In-sourcing, Outsourcing, and the Growth of Contingent Labour as Evidence of Flexible Employment Strategies

Abstract

There is a growing body of piecemeal evidence that an increasing number of wellestablished companies are developing radically new staffing policies, based on the strategic use of contract labour companies, and justified on the basis of cost reduction in the face of growing competition. Using evidence from labour force survey data, interviews with senior human resource managers, and the preliminary results of a case study of a contract labour agency, this article assesses the evidence of such growth in labour contracting and the extent to which it reflects human resource strategies increasingly linked to business strategy. It is concluded that, although the picture is far from uniform, trends and case evidence support the contention that the strategic use of segmented labour force strategies among major employers has developed strongly in the 1990s and is likely to continue.