Events

Prof. Dan Cable
Professor of Organisational Behaviour
London Business School

Shock events can threaten employees’ organizational attachment, but little research has focused on how leaders can help reattach employees to their organizations in the wake of shocks. Drawing on the socialization literature, we build theory about the effectiveness of leaders’ approaches to socialization when employees reenter organizations following shock events. Specifically, we conceptualize reentry as a role transition marked by physical and psychological movement that raises employees’ concerns about self-continuity, creating a need for socialization. We propose that humble leaders – because they are open to learning about and integrating employees’ shock-related experiences – will be more likely to engage in socialization approaches that reduce employee turnover and promote employee performance. Focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic as a nearly universal shock event followed by a period of reentry, we find evidence for our hypothesized effects across four studies with complementary methodologies, including online experiments and multi-source field studies (N = 2,974). Specifically, we find that humble leaders are more likely to engage in socialization approaches that affirm employees’ experiences and perspectives as they return to in-person work, which are associated with reduced turnover intentions and behavior as well as enhanced performance.