Predicting employees’ satisfaction and burnout from managers’ attachment and caregiving orientations

an article by Sigalit Ronen (Trident University International, Cypress, USA) and Mario Mikulincer (The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzlyia, Israel) pubslished in European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Volume 21 Number 6 (December 2012)

Abstract

In recent years, there have been initial attempts to apply attachment theory to account for leader-follower relationships and leaders’ contribution to followers’ performance.

Drawing on this theoretical framework, we examined the relationships between managers’ attachment orientations and subordinates’ job satisfaction and burnout.

Data were collected from 85 work groups from 71 organisations consisting of 483 subordinates and their 85 direct managers from a variety of job roles.

Hierarchical linear modelling analyses indicated that managers’ attachment insecurities predicted higher job burnout and lower job satisfaction among subordinates, and that ineffective caring orientation of the managers mediated these links.

Findings further showed that subordinates’ attachment insecurities were associated with burnout and job dissatisfaction. Implications for leadership research and for the design of organisational intervention as well as future research directions are discussed.

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