Labour flexibility in the UK commercial television sector

This article is based on primary research into a UK commercial television company from the late 1980s to early 1996 and focuses on various human resources management practices intended to influence the performance of the internal labour force. The article demonstrates how changes over time in the conditions of internal and external labour markets are subjected, at the firm's determination, to a full range of labour flexibility measures. These changes reveal the costs and disadvantages which may develop for a company and, by extension, for the whole television sector as a consequence of such altered practices — notably, labour shortages and rising pay rates in the external labour market. The study also reveals how the practices were moderated by the company analysed to protect, on the one hand, existing working relations and, on the other, a particular definition of product quality.