Organizational Nostalgia: The Construct, the Scale and its Implications for Organizational Functioning

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.