The Impact of Cumulative Trauma Across the Employee Lifecycle

This chapter brings attention to a frequently overlooked group in organizational research: individuals who have experienced ongoing, complex trauma. More specifically, we theorize how repeated and cumulative traumatic experiences can shape career paths in profound and enduring ways. We argue that these experiences influence key stages of the employee lifecycle-recruitment, selection, performance management, and training and development-and that understanding these impacts is critical for building inclusive and supportive workplaces. Using a novel theoretical framework, we explore how complex trauma may affect individuals’ interactions with work systems and organizational processes while also considering the strengths and adaptive capacities that trauma survivors may bring. By shifting attention to this population, we offer new insights for scholars and practitioners into the hidden barriers that can hinder career development and highlight practical strategies for better supporting employees with complex trauma histories across the arc of their working lives.