Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cope with the need for labour flexibility. Most previous studies ignore the labour flexibility practices of SMEs, especially in times of economic growth and tight labour markets. Design/methodology/approach: A multiple case study approach is applied, with ten Dutch SMEs located in one small province with a similar labour market. A survey was executed as an intake, followed by 48 interviews with the entrepreneurs, HR and other managers and employees, and two focus groups in each company. The findings are based on an analysis of the approved case descriptions. Findings: SMEs, like big companies, do not rely on one flexibility practice. Volume fluctuations are countered with all flexibility strategies, the mix fluctuations and the product innovations are mostly countered with flexible functions and flexible production technology. In general, the data suggest that flexibility strategies of SMEs can be characterised as ad hoc, reactive and with a short-term orientation. Research limitations/implications: Future research should include other sectors and regions enabling to generalise the findings. Future research should have a longitudinal design to include the pathway dependencies of flexibility practices. Practical implications: This study identifies the need to analyse flexibility demands; reduce flexibility demands before investments in flexibility practices; create production process flexibility; invest in labour flexibility practices only after the first three steps are taken; and develop basic and more advanced levels of flexible contracts, flexible functions and flexible working times. Originality/value: This study contributes to the authors’ knowledge on the use of labour flexibility practices in SMEs. In addition, it brings empirical data on how these labour flexibility practices relate to the needs for flexibility and how they relate to other sources of organisational flexibility, such as a flexible market approach and flexible production technologies. Dynamic capabilities should include the suggested operationalisation of the flexibility practices. © 2019, Jan De Leede, Linda Drupsteen, Esther Schrijver, Anneke Goudswaard, Nihat Dag, Joost Van der Weide and Sarike Verbiest.

中文翻译：

---

荷兰中小型企业的劳动灵活性实践

目的：本文的目的是了解中小型企业（SME）如何应对劳动力灵活性的需求。以前的大多数研究都忽略了中小企业的劳动灵活性做法，特别是在经济增长和劳动力市场紧张的时期。设计/方法/方法：采用多案例研究方法，在一个具有相似劳动力市场的小省中，有十家荷兰中小型企业。进行了一项调查，随后对企业家，人力资源及其他经理和雇员进行了48次访谈，并在每个公司中进行了两个专题小组讨论。调查结果基于对批准的案例描述的分析。调查结果：中小企业与大公司一样，不依赖一种灵活性实践。音量波动可通过所有灵活性策略来应对，混合波动和产品创新大多通过灵活的功能和灵活的生产技术来应对。总体而言，数据表明，中小企业的灵活性策略可以被描述为临时性，反应性和短期取向。研究的局限性/意义：未来的研究应包括其他部门和地区，以便对研究结果进行概括。未来的研究应具有纵向设计，以包括灵活性实践的路径依赖性。实际意义：这项研究确定了分析灵活性需求的需求；在对灵活性实践进行投资之前降低灵活性要求；创造生产过程的灵活性；仅在采取前三个步骤之后，才投资于劳动灵活性实践；并开发基本和更高级的灵活合同，灵活的功能和灵活的工作时间。原创性/价值：这项研究有助于作者了解中小型企业使用劳动灵活性做法的知识。此外，它带来了有关这些劳动灵活性实践如何与灵活性需求相关以及它们如何与组织灵活性的其他来源（例如，灵活的市场方法和灵活的生产技术）相关的经验数据。动态能力应包括建议的灵活性实践的操作性。©2019，Jan De Leede，Linda Drupsteen，Esther Schrijver，Anneke Goudswaard，Nihat Dag，Joost Van der Weide和Sarike Verbiest。它带来了有关这些劳动灵活性实践如何与灵活性需求相关以及它们与组织灵活性的其他来源（例如，灵活的市场方法和灵活的生产技术）如何相关的经验数据。动态能力应包括建议的灵活性实践的操作性。©2019，Jan De Leede，Linda Drupsteen，Esther Schrijver，Anneke Goudswaard，Nihat Dag，Joost Van der Weide和Sarike Verbiest。它带来了有关这些劳动灵活性实践如何与灵活性需求相关以及它们如何与组织灵活性的其他来源（例如，灵活的市场方法和灵活的生产技术）相关的经验数据。动态能力应包括建议的灵活性实践的操作性。©2019，Jan De Leede，Linda Drupsteen，Esther Schrijver，Anneke Goudswaard，Nihat Dag，Joost Van der Weide和Sarike Verbiest。