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Paradigms of Flexibility: A Systematic Review of Research on Workplace Flexibility
Author(s) -
Bal P. Matthijs,
Izak Michal
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
european management review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.784
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1740-4762
pISSN - 1740-4754
DOI - 10.1111/emre.12423
Subject(s) - flexibility (engineering) , sine qua non , work (physics) , knowledge management , computer science , sociology , epistemology , psychology , management , political science , economics , engineering , law , mechanical engineering , philosophy
As flexibility has become a sine qua non of the contemporary workplace, we performed a critical review of its different uses and understandings in business and management research. Analyzing the literature on workplace flexibility in the period 1970–2018, using a four‐part conceptual framework, and on the basis of subsequent content analysis of 262 most relevant publications, we identify two axes of tension embedding scholarly work on flexibility: the flexibility of vs. flexibility for organizations and employees, and a favorability‐criticality tension. We further explain how internal divisions are attributable to three different paradigms of flexibility (two of which dominate), resulting from divergent sets of assumptions regarding: its target, rationale, approach to it, as well as methodologies involved in studying it. We propose a research agenda indicating the ways in which paradigmatic underpinnings of flexibility research may be further clarified and divisions between the paradigms made sense of .