Beyond top-down and bottom-up work redesign: Customizing job content through idiosyncratic deals

✍ Scribed by Severin Hornung; Denise M. Rousseau; Jürgen Glaser; Peter Angerer; Matthias Weigl

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 248 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-3796
• DOI: 10.1002/job.625

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Two established approaches to work redesign are formal top‐down interventions and proactive bottom‐up job crafting. Top‐down approaches are limited in their ability to create individually optimized work characteristics, whereas bottom‐up processes are constrained by the latitude workers have to modify their own jobs. Following recent research on the idiosyncratic deals (i‐deals) individuals negotiate with their employer, task i‐deals customizing job content are suggested as a third approach to work redesign. Hypotheses on antecedents and consequences of task i‐deals were tested in two studies conducted in the United States and Germany using structural equation modeling. LMX related positively to the extent of successfully negotiated task i‐deals, which, in turn, was associated with a more positive evaluation of work characteristics—specifically, higher complexity and control and lower stressors. Work characteristics mediated positive indirect effects of task i‐deals on employee initiative and work engagement. Denied requests for task i‐deals were associated with a more negative assessment of work characteristics. We conclude with theoretical, practical, and research implications for better understanding and implementing work redesign through i‐deals. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.