The perception of the leader as an attachment figure: can it mediate the relationship between work engagement and general/citizenship performance?

Abstract

The study aimed to explore the perception of the leader as a security provider as a potential mediator of the relationship between work engagement and perceived general and citizenship work performance. Five hundred and forty-two adults completed the Leader as a security provider scale, Utrecht work engagement scale, General work performance questionnaire, and Citizenship organizational behavior questionnaire to self-report on their organizational behaviors. The perception of the leader as a secure attachment figure partially mediated loyalty and adherence to the organization's rules in engaged employees. Perceived separation distress can increase interpersonal citizenship performance; however, it can decrease organizational compliance in engaged employees. Fear of losing the leader can potentially harm the organizational goals by favoring the personal relationships before organizational compliance.

Is it worth being attached to the leader? Transformational leadership and various types of performance: The mediating role of leader as attachment figure

“…Perceiving a specific leader as a security provider in followers did not contribute to their perceived task performance (at the level). Similarly, previous research denies the relationship between the constructs (Lisá et al, 2021). The possible interpretation has to do with the nature of the task performance.…”

“…Although the scale is believed to tap all functions of the attachment figure in leaders, it is unidimensional. However, later studies have shown two dimensions of the scale, "secure figure" and "separation distress" (Lisá et al, 2021;Mrázková & Lisá, 2022).…”

“…Leaders' support is a crucial job resource for organizational outcomes (House, 1971). Perception of leaders as supportive one related to followers' job satisfaction, job commitment, burnout, and individual performance assessed by achieving set goals (Lavy, 2014), proactive behavior (Wu & Parker, 2017), organizational citizenship performance (Lisá et al, 2021;Molero et al, 2013), extra and in-role performance (Shanock & Eisenberger, 2006).…”

“…Although the scale is constructed to tap all functions of the attachment figure in leaders, it is unidimensional in the original study. However, later studies have shown two dimensions of the scale, "Secure figure" and "Separation distress" (Lisá et al, 2021;Mrázková & Lisá, 2022). Therefore, we acknowledge this two-factorial solution and transfer it into the following hypothesis.…”

“…These ranged from 0 (strongly disagree) to four (strongly agree). We applied the Slovak translation (Lisá et al, 2021) and the two-factorial scale model. The "Secure Figure" factor (SF) included seven items (α = 0.895; ω = 0.90).…”