Investigating idiosyncratic deals in the Indian hospitality industry

This paper, utilising the social exchange theory, examines the relationship between before hiring negotiation (ex-ante) and after hiring negotiation (ex-post), idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) and employee reactions (i.e., motivation, commitment, work engagement and organisational citizenship behaviour). I-deals refer to voluntary, personalized agreements of a nonstandard nature negotiated between individual employees and their employers regarding terms that benefit each party. The hypotheses of the study were tested applying structural equation modelling on data collected from 275 employees working in 39 companies operating in the Indian hospitality industry. The findings show that although ex-ante and ex-post negotiations are interrelated, the negotiating special terms and conditions at the time of hire are less common than negotiating these terms and conditions while on job. Additionally, the findings indicate that ex-ante negotiation relates positively and more strongly to flexibility i-deals than to task and career i-deals, whilst ex-post negotiation relates positively but more strongly to career i-deals that to task and flexibility i-deals. The analysis also confirms the positive but differential effects of task, career and flexibility i-deals on employee reactions. Implications of the findings for both research and practice are discussed.