The Concepts of Job Security and Job Flexibility

Abstract

From normative (and psychological) perspectives, the labour market “moves” between job security and job flexibility. More exactly, in the labour market there are two bargainings which are working simultaneously and inter-correlated: bargaining between labour demand and labour supply, on the one part, and the bargaining between job security and job flexibility, on the other part. This chapter analytically discusses the concepts of job security and job flexibility, putting into evidence the typologies, the mechanisms (both normative and psychological, including the rigidities previously introduced) and the causalities/conditionalities implied. Finally, the concept of wage package (containing non-autonomous and autonomous components of wage) is approached, in a formalized manner, in order to identify its impact on the choice between job security and job flexibility in the labour market.