Culturally coded? The enigma of flexible labour markets

This paper investigates the relationship between national culture and the main dimensions of employment flexibility. A cultural model of comparative labour market flexibility is developed. Using Hofstede’s indices for measuring national culture, hypotheses concerning the association between a range of variables measuring employment flexibility (such as employment patterns, working time, unemployment and labour mobility) are regressed on Hofstede’s four cultural variables. The results suggest a strong association between Hofstede’s masculinity versus femininity index and employment patterns, working timeand unemployment. Employment “inflexibility” is linked to cultural values reflecting feminine gender structuring of society. A strong relationship between Hofstede’s individualism versus collectivism variable and labour mobility is also established, which suggests that labour mobility is less, and job tenure longer in countries where there is greater cultural loyalty to the group. The results are supportive of a cultural model and have implications for both comparative labour market theory and policy.