The impact of adult attachment style on organizational commitment and adult attachment in the workplace

Adult attachment style has only recently been considered as having a role in explaining work behavior. The present research aimed to explore the impact of adult attachment style, assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview (MI), on organizational commitment (OC) and on adult attachment in the workplace (MW). We hypothesized that a secure attachment style would be positively related to affective and normative commitment, while preoccupied and avoidant styles would be negatively related to affective commitment; we also hypothesized that there would be a correspondence between the AAI categories and the MW dimensions. Using the MI categories as group variable, analysis of average DC and MW scores confirmed the hypotheses. Secure workers had a higher mean score for affective commitment than avoidant and preoccupied workers; normative commitment was higher in avoidant than in secure and preoccupied workers; continuance commitment was higher in preoccupied than in secure and avoidant workers. Moreover, AAI categories converged with MW dimensions: secure workers had higher secure MW scores than avoidant and preoccupied workers; avoidant workers had higher avoidant MW scores than secure and preoccupied workers; preoccupied workers had higher preoccupied MW scores than secure and avoidant workers. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.