibilization

Recent research about regular employment in core areas of high qualified service work in Germany yields contradictory findings about continuities and changes in employment stability. In addressing current debates about changing employment relations, this paper examines how organizational change and the role of customers in service work interact to shape employer demands for more flexible employment. The results of a qualitative study of employment practices in one branch of qualified service work, IT services, shows how clients' intervention into the production process affects skill demand and firms' use of flexible employment. At the same time, a pronounced client orientation precipitates the need for context-specific knowledge and stability of employment. The resulting employment strategies aim at developing long-term relations with free-lancers and other short-term workers. These new employment practices call into question the well-accepted distinction between internal and external forms of employment flexibility.