Flexibility idiosyncratic deals (i-deals), defined as customized flexible work arrangements that employees negotiate with their employers (Hornung et al., 2008), have become prevalent in organizations as they have been used as a response to a diverse workforce (Bal & Rousseau, 2016), especially as remote and hybrid work become more widespread. While there is extensive knowledge about the positive effects of flexibility i-deals on employees and organizations (see Wasti et al., 2022, for a review), little is known about who receives these i-deals, under what circumstances, and why.
Drawing on a social capital perspective, we propose that individuals with high political skill, due to their ability to influence and build relationships (Ferris et al., 2005), are more likely to develop high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships with their supervisors and leverage these relationships well to secure flexibility i-deals. Additionally, we propose that this is more likely to occur when their supervisors exhibit servant leadership, characterized by a tendency to serve and support subordinates (Liden et al., 2008). Results from a two-wave survey study involving 221 employees in managerial roles at a pharmaceutical firm in China support our hypotheses.
Our study contributes to literature in multiple ways. First, in the context of flexibility i-deals research, our findings reveal who is more likely to secure flexibility i-deals and under what conditions, extending the understanding of why employees differ in their access to flexibility i-deals from a social capital perspective. Second, our research contributes to political skill research, by revealing its function in the cultivation and utilization of the LMX relationship with the supervisor. Finally, by identifying the effect of servant leadership, our study reinforces the point that supportive leaders are one of the key elements in facilitating employees' access to flexibility i-deals.