A multi-level model of I-deals in workgroups: Employee and coworker perceptions of leader fairness, I-deals and group performance

Abstract

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.