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Attachment Styles in the Workplace

What do crying babies, airport goodbyes, and leadership development have in common? Plenty, according to attachment theory.

Recently on Hogan Assessmentโ€™s podcast,ย The Science of Personality, co-hostsย Ryne Sherman, PhD, chief science officer, andย Blake Loepp, PR manager, talked withย Peter Harms, PhD, professor of management at the University of Alabama, about attachment styles in the workplace.

Often overlooked by organizational psychologists, attachment styles arguably influence every relationship that humans buildโ€”leading to significant impact on major organizational outcomes.

Letโ€™s dive into this discussion about how attachment affects leaders and employees.

The Basics of Attachment Theory

โ€œAttachment theory is considered a grand theory in personality psychology because itโ€™s supposed to explain everything,โ€ said Peter. The theory developed about a hundred years ago from an evolutionary perspective on infant and childhood vulnerability. As humans, we want proximity to other people who will nurture us, and when we are separated from that care, we become distressed; a baby cries when a caregiver leaves and is comforted at the caregiverโ€™s return.

Our social nature affects everything about us: our childhood development, our interpersonal relationships, and our worldview. In short, attachment theory gets to the veryย roots of personality.

Quick caveat: Attachment theory by no means suggests that anyone who has experienced childhood trauma is fated to have a certain personality. Rather, it describes a lens through which people tend to interpret and react to experiences.

3 Attachment Styles

The three common attachment styles can be described in terms of behaviour when dropping off a loved one at the airport.

  • Secure attachmentย โ€“ A securely attached person might hug or kiss their loved one and gaze after them for a few moments before leaving.
  • Anxious attachmentย โ€“ A person with anxious attachment might embrace many times, talk of future reconnection, and not leave until necessary.
  • Avoidant attachmentย โ€“ A person with avoidant attachment might say, โ€œHave fun,โ€ and leave immediately.

Attachment styles are best understood as dimensions on a continuum. People donโ€™t have one exclusive attachment style but rather a pattern of behaviour that we generally default to. โ€œAttachment styles areย just like personality,โ€ Peter explained. โ€œThey tend to be fairly stable, but theyโ€™re not immutable.โ€

In terms of the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), which measuresย derailersย or overused strengths under stress, the two insecure attachment types loosely correspond to two scales: anxious to Colourful and avoidant to Reserved.

Attachment at Work

โ€œRelationships are really important, and attachment is the personality psychologistโ€™s best tool for understanding relationships,โ€ Peter said, including relationships at work.

Secure workers tend to be more satisfied at work and have higher levels of performance in most jobs, while those who are more anxious, or avoidant express less satisfaction with work and may be more likely to engage in counterproductive workplace behaviours. The anxious people might seem disruptive and clingy, and the avoidant people might seem antisocial and uncooperative.

Attachment theory holds that all people want love and securityโ€”even on some level from our leaders and co-workers. If, for example, anxious people are paired with secure leaders who are willing to give them the attention and connection they desire, they donโ€™t feel triggered because their fears of abandonment or betrayal are assuaged.

Secure attachment in the workplace is connected to structure and consideration. Most workers want to know what will happen, what they are expected to do every day, and that somebody at the organization cares about them. Particularly given theย Great Resignation, attachment theory speaks to our need to feel connected and engaged at work. Peter suggested that, after alienating workers through relationship-destroying remote work since 2020, it is not too surprising that employees are seeking to fill a psychological need by finding workplaces where they receive appreciation.

Attachment and Leadership

Strategic self-awareness is a key component ofย leadership developmentย and organizational success. Leaders who understand attachment styles can build secure workplace relationships.

Secure and avoidant leaders tend to be more readily promoted, especially avoidant leaders who may conform to highly masculine โ€œbro companyโ€ workplace cultures that value toughness and independence. Avoidant leaders are less likely to be aware of or able to foster the connection and security that employees desire.

Anxious leaders, in contrast, might be able to create employee satisfaction and positive team dynamics, but they often struggle with discipline and direction. They may worry about harming the relationship they have with their workers or driving their employees away, or worry about betrayal from their employees and peers.

To the far more numerous avoidant leaders, Peter advised, โ€œMake sure thereโ€™s someone in your organization that people can go to. If you canโ€™t necessarily be there for people emotionally, you can create the context where the organization is caring.โ€

The Rise of the Avoidant Dimension

The organizational implications of attachment style are critical. Originally, attachment data showed that about 60% of people were securely attached, 20% anxious, and 20% avoidant. But more recent surveys have shown that millennials andย Gen Zย have different dimensions of attachment, with only 40% secure, 20% anxious, and 40% avoidant.

โ€œAs humans, we desire a level of intimacy and relatedness thatโ€™s been stripped from the workplace,โ€ Peter said, referring to employees of fully remote organizations who have never met a leader or co-worker in person. โ€œWe often talk about what has happened in the changes in the workplace through technical, transactional terms, but we have ignored the implications in human terms. Thatโ€™s why itโ€™s important to pay attention to things like attachment styles.โ€

Contact us for more informationย Learn about the Hogan 360

References

This blog post was originally posted byย Hogan Assessments

 

TOPIC AREA

assessments, validity

DATE POSTED

July 21, 2022

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