Idiosyncratic Jobs, Organizational Transformation, and Career Mobility

Miner, A and Akinsanmi, B (2016) Idiosyncratic Jobs, Organizational Transformation, and Career Mobility. In: The Structuring of Work in Organizations. Research in the Sociology of Organizations (47). Emerald Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781786354365

Abstract

Idiosyncratic jobs occur when formal job duties match the abilities or interests of a specific person. New duties can accrue or be negotiated to match an existing employee or a potential hire. Idiosyncratic jobs can help organizations deal with changing contexts, and influence organizational goals and structure. They can affect job holders’ careers and organizational job structures. The evolutionary accumulation of idiosyncratic jobs can potentially generate unplanned organizational learning. Promising research frontiers include links to work on job crafting, I-Deals, negotiated joining, and ecologies of jobs. Deeper exploration of these domains can advance core theories of job design and organizational transformation and inform normative theory on organizational use of idiosyncratic jobs without falling into cronyism, inefficiency, or injustice.