The Working Wounded: The Effect of Bereavement Grief and Organizational Policies and Practices on Employee Outcomes

The topic of bereavement (i.e., the death of someone significant) has long been a neglected area of study in the organizational sciences. The most common outcome of bereavement is grief. Currently, we have little knowledge about relationships among bereavement grief, bereavement leave, other organizational policies and practices, and work-related outcomes (job behaviors, work engagement, perceived organizational support). Using a survey with 388 bereaved employees, results showed that bereavement grief had a significant negative relationship to job behaviors, work engagement and perceived organizational support (POS). Bereavement leave was positively related to POS but unrelated to other work outcomes. Several organizational offerings and practices (e.g., the opportunity to talk about workplace accommodations) were positively related to certain work outcomes while other results were mixed. These findings are discussed, along with implications and future research directions, as well as practical guidance for organizational decision makers.