Managerial Reward Decision Making and I-deals: A Policy-Capturing Study

This study examines whether i-deals affect the process through which managers make decisions about reward compensation, namely pay raise and promotions. Using a policy capturing approach, 118 managers responded to 16 scenarios to test the effect of three types of i-deals (developmental, schedule flexibility, and reduced workload i-deals) along with helping behavior on their ratings of promotion and pay raise. We also assessed their organizational flexibility with i-deals, merit pay systems of the organizations they work at, and their managerial experience to test moderating effects. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we found that i-deal types affect managerial decisions, positively for developmental i- deals and negatively for schedule flexibility and reduced workload i-deals. Interactive effects with helping behavior toward peers strengthened the effects of developmental i-deals, but did not counter-balance the negative effect of reduced workload i-deals. Contextual effects explained small variance of ...