Describe the four types of flexibility that are emphasized by businesses today. What are the employee concerns associated with each type of flexibility?

Employers are looking to develop four types of flexibility in the workplace today. Employment flexibility refers to the ability of employers to change labor utilization through varying work hours or the number of employees. This raises employee concerns regarding income security (maintaining hours of work), periods of unemployment, and maintaining fair wage rates for unusual work hours. Pay flexibility refers to the ability to make compensation changes in response to competitive pressures and needs for organizational performance. From the employees' perspective, pay for performance places a greater portion of their compensation "at risk" and increases subjectivity and the potential for supervisory bias in wage determination processes. Functional flexibility refers to the need to easily shift workers into different jobs in response to changing customer needs. The employee concerns are that high way, skilled employees will be replaced with low-wage, unskilled workers or that workers will be asked to work ever harder without commensurate increases in pay. Finally, procedural flexibility refers to changes in production methods, technology, and/or work organization. Key concerns here include the lack of voice in decision-making and consideration of outcomes and the stress that may result from these changes.