Organizational attachment: Exploring the psychology of the employment relationship.

Abstract

Understanding the psychology of the employment relationship is a basic concern in organizational studies. Why do some individuals become attached to the companies they work for while others remain detached or even become alienated? What effect do these different styles of organizational attachment have on employees' feelings, perceptions, and behaviors? This dissertation addresses these issues by crossing disciplinary boundaries: building on attachment theory from developmental psychology as a theoretical framework and using concepts from organizational studies for the specification of hypotheses. Attachment theory posits that individuals have interpersonal attachment styles that reflect their beliefs and expectations about themselves in relation to the broader social system. I extend this theory and apply it to relationships between individuals and organizations. I propose that employees have different styles of organizational attachment (Secure, Avoidant, Ambivalent) and that these styles are associated with different feelings, perceptions, and behaviors. Using a questionnaire study of employees in diverse organizations and occupations, I found significant associations between organizational attachment styles and alternative measures of the individual-organization relationship (e.g., organizational identification and commitment). Self-esteem was also significantly correlated with organizational attachment style, consistent with the underlying theory. Organizational attachment style predicted feelings about the employment relationship, perceptions of organizational support, felt employment security, citizenship behavior, efforts to change the work situation, and negative behaviors such as avoiding work. A second study of CPAs in large public accounting firms provided additional evidence of the importance of organizational attachment styles for understanding feelings about the organization, organizational support, employment security, work change, and withdrawal behaviors. The relationship between organizational attachment styles and citizenship behavior found in the first study was not supported in the second study. In both studies, hypothesized distinctions between the Secure style and the Avoidant and Ambivalent styles were generally supported. Less support was found for hypothesized distinctions between the Avoidant and Ambivalent styles. The attachment-theory perspective proposed provides a psychological foundation for improving our understanding of the employment relationship and how changes in the structure of that relationship (e.g., reduced employment security, increased use of temporary employees) will affect organizations and the individuals who work in them.