Theory: Its Usefulness in the Workplace Today

¶ … theory: Its usefulness in the workplace today Attachment theory has its origins in the study of animals. Watching geese 'imprint' upon the first living being they encounter after hatching or researchers observing how baby monkeys thrive when given terry cloth mothers, as opposed to wire mothers, are all examples of attachment theory in action. Attachment theory reinforces the psychodynamic notion that early experiences are seminal and seismic in shaping the human psyche and the way human beings relate to one another.

As applied to humans, attachment theory suggests that parents who respond in a positive way to their infant's needs formulate the character of the child in such a way to enable him or her to feel secure in his or her relationships. In contrast, parents who create bonds of insecure attachment by being smothering or rejecting will foster behavioral patterns in their children that are negative, rather than positive.

The child's future personality development becomes unfulfilling: avoidant and resistant personality types either passively or actively show hostility toward the parent while anxious types are overly dependant upon external parental reinforcement and praise (Attachment theory, 2002, Great ideas).

On a macro scale, a general parenting style adopted by a culture, like an overly permissive or autocratic approach can create a generationally negative interpersonal style, as some allege is the case today: parents allow technology rather than human interaction to create emotionally avoidant, selfish and disconnected children while overly involved parents in smaller and more affluent households create clingy and spoiled children. Thus attachment theory may seem predominantly personal in its orientation but it would be mistaken to see attachment theory as only useful for developmental psychologists and educators.

Attachment issues can have sociological implication. In the workforce, individuals with a sense of healthy, secure attachments and appropriate personal boundaries can become positive team players, still retain their sense of creative independence as employees, and maintain a positive work and life balance. Avoidant employees may withdraw from conflict and withhold their emotional support from critical workplace initiatives. They may use the workplace to further self-interested goals rather than the general goals of the organization or society.

They can become involved in negative behind -- the politicking because they do not express emotions directly, in a healthy fashion, but only through silence or rage. Overly needy employees may need excessive direction from their superiors, and bring too many emotions to their workplace decisions. They may become personally hurt when their work is justifiably criticized, and act emotional rather than seek to productively change what they are doing.

They see their work as excessively important, rather than place their efforts in the context of a larger mission, and may fail to prioritize work-related obligations over personal needs. Attachment theory provides a framework for understanding how adults function towards one another, as they unconsciously replay their old grievances towards authority figures: "Secure adults find it relatively easy to get close to others and are comfortable depending on others and having others depend on them.

Secure adults don't often worry about being abandoned or about someone getting too close to them" (Attachment theory, 2002, Great ideas). Insecure adults are hampered by such fears, and their characters are shaped by negative early attachment experiences. In a workplace with too many abandonment-fixated or avoidant personalities, a toxic and unproductive environment arises. An employee must be able to accept criticism without taking it personally, and enforce rules and procedures without allowing personal feelings to dominate.

In contrast "avoidant adults are somewhat uncomfortable being close to others; they find it difficult to trust others completely, difficult to allow themselves to depend on others," and may be the classic independent 'anti-team players' because they try to use the workplace to advance their careers, rather than to fulfill an greater organizational mission (Attachment theory, 2002, Great ideas). They feel uncomfortable and mistrustful relying upon the talents of others and cannot learn from their mistakes because they fear taking advice will make them seem weak.

The opposite extreme, the person who allows personal feelings to dominate in their work, far too much, can be just as self-involved. "Anxious / ambivalent adults often worry that their partner doesn't really love them or won't want to stay with them. Anxious / ambivalent adults want to merge completely with another person, and this desire sometimes scares people away" (Attachment theory, 2002, Great ideas).

They may reveal too much information to their colleagues, or even to the strangers they encounter in causal and workplace settings! They can cause a distraction at work, bringing drama and tears to the office. In today's culture, the tendency of work to blend in with one's personal life has become common and this social trend reinforces anxious attachment behavior. Social networking through Facebook and Twitter is often used for marketing in the workplace, taking work home is common because of the accessibility of the Internet, and telecommuting is ubiquitous.

Even shopping for personal items online during work intensifies the risk of fostering an emotionally over-involved and needy workplace environment. The modern work culture can intensify both negative coping styles: avoidant workers can hide behind computers and technology, and more fluid job-hopping creates a lack of loyalty for the organization.

The attitude of 'parental' organization itself may likewise be to blame to some extent: by not rewarding workers adequately with pensions and salaries, not soliciting contributions from the workplace, and creating an impersonal managerial bureaucracy, the organization functions as a kind of distant parent and encourages avoidant and disconnected employees. Likewise, a micro-managing organization that uses excessive monitoring, email-monitoring technology, punch clocks, and even drug testing can create a Big Brother type organization that functions as a kind of overly involved parent.

Although monitoring worker behavior for time theft may seem efficient, this type of style can stifle workers and force them to constantly ask permission when they want to take risks, and prevent worker's talents from flourishing in a climate of fear. These negative attachment patterns are neither inevitable nor inflexible. According to attachment theory, relationships are not static (Hinde 1976).

Every relationship is, in its own way is an act of conditioning, we are always informing the other person with whom we are interacting of our expectations of in the relationship and have the power to foster healthy, needy, or distant attachments patterns. Asymmetrical as opposed to complementary power relationships may be more likely to resemble past, parental dynamics. But change is possible if individuals attempt to alter these patterns in a conscious and mindful manner. Recently,.