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Attachment Theory in Organizations: Relationships with Coworker, Leader, and Organization Itself

  • Author / Creator
    Jing, Lei
  • I present a dissertation project consisting of three independent research papers focusing on how attachment theory (Ainsworth et al., 1978; Bowlby, 1969) can inform the employee–organization relationship (EOR) research, including workplace relationships with coworkers, leaders, and the organization itself, and particularly what happens when difficulties in these relationships arise, such as mistreatment-like experiences. In Study 1, relying on survey data, I examine how different forms of organizational commitment may change after individuals experience social undermining (SU) enacted by other organization members, depending on the individual’s organizational attachment style. In Study 2, two experiments were conducted to investigate how situationally induced attachment states moderate employees’ task performance after exposure to leader mistreatment. In Study 3, using survey data and a person-oriented analytical approach, I focus on the within-individual attachment patterns and the implications of such patterns for important EOR outcomes, including perceived organizational trust and support. Drawing on attachment theory, these studies together demonstrate that the basic human orientations in interpersonal relationships entailed by attachment theory are relevant to the work domain, particularly to our understanding of the EOR.

  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Graduation date
    Spring 2023
  • Type of Item
    Thesis
  • Degree
    Doctor of Philosophy
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-brx5-mt42
  • License
    This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.