Negotiating identity through idiosyncratic deals: Ethnocultural minority employees and workplace stigmatization

Abstract Idiosyncratic deals (i‐deals) allow employees to bargain flexibility and development opportunities proactively. The i‐deals literature has mainly examined privileged individuals, overlooking minority employees. This conceptual paper focuses on i‐deals requested by ethnocultural minority employees to cope with discrimination and one‐size‐fits‐all organizational practices. We reason that self‐verification motives grounded in a central ethnocultural identity may lead them to request accommodative i‐deals (e.g. flexibility allowing for religious rites), whereas self‐enhancement motives grounded in a central work identity may prompt them to seek growth i‐deals (e.g. responsibilities reflecting their qualification). We theorize the consequences of i‐deals requests on stigmatization through three Othering mechanisms: (1) social dominance: supervisors may grant more accommodative or growth i‐deal based on their preference for egalitarian/hierarchical relationships among social groups; (2) social identity: accommodative/growth i‐deals may heighten/attenuate out‐group status, respectively; (3) ideal worker norms: accommodative/growth i‐deals may be construed as deviation/compliance from/with ideal worker norms, respectively. Thus, i‐deals' (de)stigmatization consequences vary according to which i‐deals are obtained and in which sequence; moreover, this relationship is moderated by work group climate. Our framework contributes to the i‐deals and EDI literature by theorizing i‐deals as identity negotiation, foregrounding identity as a driver of behaviours and explaining stigmatization through distinct Othering mechanisms.