How nostalgia facilitates post-acquisition target employee retention: an agenda for future research
How nostalgia facilitates post-acquisition target employee retention: an agenda for future research
Conventional wisdom and the literature on organizational change management suggest that nostalgia, the sentimental longing for the past, is a maladaptive strategy to facilitate change. However, drawing on recent work on nostalgia, we develop a theoretical framework to describe how the nuanced emotion of nostalgia countervails the negative effects of psychological perturbations and environmental conditions associated with change events. Our framework highlights the importance of nostalgia and its beneficial effect on perceived continuation, social connectedness, positive affect, and meaningfulness. Based on this framework, we provide insights into how management can strategically leverage nostalgia to increase change success as we focus on the context of acquisitions, a significant change event for organizations and their employees.
Maciejovsky, Boris
33cf1769-9c79-474f-86b9-46bf39531e67
Haleblian, Jerayr 'John'
653c9404-cc30-47ae-b125-49412de55539
Wildschut, Tim
4452a61d-1649-4c4a-bb1d-154ec446ff81
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Maciejovsky, Boris
33cf1769-9c79-474f-86b9-46bf39531e67
Haleblian, Jerayr 'John'
653c9404-cc30-47ae-b125-49412de55539
Wildschut, Tim
4452a61d-1649-4c4a-bb1d-154ec446ff81
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Maciejovsky, Boris, Haleblian, Jerayr 'John', Wildschut, Tim and Sedikides, Constantine
(2025)
How nostalgia facilitates post-acquisition target employee retention: an agenda for future research.
Strategic Organization.
(doi:10.1177/14761270251372754).
Abstract
Conventional wisdom and the literature on organizational change management suggest that nostalgia, the sentimental longing for the past, is a maladaptive strategy to facilitate change. However, drawing on recent work on nostalgia, we develop a theoretical framework to describe how the nuanced emotion of nostalgia countervails the negative effects of psychological perturbations and environmental conditions associated with change events. Our framework highlights the importance of nostalgia and its beneficial effect on perceived continuation, social connectedness, positive affect, and meaningfulness. Based on this framework, we provide insights into how management can strategically leverage nostalgia to increase change success as we focus on the context of acquisitions, a significant change event for organizations and their employees.
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20250811_Manuscript_SO-24-0445RR1_Accepted
- Accepted Manuscript
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maciejovsky-et-al-2025-how-nostalgia-facilitates-post-acquisition-target-employee-retention-an-agenda-for-future
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Accepted/In Press date: 11 August 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 August 2025
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 505053
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/505053
ISSN: 1741-315X
PURE UUID: 814441c1-debc-48fc-afb7-e0bca5fb2c60
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Date deposited: 25 Sep 2025 16:44
Last modified: 26 Sep 2025 01:38
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Contributors
Author:
Boris Maciejovsky
Author:
Jerayr 'John' Haleblian
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