Hope and work: From the pandemic to possibility, purpose, and resilience

The global pandemic shifted the relationship between workers and workplaces. This paper explores the role that hope might be playing in phenomena like the Great Resignation. Peer reviewed literature on hope and work published since 2020 reveal two key themes (across cultures): (a) hope is a special ingredient in thriving workplaces, and (b) hope acts as an important source of resilience during crisis and challenge. Taken together, we suggest that the pandemic spurred more individuals to generate hope in their working lives by setting positive, personally meaningful, valued goals, by marshalling their willpower, and by generating multiple pathways to their goals, with too many organizations missing the opportunity to co-create hopeful workplaces where workers can perform as well as thrive.