Energy is emerging as a topic of importance to organizations, yet we have little understanding of how energy can be useful at an interpersonal level toward achieving workplace goals. We present the results of 4 studies aimed at developing, validating, and testing the relational energy construct. In Study 1, we report qualitative insights from 64 individuals about the experience and functioning of relational energy in the workplace. Study 2 draws from 3 employee samples to conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on a measure of relational energy, differentiating relational energy from related constructs. To test the predictive validity of the new relational energy scale, Study 3 comprises data from employees rating the level of relational energy they experienced during interactions with their leaders in a health services context. Results showed that relational energy employees experienced with their leaders at Time 1 predicted job engagement at Time 2 (1 month later), while controlling for the competing construct of perceived social support. Study 4 shows further differentiation of relational energy from leader-member exchange (LMX), replicates the positive relationship between relational energy (Time 1) and job engagement (Time 2), and shows that relational energy is positively associated with employee job performance (Time 3) through the mechanism of job engagement. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings and highlight areas for future research.

We study shifts in the ideal worker culture as experienced by working mothers across organizations in the United States during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Experiences of 53 interviewees who attended to increased responsibilities across both work and family domains revealed an entrenchment of the ideal worker culture across nearly all organizations and professions. This manifested in three levels: as (1) a reinforced ideal worker culture in the workplace through work intensification, increased competitiveness, and surface‐level support; (2) the reinforcing of organizations' ideal worker norms at home, with gendered division of space and labor; and (3) experienced internalized ideal worker norms in the expectations working mothers maintained for themselves. These findings offer insight into the lives of working mothers during the COVID‐19 pandemic and the challenges which have pushed many mothers to reduce work hours or leave the workforce. Highlighting the intricate nature of the entrenchment of the ideal worker culture informs implications for theory of gendered organizations and for organizational practice.

While reentry transition has long been regarded as one of the most challenging phases of an expatriate assignment cycle, reentry training has received little scholarly attention. Using a qualitative research design based on interviews with 31 training providers, we bring the issue of reentry training into focus. Our findings shed light on three components of training design and execution: content, timing, and participant format. Our comparison of actual reentry training practice with an ideal, theory‐driven design revealed numerous inconsistencies. Further investigation of these inconsistencies led us to theorize how training practices may predominantly be shaped by contextual factors. Our findings accentuate the challenges of HRM practices more broadly, showing how practice design can be driven by logistical matters and organizational interests, rather than by evidence‐based precepts. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Organizations are coalitions of individuals with heterogeneous interests and perceptions (March and Simon, 1958/1993). We examine an important source of heterogeneity, namely the different perceptions individuals hold across hierarchical levels. We introduce the notion of a hierarchical erosion effect whereby individual perceptions about specific practices become less favourable the lower one goes in the hierarchy. Using data from 4,243 employees across four levels in 38 business units, we provide evidence that this effect exists, controlling for other factors, including the overall favourability of the business unit culture across eight practices. We show how the size of this hierarchical erosion effect varies depending on the nature of the organizational practice being evaluated and the extent to which executives share strategic information widely, and we also show that a lower hierarchical erosion effect is correlated with higher business unit growth. In doing so, we enrich understanding of two aspects of March and Simon's work, their notion of intra‐organizational heterogeneity and their distinctive view of the nature of hierarchy.

Integrating theorizing on mindfulness and work relationships, we build a multilevel model of how mindfulness shapes interpersonal interactions and work relationship trajectories over time. Our framework of mindful relating yields three approaches an individual may utilize during an interpersonal interaction at work, based on the extent to which they incorporate the mindful qualities of attention and decentering. We theorize how the extent to which interaction partners are (in)congruent in their mindful relating approaches associates with interaction quality (positive, ambivalent, indifferent, and negative)—and how over time, this shapes the trajectory of a work relationship. We further posit that empathy, response flexibility, and emotional regulation transmit the effects of mindful relating and drive interaction quality. From a contextual perspective, we explore the roles of power dynamics and negative shock events as factors likely to impact how interactions over time collectively inform the trajectory of relationships. Finally, we explicate how our theory‐building can guide future work, and make specific recommendations for theoretical and empirical advancement.

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Human resource (HR) managers play a critical role in supporting workers during organizational crisis recovery, but this support is hampered when employee energy is drained during difficult times. We develop relational theory and practical suggestions to address how employees can generate energy from interpersonal interactions in a post-crisis context. Drawing from interviews, field observations, and archival data of interpersonal interactions in the surf and boardsport industry in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, we investigated individual energetic contributions and the process which generated relational energy, defined as psychological resourcefulness generated from interpersonal interactions that enhances work capacity. Our analysis revealed that in the aftermath of a crisis, employees generated relational energy by engaging in processes of perspective taking and interpersonal adjustment while engaging in crisis-recovery work. This was particularly true when their personal contributions to the interactions were negative or neutral in valence and of low intensity. This is in contrast to assumptions in the literature and industry cultural norms, but was essential to fueling interdependent work efforts during crisis recovery. These findings extend and refine theory on energy at work to help inform HR practice by developing understanding of how the energy generated from other people can be an important resource to help sustain crisis recovery, and how HR managers can support these processes. K E Y W O R D Scrisis management, emotion in the workplace, human resource managers, relational theories, research methods & design-qualitative research methodology | INTRODUCTIONDuring times of stress and crisis, employees are often asked to do more with less. They are required to fulfill their organizational, role, and task contributions, even while facing burnout or fear of layoffs.Popular press has sounded the alarm about a shortage of human energy, as workers are stressed and depleted (Friedman, 2015;Hu et al., 2020;Schwartz et al., 2010). This is particularly accentuated when recovering from some form of exogenous shock, such as an economic downturn, political unrest, or global pandemic, given these events send organizations into a state of constant change and uncertainty (Carnevale & Hatak, 2020;Gibson, 2020;Haveman et al., 2001;Malik & Sanders, 2021). Managers and HR professionals gather and spend scarce resources putting the pieces of a unit, organization, or industry back together. In particular, HR managers play a crucial role in facilitating a company's strategic response to crisis management and recovery (Wang et al., 2009). Individual "survivor" employees are often left with more work and more stress, amidst the disheartening and crestfallen environment of a downsized organization. They are relegated to handling their own individual experience of a drain on precious personal resources such as time, attention, and physical energy. Human resource (HR) managers are often called upon

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