Beyond role conflict? Work flexibility, task division and the balance between work and familiy in Europe.

Flexibility has become a prominent topic in the sociology (of work) literature over the past decades. The growing internationalisation of the economy, leading to intensified competition, as well as the changing roleof the state in socio-economic policy intervention have heightened the uncertainty to which firms are exposed. This, in turn, has given rise toan increasing demand for labour flexibility, in order to be able to adjust swiftly to constantly changing market environments. As a consequenceof such needs for flexible adjustment, established forms of security orstability which employees used to rely upon have been put under pressure. It has become increasingly difficult to guarantee  </>job security within an economic context of fast-paced change and possibilities forglobal-scale delocalisation, combined with a growing diversification ofthe labour market. Nevertheless, people do require a certain extent of stability in their lives as workers, in order to have the confidence necessary for fulfilling their other societal roles as consumers, parents and citizens. This field of tension between the flexibilisation of the working life and the persisting need for stable expectations is at the heart of the present PhD proposal.</>
            </>In this project it will be studied how the tensions between needs for flexible adjustment and demands for secure employment are being dealt with within firms, to what extent this is influenced by the national institutional context within which the firmoperates, and which role  </>social actors in particular management and trade unions and the (power) relations between them play in shaping a balance between flexibility and security. This is innovative in three respects: it brings the policy discussion on flexibility and security down to the level of the company, where management and workers are actually being affected, and links this to the macro-context; it brings in a political element, as it takes the diverse interests of the different parties involved into consideration; and it elaborates a theoretical framework within which the flexibility-security problem can be empirically  </>studied. Concretely, a case study design will be proposed, inwhich eight plants of four different multinational companies (MNCs) areinvestigated. Two subsidiaries of each MNC will be studied, one in Belgium and one in the Netherlands. This set-up allows for looking into bothcross-national and cross-company variance. The data are gathered and analysed with qualitative but systematic tools and instruments.</>

Keywords:Work-family conflict, Comparative research, Case studies, Industrial relations, Labour markets, Flexivurity, Work-life balance, Flexibility

Disciplines:Applied sociology, Policy and administration, Social psychology, Social stratification, Social theory and sociological methods, Sociology of life course, family and health, Other sociology and anthropology

Project type:PhD project