ABSTRACT
As described in the previous chapter, the 1980s and 1990s exposed many employers to an increase in ‘market pressure’. The competition they faced increased as a result of privatisation, concentration and globalisation; their customers began to exercise their ‘choice’ more aggressively; their shareholders became increasingly impatient for a quick and profitable return on their investments; and taxpayer resistance required the government to cut the cost of public services. Not surprisingly, some of the organisations that participated in the JIWIS survey had attempted to offset these pressures by passing them on to their suppliers.1 However, in most of the organisations we visited, the senior managers suggested that they had met with little success in their attempts to ‘squeeze’ their suppliers. Instead they had shifted the primary responsibility for ensuring the flexible delivery of goods and services onto the shoulders of their own workforce. But what kind of flexibility were these organisations demanding from their workforce? From the questions we put to the senior managers in the JIWIS survey, it seems that although most employers are pursuing a range of flexibilities, some of these flexibilities are more important than others.
