For hundreds of years, nostalgia wasn’t just an emotion, but a potentially . Coined by a , nostalgia struck down servants in and killed during the American Civil War. It was a kind of pathological homesickness and while its exact mechanism is unclear, it caused people to slowly waste away. Weak and unable to eat, some starved to death.
These days, we view nostalgia very differently. Now, psychologists and neuroscientists think nostalgia is a , albeit bittersweet, emotion that arises from personally salient, tender, wistful memories of one’s past.
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But nostalgia isn’t just benign. It is also actively therapeutic – a powerful psychological resource that provides people with a variety of benefits. Researchers have found it can , , and . It can even be used to maintain and among older adults, and lessen depression, studies show.
This therapeutic version of nostalgia has been put to use in unexpected places. have tapped into nostalgia’s feel-good factor and companies have deployed the emotion in their efforts to improve workforce well-being.
The sociologist Yiannis Gabriel was one of the first to coin the term “organisational nostalgia”. He that nostalgia is a by-product of workplaces where employees have spent many years, especially when the organisation is central to the local community, like coal mines, hospitals and universities. His research subjects told nostalgic stories about former colleagues and reminisced over old office buildings.
found that organisational nostalgia could be put to use. It strengthened the professional identities of academics, doctors and nurses, for example, and could be deployed as a personal psychological resource.
Nostalgia at work can look like shared recollections about memorable days in a company’s history, or more abstract feelings about the “golden age” of a profession. Psychologists found that this organisational nostalgia helps employees cope with a boss. It could act as an , allowing staff to maintain a feeling of motivation and – helpfully for employers – stop them seeking improved working conditions or altered leadership.
Despite the frustrations of, say, being denied a voice in important decisions at work, researchers have that nostalgia provides an “alternative route to social connectedness” that keeps employees cooperative.
One study that interviewed 23 academics in Finland found they yearned for a past when they had more academic freedom. This “idealization of the past” clarify their professional values, researchers found, which helped them come to terms with current pressures. And when had their autonomy threatened by new ways of working, they could draw on nostalgia to make themselves feel better.
This is all also great news for managers. A major challenge for big organisations is getting people to forgo self-interest and contribute to the collective good. As nostalgia can foster feelings of connectedness, it may make staff more willing to engage in behaviour that benefits their colleagues and the organisation’s needs. Other studies have it even improves staff retention.
While savvy managers can lean on nostalgia to help them get their staff onside, employees can use this research to see where their nostalgia for the workplace could be clouding their judgement.
Agnes Arnold-Forster is a historian and author ofÂ
