Employee Centrality in Workgroup Social Networks and I-deals

Abstract

Individually negotiated customized work arrangements or idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) are an increasingly common phenomenon in contemporary organizations. We propose that these deals are created and implemented in the social context of the workgroup, such that one’s location in the social network of relationships within the group plays a key role in encouraging or deterring any i-deals. Drawing on social network theory we propose that being central in trust network is positively associated with i-deals whereas being central in hindrance network is negatively associated with i-deals. Further, both relationships are stronger in high potency workgroups. Results of hierarchical linear modeling analyses on data gathered from 421 focal employees and 424 peers nested in 29 workgroups supported these hypotheses.