Promoting and supporting epiphanies in organizations: A transformational approach to employee development

Reflecting trends in society, organizations are seeking to embrace personal distinctiveness and self-expression among their members. Doing so is more complicated than meets the eye, however. By its very nature, personal identity is complex and dynamic. As such, people often lack a comprehensive understanding of who they are. Here, I theorize that organizations can navigate this challenge by inviting their members to undergo a novel method of employee development – one designed to produce sudden, personally transformational realizations, or epiphanies. Organizations can promote and, in turn, support epiphanies through a range of practices that open people to the prospect of self-transformation and activate the psychological processes by which epiphanies arise. For these practices to prove effective, however, organizations must avoid the missteps identified here. Collectively, my theoretical claims reveal how organizations can help their members gain self-insight – and why doing so can enhance their reputation and attract job seekers.