The role of the idiosyncratic deal in new workplace relationships

Enfoque

The labour sector has experienced great changes that have influenced the relationships between employers and employees in organizational settings. There are changes in workplace characteristics related to digitalization, globalization, diversity, outsourcing, etc. Moreover, knowledge workers defined has grew. These knowledge workers could be valued by organizations. High performers and valued employees usually  develop i-deals with organizations. I-deal refers to voluntary, personalized agreements of a nonstandard nature negotiated between individual workers and their employers (present or prospective) that satisfy both parties’ needs.

The aim of this review is to show the relevance of i-deals for knowledge workers and the characteristics of the new workplaces in fostering wellbeing and performance. To do so, this review is divided into four main sections.  The first section describes the changes in the workplace that contribute to the development of i-deals such as workplace characteristics (v.g. telework, Artificial Intelligence), new forces are operating on organizations (v.g. virtual communities), change in management (v.g. digital leadership, e-leadership, virtual teams). The second section delves into the conceptualization of i-deal and its theoretical basis such as Social Exchange Theory (Blau, 1964), components, and types of i-deals depending on the timing (ex-ante and ex-post) or on the content (career progession, contents of works, time flexibility, and salary compensation). Rousseau and Kim (2006 in Hornung et al. 2008) identified three common types of i-deals (developmental i-deals, flexibility i-deals, and workload reduction i-deas.  Related to the the scope of the negotiation depends, summing up, on merits, turn-taking and needs of employer or employee. The third section focuses on the consequences of i-deals. Specifically, i-deals showed that enhanced well-being and positive affect in different studies  (Bakker, Demerouti, Sanz-Vergel, 2014; Hornung et al., 2008, Liao, Wayne & Rousseu, 2016; Rosen, Slater, Change & Johnson, 2013).

After this review, we conclude with a critical view of i-deals and managerial implications.  The evidence showed that i-deals could be appropriate tool to increase psychological wellbeing in organizations. However, this type of individualized exchange can take several forms and be influenced by different organizational and individual factors. Research should address the study of the conditions where the use of this type of arrangement can be optimized, in order to truly contribute to the development of healthy organizations. Anyway, the review of this concept could be a relevant tool in the case of knowledge workers and also to manage the growing digitalization of work.