Idiosyncratic Deals at Work: A Conceptual and Empirical Review

Idiosyncratic deals, or i-deals, describe non-standard work arrangements individual employees negotiate with employer agents (e.g., supervisors or managers) to obtain personally desirable resources or conditions (e.g., flexibility in scheduling work, special assignments, or training opportunities). Despite growing interest in the construct, its complete scope and conceptual underpinnings are hardly well understood. This contribution seeks to inform and advance research on this complex and still understudied workplace phenomenon in two ways. First, theoretical assumptions will be structured and clarified by contrasting disciplinary perspectives of Organizational Theory, Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior, and Industrial Relations. Second, the assimilation of a meta-model of i-deals is reported, based on the combined results of a series of eight studies. The majority focused on flexibility and development i-deals. Antecedents included organizational (e.g., work structures), individual (e.g., personal initiative), and interpersonal (e.g., leader relationship) factors. Outcomes captured individual (e.g., reduced strain) and organizational benefits (e.g., task performance) and mediating processes (e.g., work characteristics). The proposed multi-disciplinary view and the compiled model are used to illustrate key aspects of a better understanding of i-deals, discuss constraints and limitations, and outline some implications for research and practice.