Research On The Effects Of Idiosyncratic Deals On Employees’ Interpersonal Behaviors

At knowledge economy time,employees’ initiative to design their own work has gradually increased,and employees’ needs have shown diversification.Faced with the intense competition for talent,how to attract,retain and motivate key employees has become an important issue for managers.As a supplement to traditional standardized human resource management,idiosyncratic deals(i-deals)can play an important role in improving employees’ work motivation.Existing research has demonstrated the positive effects of i-deals on focal employees who obtained i-deals,but neglected its potential negative effects on focal employees.Besides,as a relevant third party,the reactions of coworkers who do not obtain i-deals may affect the overall effectiveness of i-deals.Accordingly,from the perspectives of focal employees and coworkers respectively,this paper will explore the mechanism and boundary conditions of i-deals affecting their interpersonal behaviors,so as to provide theoretical reference for managers on how to use i-deals as a management tool more reasonably,how to maximize its effectiveness,and how to effectively manage organization members.Therefore,on the one hand,based on social cognitive theory,this paper developed a two-path model to explore the influence of i-deals on focal employees’ interpersonal behavior.On the other hand,based on social comparison theory,this paper developed a two-path model to explore the influence of focal employees’i-deals on coworkers’interpersonal behavior.Then,following the scientific standard norms,questionnaires were designed by using existing measurements to collect large-scale data.Through empirical analysis of the valid data,this paper draws the following conclusions:First,both development i-deals and flexibility i-deals can promote focal employees’felt obligation,which can increase their interpersonal helping behavior but decrease their social undermining behavior.The acquisition of i-deals can make the focal employees feel trusted,supported and respected by the organization,thus enhancing their affective commitment to the organization,their willingness to make contributions to the organization and take more responsibilities of the organization.When focal employees’felt obligation is improved,they are likely to exhibit more helping behavior and less undermining behavior to increase the organization’s benefit and facilitate its development.Second,both development i-deals and flexibility i-deals can trigger focal employees’psychological entitlement,which can decrease their interpersonal helping behavior but increase their social undermining behavior.The acquisition of i-deals may make the focal employees feel that they are special in the eyes of leaders,and they deserve more support and special treatment from the organization than other group members.Focal employees with higher psychological entitlement pay more attention to themselves,and have stronger goal pursuit motivation and selfish tendency.In order to realize their own interests,they will not hesitate to damage the interests of others or even the organization,thus reducing the possibility of helping others,but increasing the risk of undermining others.Third,focal employee’s exchange ideology moderated the relationship between ideals and felt obligation and psychological entitlement differently.Exchange ideology means that employees believe their efforts at work should depend on how they are treated by their organization.Employees with strong exchange ideology are more sensitive to the exchange relationship in the organization.For those focal employees,when they obtain the i-deals,they showed a greater motivation to return to the organization.In addition,they are more likely to recognize the efforts of their organization and leaders to create ideals for them,thus effectively lowering their sense of entitlement.Forth,compared with flexibility i-deals,focal employee’s development i-deals are more likely to trigger coworkers’ status threat,which in turn further leads to an increase in undermining and a decrease in helping behavior.Coworkers’ upward comparison with focal employees’ development i-deals tends to produce contrast effect.During this process,coworkers may form an evaluation about their relative status in the organization.Development i-deals not only indicate that leader values the focal employee,but also that they have the potential for greater career success in the future.Coworkers may feel status threat when witnessing focal employees’development i-deals.Once coworkers feel that their status is challenged,they will take defensive measures to defend their organizational status,such as actively undermining focal employees and reducing helping behavior,in order to hinder the development of focal employees.Fifth,compared with development i-deals,focal employees’ flexibility i-deals are more likely to enhance coworkers’ perception of obtaining future i-deals,thereby further increasing helping behavior and decreasing undermining behavior.Coworkers’ upward comparison with focal employees’ flexibility i-deals tends to produce assimilation effect.In this process,the assimilation effect can cause coworkers’ belief that they can obtain the same benefits,that is,they can get comparable personalized i-deals in the future.When coworkers’perception of obtaining future i-deals is high,they believe that they can benefit from the focal employees’ i-deals,and in order to achieve the future i-deals,they will show more helping behavior and less undermining behavior.Sixth,coworkers’ relative leader-member exchange(RLMX)can moderate the relationship between development i-deals and coworkers’ status threat,and the relationship between flexibility i-deals and coworkers’ perception of obtaining future ideals,respectively.Coworkers’ RLMX refers to the comparison between coworkers’LMX and focal employees’ LMX.When coworkers’ RLMX is high,they will get more support and trust from leaders than focal employees.Even if they do not currently get development i-deals,they do not feel a greater sense of status threat.In addition,when coworkers’ RLMX is high,they will be more confident in their ability to get support from the leader,thus enhancing their perception of obtaining future i-deals.This paper has made several contributions:First,this paper reveals the "double-edged sword" effects of i-deals on focal employees’ interpersonal behaviors,breaking through the limitation of only focusing on the positive impacts of i-deals on focal employees.At present,existing studies almost reach a unanimous conclusion that i-deals can have a positive impact on focal employees.However,few have been done to explore the side effects of i-deals on focal employees.Based on social cognitive theory,this paper found that i-deals can promote focal employees’ felt obligation and psychological entitlement simultaneously,which can further affect their interpersonal behaviors.By simultaneously exploring the positive and negative effects of i-deals on focal employees,this paper breaks through the previous studies that only focused on the positive effects of i-deals.This paper not only opens the"black box" of i-deals affect focal employees,but also deepens the knowledge of i-deals’overall effectiveness.In addition,this paper responds to scholars’ calls to explore the double-edged sword effects of i-deals,especially the negative effect on focal employees.Second,this paper reveals the "double-edged sword" effects of i-deals on coworkers’interpersonal behaviors,addressing the gap of lack of research on how focal employees’i-deals affect coworkers.At present,research on the effects of i-deals on coworkers is still in its infancy,and only a few studies have found that focal employees’ i-deals can cause coworkers’ negative reactions.However,few studies have explored the positive effects of i-deals on coworkers.Based on social comparison theory,this paper found that focal employees’ i-deals can simultaneously trigger coworkers’ status threat and perception of obtaining future i-deals,which can further affect their interpersonal behaviors.By exploring both positive and negative effects of focal employees on coworkers,this paper makes up for the lack of understanding of coworkers’ reactions in current literature.This paper not only clarifies the mechanism of i-deals on coworkers’ interpersonal behaviors,but also provides a new way to understand coworkers’ reactions to focal employees’ ideals.In addition,this paper responds to scholars’ calls to explore the double-edged sword effects of i-deals from the perspective of coworkers.Third,this paper explores the boundary conditions under which i-deals affect focal employees and coworkers,deepening the understanding about when i-deals may cause different effects.After revealing the influence mechanism of i-deals on interpersonal behaviors of focal employees and coworkers,this paper further explores the boundaries of i-deals’ effects,in order to systematically investigate the influences of i-deals on different members.By exploring the different moderating effects of exchange ideology on the relationships between i-deals on felt obligation and psychological entitlement,and the moderating effects of i-deals on coworkers’ status threat and perception of obtaining future i-deals,this paper not only provides a possible explanation about under what conditions i-deals may play a different role,but also deepens the understanding of the consequences of i-deals.In addition,this paper responds to scholars’ calls to explore the moderating effect of individual characteristics or situational factors on the relationship between i-deals and its outcomes.