Abstract This review examines undocumented workers' experiences across the career lifecycle, analyzing 248 articles published between 1984 and 2025 and representing samples from 41 countries. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature, this review organizes findings into three major themes: obtaining a job, experiences during employment, and transitioning to retirement. These themes are further unpacked into subthemes such as restrictive versus supportive policies, occupational clusters, exploitation, economic precarity, and barriers to career development. The literature also highlights how undocumented workers manage their identity and assert agency in light of these challenges. The proposed research agenda emphasizes avenues for advancing organizational scholarship with undocumented workers.
Abstract Socioeconomic status (SES) exerts a substantial yet underexamined influence on employees' experiences in organizations. Positioning SES as a core dimension of diversity, equity, and inclusion, our review examines how SES shapes workers' experiences and identities across the career life cycle, while considering how future‐of‐work developments may alter these processes. We synthesized empirical studies on SES in the workplace and organized findings along a three‐stage career life cycle: “getting in” (selection and hiring); “navigating” (on‐the‐job experiences); and “moving up, out, and on” (career progression and social mobility). Our review shows that SES shapes organizational life through recurring mechanisms that accumulate across career stages. During entry, SES‐related credentials, networks, and other resources can function as proxies for merit and fit. After entry, low‐SES employees often face a “navigation tax”: the additional cognitive, relational, and financial effort required to participate in workplaces organized around higher‐SES norms. Later, SES shapes whether career advancement and mobility are available through leadership pipelines, transition costs, and the uneven viability of entrepreneurship and self‐employment. We advance a mechanism‐centered research agenda that integrates SES into organizational theories and highlights implications for designing career systems that reduce the extent to which work‐related opportunities depend on socioeconomic origin.
Abstract Social media assessments in selection increasingly expose applicants' religious beliefs, yet the implications of growing religious diversity in applicant pools remain underexplored. Leveraging social identity theory and the similarity–attraction paradigm, we examine how recruiters respond when applicants openly share their religious beliefs on social media (e.g., LinkedIn). To this end, U.S. working professionals evaluated an applicant's hireability based on a manipulated LinkedIn profile in a 4 (religious belief: Christian, Muslim, Jewish, control) by 2 (qualification: low vs. high) design. In Study 1 ( N = 372), a religion‐stratified sample screened a mid‐20s female applicant. In Study 2 ( N = 294), participants screened a mid‐60s male applicant. Across both studies, we found that similarity in religious beliefs increased raters' liking of the applicant, which in turn predicted ratings of task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and overall hireability (e.g., interview invitations), above and beyond the applicant's actual qualifications. This bias was further shaped by both individual (rater religiosity, Study 1) and contextual moderators (news engagement with a religiously charged event, i.e., the Israel–Hamas War). Together, our findings position similarity perceptions as a central mechanism through which religious beliefs and social media assessments can influence hiring decisions.
Abstract The newcomer socialization literature frequently points to the importance of coworkers' helping for newcomers' effective onboarding. However, this literature has predominantly focused on newcomers, while overlooking the ramifications of engaging in helping for coworkers. Drawing on social exchange theory, we adopt a coworker‐centric lens and investigate the implications of helping for the coworkers themselves. We tested our model with a field study (Study 1) and an online vignette study (Study 2), which provided good support for our study hypotheses. Specifically, we found that the reciprocity (or lack thereof) of social exchange between coworkers and newcomers, captured via the interaction effect between coworkers' helping and newcomers' task performance, may influence coworkers' evaluations of whether their relationships with newcomers have met their expectations. In turn, met relationship expectations positively affect coworkers' evaluations of newcomers' work competence, which are then associated with lower levels of coworkers' stress when interacting with newcomers and higher levels of coworkers' acceptance of newcomers as legitimate organizational members. Based on these findings, we discuss the implications for newcomer socialization research and practice.
Abstract Digital transformation is developing rapidly and is of great significance to organizational knowledge management. However, most existing studies focus on the macro level, paying attention to its impact on the organizational knowledge management structure while neglecting the knowledge management behaviors of individual employees at the micro level. At the micro level, however, employees' willingness to share knowledge is often the foundational prerequisite for successful organizational knowledge management. In view of this, this study aims to explore how enterprise digital transformation influences employees' knowledge sharing behavior through state promotion focus and state prevention focus based on the regulatory focus theory, as well as to examine the moderating roles of employees' status in these relationships. By collecting survey data of 214 employees in China at three time points, we find that enterprise digital transformation can increase employees' knowledge sharing behavior via enhancing their state promotion focus. However, for high‐status employees, enterprise digital transformation may instead lead them to develop a state prevention focus, which subsequently reduces their knowledge sharing behavior. Drawing on the regulatory focus theory, this study broadens the theoretical horizon of enterprise digital transformation and knowledge management at the micro level. Simultaneously, this study offers practical counsel for knowledge management in the throes of digital transformation.
