Clay Routledge, faculty scholar for NDSU’s Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth and professor of management, has written a new research article for the renowned Harvard Business Review.

The article, “The Surprising Power of Nostalgia at Work,” suggests that business managers can use nostalgia as a psychological resource.

According to the article:

• Nostalgia can help build strong relationships and teams

• Nostalgia can help make work feel meaningful and reduce turnover

• Nostalgia can help organizations be more creative and inspired

“Business leaders should look for opportunities to introduce nostalgia in ways they believe will best fit their organization,” Routledge said. “Developing social rituals, traditions and other activities that give workers the chance to share nostalgic memories and make new ones with their fellow employees helps build that type of organizational culture in which workers feel connected, creative and inspired to solve problems and take on new challenges.”

Routledge is a psychological scientist, writer, consultant and public speaker, who has published more than 100 scholarly papers, co-edited three book on existential psychology and written two books – “Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource” and “Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible World.” He is currently writing a book on how nostalgia helps people live a more meaningful and inspired life.

His work has been featured in major media outlets, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, ABC News, BBC News, CBC News, CNN, MSNBC, Men’s Health, The Atlantic and The New Yorker.

He has written articles for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, National Review and Entrepreneur. He also was the lead writer for the TED-Ed lesson “Why Do We Feel Nostalgia?”

Routledge also is a senior research fellow at Archbridge Institute.

As a student-focused, land-grant, research university, we serve our citizens.