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THE CORPORATE DISCOURSE OF FLEXIBILITY
FROM THE EMPLOYEE'S’ PERSPECTIVE
A study based on permanent employees and agency workers, performing engineering related jobs
within the Aerospace industry in France
Author: Gabriela Whitehead
Date: April 2010
Abstract
Flexibility is a malleable concept that acquires its meaning depending on how it is understood and by
whom. In this sense, organisational flexibility refers to the corporation's’ ability to adapt to the
fluctuations of the market, provoking in turn reconfigurations of systems and relations that ultimately
demand for employee flexibility. However, to the wage earners the idea of flexibility is presented
through other discursive elements such as cosmopolitanism, portable careers and work-life balance.
This study analyses how employees understand and respond to the corporate discourse of flexibility,
particularly considering the perceived characteristics of their work arrangements, namely permanent
employment and agency work. The research follows a qualitative approach for which in depth,
unstructured interviews were conducted with the participants and their spouses; additionally, the
study focuses on employees performing engineering related jobs within the Aerospace industry in
France.
The participants ability to self-manage their professional lives is expressed by their feelings of control
over both job and location; however, the individual's desire for stability shows the extent to which the
corporate discourse of flexibility actually colonizes the employees subjectivity. The way individuals
perceive flexibility is framed by the nature of their working relationship, yet the responses are similar
among all participants. Therefore, contradiction is found in the narratives as a display of the tensions
between the individual's’ attitudes and their behaviours, where cynicism and impression management
are used as defence mechanisms that simultaneously fulfil the employees desire for autonomy, and
reinforce the prevailing discourses. Finally, the individuals view themselves as commodities in the
marketplace, and the working relationships as trades of economic and socio-emotional rewards,
consequently filling the participants’ lives with insecurities, while dividing the idea of future into
episodes that are dependent on the success or failure of the work assignments.

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MScAbstract

  • 1. THE CORPORATE DISCOURSE OF FLEXIBILITY FROM THE EMPLOYEE'S’ PERSPECTIVE A study based on permanent employees and agency workers, performing engineering related jobs within the Aerospace industry in France Author: Gabriela Whitehead Date: April 2010 Abstract Flexibility is a malleable concept that acquires its meaning depending on how it is understood and by whom. In this sense, organisational flexibility refers to the corporation's’ ability to adapt to the fluctuations of the market, provoking in turn reconfigurations of systems and relations that ultimately demand for employee flexibility. However, to the wage earners the idea of flexibility is presented through other discursive elements such as cosmopolitanism, portable careers and work-life balance. This study analyses how employees understand and respond to the corporate discourse of flexibility, particularly considering the perceived characteristics of their work arrangements, namely permanent employment and agency work. The research follows a qualitative approach for which in depth, unstructured interviews were conducted with the participants and their spouses; additionally, the study focuses on employees performing engineering related jobs within the Aerospace industry in France. The participants ability to self-manage their professional lives is expressed by their feelings of control over both job and location; however, the individual's desire for stability shows the extent to which the corporate discourse of flexibility actually colonizes the employees subjectivity. The way individuals perceive flexibility is framed by the nature of their working relationship, yet the responses are similar among all participants. Therefore, contradiction is found in the narratives as a display of the tensions between the individual's’ attitudes and their behaviours, where cynicism and impression management are used as defence mechanisms that simultaneously fulfil the employees desire for autonomy, and reinforce the prevailing discourses. Finally, the individuals view themselves as commodities in the marketplace, and the working relationships as trades of economic and socio-emotional rewards, consequently filling the participants’ lives with insecurities, while dividing the idea of future into episodes that are dependent on the success or failure of the work assignments.