Organizational Nostalgia: The Construct, the Scale and its Implications for Organizational Functioning
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Abstract
Organizational nostalgia – a sentimental longing for past events in, and aspects of, one's organizational life – is a commonly experienced but poorly understood emotion. Qualitative research has explored how it helps employees cope with threat. Here, we examine its motivational properties. Building on the job demands–resources model, we hypothesized that organizational nostalgia – assessed with a newly developed and validated scale – predicts (in‐role and extra‐role) job performance, creativity and support for organizational change. Study 1 showcased the development of the Organizational Nostalgia Scale. We proceeded to hypothesize that work engagement, via need satisfaction, mediates the above‐mentioned positive relations, and tested these hypotheses in three additional studies. In Study 2, a multi‐source design with leader–follower dyads, leader organizational nostalgia was associated with increased leader organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), as rated by followers. In Study 3, a lagged correlational design with employees, organizational nostalgia positively predicted OCB via work engagement. Finally, in Study 4, a lagged correlational design, organizational nostalgia predicted increased in‐role performance, creativity and support for organizational change. These associations were serially mediated by need satisfaction and work engagement. We conclude that organizational nostalgia has motivational implications. Our research affords a theoretical framework for the emotion and the means (i.e. a scale) to study it.
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Nostalgia promotes prosocial attitudes and behaviors, such as cooperation, charitable donations, and prejudice reduction.
“Third, nostalgia promotes prosocial attitudes and behaviors, such as cooperation30,50, charitable donations51,52, and prejudice reduction53–56, all of which can be perceived as sociomoral concerns linked to moral values57.”
From Nostalgia increases punitiveness by intensifying moral concern (2024) · cites this paper as [50]
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Nostalgia: content, triggers, functions
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Self-citationOdyssey's end: Lay conceptions of nostalgia reflect its original Homeric meaning
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Self-citationPancultural nostalgia: Prototypical conceptions across cultures.
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Self-citationAttachment-related avoidance and the social and agentic content of nostalgic memories
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Self-citationNostalgia buffers the negative impact of low procedural justice on cooperation
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Nostalgia increases punitiveness by intensifying moral concern
Lasaleta, J. D., Wildschut, T., & Sedikides, C. (2024) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-024-61858-x · Cited by 3 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Leunissen, J. M., van Dijke, M., Wildschut, T., & Sedikides, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Winchester (GB)
- Rotterdam School of Management Erasmus University Burgemeester Oudlaan 50 Rotterdam 3062 The Netherlands
- University of Southampton (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Leunissen, Joost M.
- Venue
- British Journal of Management
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2023-06
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 816-838
- ISSN
- 1045-3172 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8551
- OpenAlex
- W4379051679
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 4.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- British Journal of Management (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
- Nottingham Trent University's Institutional Repository (Nottingham Trent Repository) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior
- Social Sciences › Demography › Cyberloafing and Workplace Behavior
- Keywords
- work engagement, need satisfaction, employee performance, creativity, organizational citizenship behavior, job demands-resources model, employee motivation, leader-follower dyads
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