Organizational nostalgia facilitates prioritization of important personal work goals

Abstract

To be successful, organizations cannot rely only on prescribing which goals employees should pursue; they must also support employees' pursuit of personal work goals. For sustained wellbeing and performance, employees need to prioritize goals they perceive as important. Based on self-regulation models, we propose that organizational nostalgia—a sentimental longing or wistful affection for past events in, and aspects of, an organization—facilitates employees' prioritization of important personal work goals, which may not necessarily align with goals prescribed by the organization. We obtained support for our hypotheses in (a) a two-wave field investigation in which we assessed individual differences in organizational nostalgia (Study 1), (b) a daily diary investigation in which we assessed momentarily experienced organizational nostalgia (Study 2), and (c) an experiment in which we demonstrated that recalling nostalgic organizational experiences aids employees in prioritizing important personal work goals, due to such experiences being appraised as more unique to employees than ordinary organizational experiences (Study 3). In all, organizations can facilitate employees' prioritization of important personal work goals by leveraging organizational nostalgia. • Ideally, organizations allow employees to pursue their personal work goals. • Employees need to prioritize pursuing subjectively important personal work goals. • We propose that organizational nostalgia aids employees in prioritizing such goals. • Organizational nostalgia should not aid prioritizing organizational goals. • We obtained support for our hypotheses in two field studies and an experiment.