Getting the deal: a qualitative inquiry into the task and developmental i-deal obtainment process
| Date | 07 November 2024 |
| Pages | 1786-1804 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-09-2023-0502 |
| Published date | 07 November 2024 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Swati Garg,Shuchi Sinha |
Getting the deal: a qualitative inquiry
into the task and developmental i-deal
obtainment process
Swati Garg
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,
New Delhi, India and
Keele Business School, Keele University, Keele, UK, and
Shuchi Sinha
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,
New Delhi, India
Abstract
Purpose –Idiosyncratic deals, or i-deals, are customizations that employees make to their jobs with the consent
of their organization. This study investigates how employees obtain their task and developmental (T&D) i-deals
by using qualitative data obtained from professionals in India.
Design/methodology/approach –In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with 27 professionals
employed in diverse services firms in India. Data was analysed using the Gioia guidelines (Gioia et al., 2013).
Findings –The findings show a four-stage i-deal obtainment process that highlights how the desire for a T&D
i-deal emerges, strengthens and materializes into an actual discussion or negotiation, and the routes employees
take depending upon the success or failure of the i-deal discussion.
Originality/value –I-deals obtainment is a four-stagecyclical process, encompassing several factors, including
attempts at credibility building by the i-dealer, assessing the availability of the i-deal within the organization and
using influence tactics during the i-deal discussion. The application of social learning theory accentuates
understanding of the i-deal obtainment process, particularly how employees develop and recognize the desire for
an i-deal and how they progress through the four stages.
Keywords Task i-deals, Developmental i-deals, Social exchange, Social learning, I-deals obtainment
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Recent developments in the global economy have resulted in dynamic changes in the
employment market (Wilhelm et al., 2024). These changes make it vital for employees to take
responsibility for their career management and career progression (Guerrero and Bentein,
2022). Idiosyncratic deals, or i-deals, reinforce this fundamental shift, which places employees
at the centre of their careers and work life. I-deals are customizations in jobs that employees
make by obtaining the consent of their organization (Rousseau, 2001,2005). They have been
shown to be beneficial for both employees and organizations because they result in career
satisfaction (Guerrero et al., 2016), job satisfaction (Vizca�
ıno et al., 2023), enhanced
perceptions of employability (Oostrom et al., 2016), and improved work performance and
family engagement (Las Heras et al., 2017).
The growing literature on i-deals provides credible support to their effectiveness in helping
employees improve their work and personal lives (Anand and Rofcanin, 2022;Liao et al.,
2016). It is important to understand the process of i-deals obtainment because it is a proactive
behaviour that caters to employees’ unique demands and requirements (Guerrero and Bentein,
2022;Liao et al., 2016;Simosi et al., 2021). The process view offers insights into the
motivations underpinning employees’ i-deal requests, how they act on their i-deal desire, the
individuals with whom they discuss their i-deal, the stage at which they feel ready to ask for
ER
46,8
1786
Conflict of interest statement: The authors have no known conflicts of interests to disclose.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 30 September 2023
Revised 6 April 2024
21 August 2024
8 October 2024
Accepted 9 October 2024
EmployeeRelations: The International
Journal
Vol.46 No. 8, 2024
pp.1786-1804
©Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI10.1108/ER-09-2023-0502
their deal from their organization, the organizational agents chosen for i-deal discussions, and
the tactics they use to negotiate.
A nuanced understanding of the i-deals obtainment process would also reveal the policy
implications of granting of i-deals and management of perceptions emerging from successful
and/or failed i-deals. The findings of this study would help managers and organizations to
understand key aspects of i-deal agreements, for example, key influencers in seeding and
nurturing the desire for the deal, key agents for the negotiations, factors that play a crucial role
in granting the deal, role of peers or co-workers in the deal seekers’ i-deal grant journey,
perception of the success or failure of the deal, and subsequent actions by the deal seekers.
Awareness of these factors could assist HR managers and organizational leaders with their
policies by giving them access to useful knowledge about customizations, including the
established customization requirements of employees (if any), the effects of i-deal denials and
how these effects can be mitigated, and the message(s) that granting an i-deal signals to other
employees (peers and co-workers).
Since the inception of the construct, several researchers have studied i-deals as a realized
possession or resource of employees. As a result, there is a plethora of research on the
antecedents, outcomes and intermediate variables associated with i-deals (Liao et al., 2016).
There are calls for a greater understanding of the motivating and inhibitory factors that lead to
request for i-deals, the tactics used for negotiating i-deals, the effects of environmental factors
on shifts in the nature of i-deals, and cascading effects of i-deals on other stakeholders in the
organization (see Anand and Rofcanin, 2022). Takinga process view could address these calls
and also open avenues for newer theoretical frameworks for understanding the creation and
granting of i-deals (Liao et al., 2016). A qualitative approach is not only more suitable for this
inquiry,but remains under-utilized in the i-deals literature so far (Guerrero and Bentein, 2022;
Liao et al., 2016;Simosi et al., 2021).
In this paper, we investigate the process of i-deals obtainment by conducting 27 in-depth
interviews with professionals working in diverse service firms in India. We specifically focus
on task and developmental (T&D) i-deals for several reasons. First, flexibility and T&D
i-deals are the most frequently studied i-deals in the literature (Liao et al., 2016) and they have
been found to predict several important employee behaviours and attitudes. Recent research
shows that T&D i-deals influence employees’ work performance (Rofcanin et al., 2021),
promotability decisions (Srikanth et al., 2022), career success (Guerrero et al., 2016) and
innovative behaviour at work (Kimwolo and Cheruiyot, 2020). Second, T&D i-deals are
especially important for professionals in the service sector because they help employees to get
desired work opportunities that enhance their skills and capabilities, thereby augmenting their
professional growth (Guerrero and Bentein, 2022;Rofcanin et al., 2021). Finally,T&D i-deals
may be more visible because they pertain to changes in the scope and type of work that
employees do. Such changes are generally observable by others so they may have a wide-
ranging impact on other organizational stakeholders (Bal and Boehm, 2019;Ho and Kong,
2015;Kong et al., 2020).
The paper is structured as follows. The next section covers the conceptual background of
i-deals, followed by a description of the methodology used in the research and the findings and
analysis section. Finally, we discuss the findings and implications of our research for theory
and practice along with its limitations and suggestions for future research.
2. Conceptual background
2.1 I-deals literature
I-deals are defined by four fundamental features. They are negotiated individually by
employees, they are heterogeneous within employees’ work groups, they vary in the degree of
customization and they benefit both the organization and the employees (Rousseau et al.,
2006). I-deals as a multidimensional construct has several content dimensions that differ from
one another and yet share common attributes (Liao et al., 2016). I-deals can be categorized into
Employee
Relations: The
International
Journal
1787
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