Abstract Being a parent significantly impacts workplace experiences, with its effects differing across intersecting identities, including gender, sexual orientation, marital status, and family structure. However, the work–family literature has largely concentrated on mothers in heterosexual, married couples, and the growing diversity of parent identities remains understudied. To map current knowledge and highlight gaps to inform more inclusive research and workplace policy, this review addresses four questions: (a) How are parents with different genders and family characteristics represented in the workplace literature? (b) What are the key foci and findings regarding intersecting social identities? (c) What challenges and biases do diverse working parents face based on their gender and career stage? (d) What strengths associated with parenthood have been explored? Our analysis of 181 journal articles from industrial/organizational psychology, organizational behavior, and related fields reveals limited attention to diverse family structures, intersecting social identities, and later career stages of working parents, as well as a lack of strengths‐based approaches. We identify critical avenues for future research aimed at addressing current gaps and broadening theoretical understanding.
Abstract Globalization and immigration have greatly contributed to religious plurality in workplaces worldwide. Despite these religious diversity trends and legal protections in place globally, many religious minorities continue to experience religious‐based discrimination and harassment. For many organizations, managing religious diversity remains a challenging endeavor as they balance secularism and the religious freedoms of their workforce. Moreover, growing anti‐religious sentiments toward certain religious minorities, influenced by shifting geopolitical climates, may spill into workplace settings, exacerbating these challenges. However, research on religious minorities in the workplace and their experiences is limited or overwhelmingly focuses on mainstream religions. To address these concerns, this paper reviews the existing literature on religious minorities, including but not limited to Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and atheists, highlighting their unique workplace experiences. Drawing on a multi‐theoretical lens, our review explores discrimination, religious expression, identity management strategies and their consequences, and the positive impact of religious inclusion on employee and organizational outcomes. We conclude with best practices and policies for fostering a religious‐friendly workplace and identify future research needed to deepen our understanding of religious diversity in the workplace.
Abstract The managerial emotion regulation process in the social setting of managerial work is still not fully understood. The extant conceptualization of using affective events, through affective events theory, as the antecedent in the process is imprecise and static in nature. In this article, we conceptualize managerial emotion regulation as a dynamic process, which is shaped by the interaction between affective event valence (negative and positive), event origin, and managerial motives to regulate emotion. Focusing on the affective events that generate emotion in managerial work, we theorize on the process of managerial emotion regulation in two emotional display contexts—during negative events and during positive events associated with the interpersonal effects on employees as observers and within‐person effects on managers themselves as actors. Our theorization contributes to the literature, both by extending and by challenging the extant conceptualization of managerial emotion regulation.
Abstract Extant research on autism at work remains scattered across areas of study, including organizational psychology, disability studies, and management, suggesting the need to systematically organize the body of knowledge. In this systematic review, I explore the small, yet growing body of literature focused on autism at work and integrate research across multiple disparate disciplines to understand the state of Level 1 autism research relevant to the workplace. The findings outline the employee life cycle as it relates to Autistic workers, where the research largely focuses on challenges with little research examining strengths and identifies specific gaps in our knowledge of the Autistic employee life cycle. Suggestions for future research center on taking a holistic perspective of both strengths and challenges of autism, in line with recommendations by the Autistic scholarly community; exploring intersectional experiences of Autistic workers; and examining understudied phases of the Autistic employee life cycle. By examining autism from a holistic, nuanced perspective, scholars can shift the types of questions they ask from focusing on either mitigating weaknesses or emphasizing strengths to embracing broad experiences and thereby work to promote Autistic flourishing.
Abstract Personality has been studied broadly within the work context, typically as a long‐term, stable construct, yet a growing body of literature explores personality as short‐term, dynamic states that interact with the workplace. This research, however, is in its infancy, but it has significant implications for how we understand personality in relation to work outcomes. A thorough narrative review is required to take stock of the literature published thus far, to allow cohesive, constructive and meaningful future research. This review assimilates the work to date, which has explored personality dynamics within the work context, from the first studies of the topic around 2010. Using whole trait theory as a theoretical lens, we identify 33 studies through a systematic search, producing a narrative review of the key findings, methods and approaches for investigating personality states. Specifically, findings are reported by personality dimension (extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness, core self‐evaluations, narcissism and personal initiative) and whether assessed as a state expression or state variability. Directions and considerations for future research are presented.
