I-deals in context: A summary and critical review of i-deals literature around the globe

Abstract

Understanding the full implications of i-deals for employees and organizations requires explicit consideration of the country-level context in which they are granted and implemented. In this chapter, we critically reviewed the empirical literature on i-deals to assess the extent of contextualization and to summarize the insights gleaned from studies that discussed influences such as the societal culture, labor market characteristics, labor laws, and economic prosperity on i-deals. Our review revealed that about half of the articles in fact did not incorporate national or societal variables at all. About one-third were generalizability studies, which did not propose explicit hypotheses regarding contextual variables but often incorporated them to interpret the findings. Only a minority of studies developed a priori hypotheses or explicitly problematized the country-level characteristics of their study setting for a better understanding of i-deals. Nonetheless, the evidence points to fruitful future research directions such as the meaning, content, prevalence, targets, and implications of i-deals in different contexts.