A Multi‐Level Model of I‐deals in Workgroups: Employee and Coworker Perceptions of Leader Fairness, I‐Deals and Group Performance

We test theory regarding the within‐group dynamics linking employees’ leader fairness judgments to the receipt of idiosyncratic deals (‘i‐deals’), and how differences between workgroups in the extent and variability of i‐deals influence workgroup performance. We assert that employees, their co‐workers, and the workgroup leader are three key stakeholders to i‐deals. Drawing on fairness heuristic theory, we hypothesize that employees are more likely to obtain i‐deals when they view their workgroup leaders as procedurally fair. Further, individual perceptions of leader fairness exist within the context of their co‐workers’ perceptions of leader fairness, that is, (in)congruence between the two affects individual i‐deals. At the workgroup level, we hypothesize a positive association between the access and extent of i‐deals and workgroup performance. Employing polynomial regression on data from 258 employees nested in 69 workgroups, we find that congruence between individual and co‐workers’ perceptions of leader fairness is positively related to the individual’s receipt of i‐deals; incongruence has an asymmetric effect, such that individual perceptions matter more. Finally, within‐group access and extent of i‐deals are positively related to group performance.