Abstract Despite decades of research on racial inequities in organizations, scholarship on Black employees has largely focused on barriers to success, with limited attention to the conditions that enable them to thrive. This systematic review synthesizes 124 empirical studies published over the past 25 years to examine the workplace experiences of Black employees across the career life cycle—entry, employment, and exit. Drawing from organizational behavior, applied psychology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) research, we move beyond a deficit‐based framing to emphasize mechanisms that foster thriving, defined as a state of learning, vitality, and meaningful career engagement. Our findings reveal a persistent emphasis on interpersonal and structural barriers such as hiring discrimination, biased evaluations, microaggressions, and limited access to informal networks. However, we also identify underexamined pathways to thriving, including psychological safety, culturally attuned mentorship and sponsorship, and inclusive leadership practices. Notably, few studies explicitly frame outcomes in terms of Black employee thriving, underscoring a gap in the literature. We present an integrative framework and research agenda to guide future scholarship toward understanding how Black employees navigate and succeed in organizational contexts. This review offers timely insights for scholars and practitioners seeking to design equitable workplace systems that move beyond inclusion to sustained growth and advancement.
Previous research has suggested that collective rumination may affect organizational outcomes; however, how it manifests in teams and impacts their effectiveness remains unknown. Building on the rumination and team literature, we introduce collective rumination in teams (CRIT) as a dysfunctional team process triggered by a shared problem affecting multiple team members. In three studies (Studies 1 and 2: N = 720 team members; Study 3: N = 208 team members nested in 58 teams), we found that it occurs collectively and at the team level. We showed that it consists of five dimensions (recursive discussions of the problem, speculation about causes, speculation about consequences, sharing negative thoughts and feelings, and mutual reinforcement of problem talk) that are reliably and validly captured with our newly developed 15-item measure. Our work sets the stage for understanding and measuring CRIT, paving the way for future research on dysfunctional team processes in adverse work conditions.
Abstract Previous research shows that people tend to overearn, that is, forgo leisure to work and earn beyond their needs. This results from mindless accumulation, defined as the tendency to work and earn until feeling tired rather than until having enough. The current research extends these findings by exploring whether the concept of money, which is deeply embedded in our (business) culture, serves as a trigger for the overearning effect and whether this effect is moderated by mindfulness. Study 1 demonstrates that exposure to money cues leads to increased overearning. Study 2 reveals that money cues enhance the willingness to spend more time on paid work, which in turn results in higher levels of overearning. Study 3 indicates that participants exposed to an 8‐min guided mindfulness meditation are less influenced by money cues and, as a consequence, exhibit lower levels of overearning. These results are discussed in light of the assumptions and limitations of the minimalist paradigm used.
Abstract The transactional model of stress proposes that individuals appraise environmental conditions as stressful, irrelevant, or benign positive. Categorizing job resources as benign‐positive environmental stimuli, we explored the primary appraisal of job resources to identify related cognitive appraisal indicators and determined if these cognitive appraisals mediate the relationship between job resources and employee outcomes. We conducted three studies: Studies 1 and 2 used a 3‐month time‐lagged design and involved 309 and 1697 participants, respectively, whereas Study 3 used a weekly diary design with 233 participants. Confirmatory factor analyses, hierarchical linear modeling, and multilevel structural equation modeling provided robust support for most hypotheses. Cognitive appraisal of job resources was distinct from job resources and included perceived quantity, quality, and temporal fit. The cognitive appraisal of both autonomy and social support mediated their respective relationships with emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. For social support, the mediation was also supported for work engagement. In the weekly diary study, cognitive appraisal further mediated associations between job resources and need for recovery, although support was less consistent across levels of analysis for autonomy. The three studies highlight the significance of cognitive appraisal concerning two critical job resources. However, the specific sample of teachers and principals limits the generalizability of the results. We discuss extending resource appraisal to other job resources and the role of different time lags.
This study offers a comprehensive review of the existing literature on CEO personality and its impact on organizational outcomes. We begin by outlining the motivation for examining this area of research, emphasizing its significance in understanding how CEO personality impacts organizations. Next, we synthesize key findings from pivotal studies on various personality traits, providing an integrated view of the current knowledge base. We then employ bibliometric analysis to assess the state of the field, identifying underexplored areas and trends. Building on these insights, we highlight critical gaps and propose directions for future research, encouraging scholars to incorporate diverse theories and methodologies to advance the study of CEO personality.
