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Going the extra-mile: a question of attachment orientations and gender?

Claudia Schusterschitz (Institute of Applied Psychology, UMIT – University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Tirol, Austria)
Harald Stummer (Division for Organizational Behavior Research and Workplace Health Promotion, UMIT – University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Wien, Austria)
Willi Geser (Institute of Psychology, Leopold-Franzens University Innsbruck, Austria)

International Journal of Organizational Analysis

ISSN: 1934-8835

Article publication date: 8 July 2014

333

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance and gender on different forms of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 132 employees with different occupational backgrounds were surveyed by means of the “Scales to measure two dimensions of attachment insecurity” (Grau, 1999) and a German-speaking OCB questionnaire (Staufenbiel and Hartz 2000).

Findings

Results suggest that employees high in anxiety show higher ratings in OCB-conscientiousness, whereas employees high in avoidance show higher ratings in OCB-civic virtue. Moreover, we found highly avoidant individuals to be less likely to engage in OCB-altruism. Finally, besides an overall gender effect for OCB-loyalty, results reveal significant interaction effects of anxiety and gender on OCB-conscientiousness as well as of avoidance and gender on OCB-civic virtue.

Practical implications

Considering the increase in flexible employment relationships and in team work, we think of attachment orientations as a concept of practical relevance because adjustment to such work environments can be assumed to be highly dependent on attachment security.

Originality/value

The research at hand is the first that analyzes unique and joint contributions of attachment orientations and gender to the prediction of different OCBs. Thereby, it provides evidence for the neglected applicability of attachment theory to the understanding of workplace behaviors in general and of OCBs in particular. Furthermore, the present study expands existing knowledge on the relationship between gender and OCB and implies that the influence of attachment orientations on some OCB-dimensions is stronger in the absence of gender stereotypes.

Keywords

Citation

Schusterschitz, C., Stummer, H. and Geser, W. (2014), "Going the extra-mile: a question of attachment orientations and gender?", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 356-371. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-01-2012-0548

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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