Employees’ daily routines (e.g., commutes, lunch breaks, conversations with coworkers or family members) are vital rituals that create order and meaning. However, employees frequently experience changes to how their work and nonwork lives operate, which can generate discontinuity and spark nostalgia—a sentimental longing for the past. In this study, we draw from theory on the dual nature of emotional ambivalence and the literature on emotion regulation to explore countervailing effects of daily nostalgia on employee performance. In a sample of employed adults recruited from a northeastern U.S. university’s alumni database and LinkedIn ( n = 109), we used an experience sampling method to capture within-individual variation in nostalgia over 3 weeks. Results of multilevel path analysis showed, on one hand, nostalgia was positively associated with employees’ cognitive change strategies (e.g., reappraising one’s situation), which translated into heightened organizational citizenship behaviors; on the other hand, nostalgia was also positively associated with employees’ attentional deployment strategies (e.g., distraction), which reduced daily task performance and increased daily counterproductive work behaviors. Unexpectedly, results showed higher trait-level future temporal focus exacerbated the positive effect of nostalgia on attentional deployment. Our results suggest nostalgia embodies a complex mix of emotions that impact individuals’ response strategies and, ultimately, performance.

中文翻译：

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怀念过去：日常怀旧对员工绩效的双重影响


员工的日常生活（例如通勤、午休、与同事或家庭成员的交谈）是创造秩序和意义的重要仪式。然而，员工经常会经历工作和非工作生活方式的变化，这可能会产生中断并引发怀旧情绪——一种对过去的感伤渴望。在本研究中，我们借鉴情绪矛盾的双重性理论和情绪调节文献来探讨日常怀旧对员工绩效的抵消作用。在从美国东北部大学的校友数据库和 LinkedIn（n = 109）中招募的在职成年人样本中，我们使用经验抽样方法来捕获 3 周内怀旧情绪的个体内部变化。多层次路径分析的结果表明，一方面，怀旧与员工的认知改变策略（例如重新评估自己的处境）呈正相关，从而转化为增强的组织公民行为；另一方面，怀旧也与员工的注意力部署策略（例如分心）呈正相关，这会降低日常任务绩效并增加日常反生产力工作行为。出乎意料的是，结果显示更高的特质水平的未来时间焦点加剧了怀旧对注意力部署的积极影响。我们的研究结果表明，怀旧体现了复杂的情绪组合，影响个人的反应策略并最终影响表现。