Emerging research on neurodivergence and entrepreneurship suggests that attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may confer advantages for entrepreneurship, though empirical evidence remains heterogeneous. Drawing on person-environment fit theory, this study examines intelligence and gender as important boundary conditions to theorize and test which individuals with ADHD are more likely to become entrepreneurs. Using longitudinal data spanning 28 years from 4128 individuals in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 Child and Young Adult (NLSY79 CYA) dataset, we assess how childhood ADHD predicts adult occupational choices. We find no direct relationship between ADHD and entrepreneurship but identify significant interaction effects. Intelligence increases entrepreneurial entry among individuals with ADHD, but this effect is concentrated among men. Men with both high intelligence and ADHD show the highest propensity for entrepreneurship, and women with ADHD show the lowest entrepreneurship rates of any group in our sample, regardless of intelligence, with ADHD associated with reduced entrepreneurial entry for women. These opposing gender-specific effects cancel out in the aggregate, helping explain the inconsistent findings in prior research. Our findings advance neurodiversity research by identifying critical boundary conditions, extend the gender and entrepreneurship literature by showing how neurodiversity amplifies gender gaps in entrepreneurial entry, and contribute to person-environment fit theory by demonstrating how configurations of personal characteristics, not single attributes, determine occupational selection.
We conducted a multilevel diary study in non-profit sports clubs in Germany to examine the within-person (day-level) dynamics of volunteer engagement. The study was pre-registered at OSF (Link_to_Preregister). Over a 3-week period, we collected 649 usable daily reports from 105 participants (M = 6.18 days per person). Multilevel analyses showed that self-determined motivation was positively related to perceptual volunteer engagement (PVE). In turn, PVE was positively associated with time spent volunteering, both formally and informally. Moreover, athlete mental fatigue significantly weakened the positive association between self-determined motivation and PVE. In contrast, volunteering flexibility did not moderate the relationship between self-determined motivation and PVE. Overall, these findings advance theoretical understanding of the day-to-day mechanisms underlying volunteer engagement in nonprofit sports clubs and have important practical implications for their management.
By predominantly emphasizing the positive behavioral outcomes of subjective career success, existing research is limited in its ability to capture the potentially divergent consequences of such personal accomplishments. To address this limitation, we draw on the cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion and a dual-faceted, functional conceptualization of pride to construct and test an integrated model. In this framework, subjective career success is proposed to be associated with both positive and negative employee behavioral outcomes through the experience of dual-faced pride emotions. Furthermore, we posit that the extent to which these pride emotions are experienced is a function of employees' self-conception traits related to achievement experiences, namely, genuine self-esteem and grandiose narcissism. Using multi-wave data collected from China across two studies, we found that subjective career success was positively related to authentic pride among employees with higher levels of genuine self-esteem, whereas it was positively related to hubristic pride among employees with higher levels of grandiose narcissism. Furthermore, when employees exhibited higher genuine self-esteem, subjective career success was positively related to their career crafting through the mediating role of authentic pride. Conversely, when employees exhibited higher levels of grandiose narcissism, subjective career success was positively related to their workplace incivility through the mediating role of hubristic pride. Our findings underscore both the benefits and drawbacks of subjective career success for employees and organizations.
The theory of entrepreneurial passion states that passion fosters entrepreneurial behaviors and entrepreneurial effectiveness by the emergence of goal-related cognitions. To provide an exploratory examination of the theory, we applied meta-analytical structural equation modeling (MASEM) based on 124 primary studies and 43,331 individuals. In addition, we investigated the role of institutional, economic, and cultural boundary conditions to gain insights into the theory's generalizability. We found that entrepreneurial passion showed significant effects on entrepreneurial effectiveness that were mediated by the theory's hypothesized self-regulatory pathways of cognitions and behaviors. Notably, supplemental cognitions like entrepreneurial self-efficacy showed stronger mediation effects than the goal-related cognitions originally proposed by the theory of entrepreneurial passion. Moreover, the analyses of boundary conditions demonstrated a stronger effect of entrepreneurial passion in contexts characterized by higher obstacles to start a business, whereas the overall set of relationships showed remarkable robustness across contexts. Taken together, our exploratory analysis supports the theory of entrepreneurial passion and identifies supplemental entrepreneurial cognitions as additional mediators and contextual factors as boundary conditions of the theory of entrepreneurial passion.
Recent research introduced the path-centric account of action-oriented entrepreneurship training, which explains training transfer by reciprocal relationships between entrepreneurial motivation and action evolving after training. Based on the path-centric account, we develop a theoretical model that suggests a reciprocal relationship between entrepreneurial goal intentions and entrepreneurial action moderated by need fulfillment to explain long-term effects of action-oriented entrepreneurship training on business creation. We tested the model by conducting two longitudinal experimental field studies with university students in Mexico and South Africa, taking measurements before, shortly after, and 1 year after the training program. The findings across the two studies consistently supported the theoretical model. The study extends the path-centric account of training transfer by revealing boundary conditions of post-training dynamics that explain the long-term transfer of action-oriented entrepreneurship training.
