Flexible Retailing

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines how flexibility is achieved and is based on a case study on a department at a retail store in Sweden by investigating their process of planning staffing needs. The studied firm schedules in one-year periods putting a lot of faith in the process of producing a schedule that meets the customer fluctuations. Therefore, this study has followed the process of which customers’ and employees’ interests undergoes a number of translations. As a result, this paper suggests that the firm manages to achieve responsiveness of internal and external relationships. This paper critically examines traditional flexibility theories for implying that insecure employments are a prerequisite for achieving flexibility. The studied company primarily uses permanent employments and instead manages to achieve flexibility through an extensive scheduling process. In this sense, showing that flexibility is achieved as a result of a process rather than a capacity a firm has, or can have.