In their focal article, Chernyak-Hai and Rabenu (2018) argue that the foundational assumptions of social exchange theory (SET) should be revisited and revised because of recent changes in the workplace and the workforce. Using employee engagement data from recent research projects conducted in applied settings, we investigated a series of questions based on Chernyak-Hai and Rabenu's working hypotheses.

The focal article authors have done the field a welcome service by alerting us to some of the forthcoming changes in the world of the knowledge worker. We agree that emerging changes in the structure and processes of work will need to be accommodated by new design of work—a new millennial workforce, new definitions of work, innovative practice, and the transition from a concentration on improved quality of manufacturing to a primary drive toward high technology driven innovation. The most radical adaptation may be the change from organizations designed for stability to those designed for flexibility (Chernyak-Hai & Rabenu, 2018; Grace & Graen, 2014).

Social exchange theory (SET) is one of the most prominent and well-known theories in the organizational sciences literature (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005). In the focal article, Chernyak-Hai and Rabenu (2018) asserted that SET needs to be adjusted to account for changes in the nature of work, workers, and workplace characteristics. Specifically, they identify that workplaces are now more volatile, complex, uncertain, and ambiguous (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014), and work itself has become more flexible, virtual, and technology dependent; accordingly, today's workers are sourced from a global talent pool and more frequently occupy nontraditional employment arrangements (e.g., freelancing). It is undisputable that the workplace landscape is vastly different from that of the workplace landscape during which early forms of SET were originally articulated (Gouldner, 1960; Homans, 1958).