Making functional flexibility stick: an assessment of the outcomes for stakeholders

Increasingly, evidence suggests that the impact of HRM in organisations is greatest where it involves a set of coherent policies and practices. The implication of this is that, to be effective, individual HR initiatives need to be implemented as part of an integrated package of practices. This paper presents findings from a study designed to examine the implementation of functional flexibility. Evidence is presented from two case studies which demonstrate that, for functional flexibility to succeed in the longer term, it needs to be become embedded in the organisation and to be supported by a web of sympathetic policies. Many of the problems of implementation can be overcome by the co‐existence of supporting practices. For example, the intensification of work brought about by the use of functional flexibility was less of an issue in the cases where it was supported by higher levels of remuneration. The outcomes of functional flexibility for stakeholders are also explored.