I-deals: Idiosyncratic Terms in Employment Relationships

When individual workers negotiate employment terms that differ from those of coworkers, these idiosyncratic arrangements or ideals may benefit both the individual worker and employer, but coworkers may respond negatively unless certain conditions apply. We distinguish functional idiosyncratic arrangements from their dysfunctional counterparts, and develop propositions specifying how ideals are formed and impact workers and coworkers. We also outline the implications of ideals for employment relations research and contemporary employment practices. Idiosyncratic employment arrangements are special terms of employment that individual workers negotiate for themselves, satisfying their own personal needs as well as their employer's. From the valued engineer whose employer gives him an educational leave to spend a year doing underwater photography, rather than let a valuable worker quit (Hochshild, 1997) to the American professor who talked a Japanese firm into hiring him, moving him to Japan so he could learn how to manage a plant Japanese-style while sharing his managerial knowledge with his new colleagues (Rousseau, in press), these idiosyncratic deals-or simply, ideals are more than mere wordplay. Rather, this phrase highlights the fact that such arrangements are intended to be " ideal " in some way for each party. Accounts of a few exceptional individuals, " superstars " or " winners " capable of negotiating distinctive employment conditions, are not new. Over the years, several authors (e.g., Frank & Cook, 1995; Rosen, 1981) have noted that such individuals have capitalized on their uniqueness by differentiating themselves in subtle and not-so-subtle ways from their more ordinary colleagues. Famous movie stars demanding lavish working conditions to match their lavish salaries immediately come to mind. Generally, these individuals are the exceptions to the rule. Recently, however, changing conditions in the labor market have expanded the opportunities for a broader array of workers to being isolated cases, the growth of ideals challenges traditional organizational paradigms for recruiting, motivating, and retaining valuable workers (Lee, MacDermid, & Buck, 2000). Ideals represent one outgrowth of employer responses to market pressures 4 (Cappelli, 2000) and heightened expectations among workers for a say in their experiences at work (Freeman & Rogers, 1999). Together, these forces promote greater customization in various aspects of employment (Rousseau, 2000). As such, ideals are to some extent a feature of ever-shifting paradigms regarding the employment relationship. when and how they occur, their content and its consequences for employers and workers, and the impact of ideals on coworkers who are third parties …