Feedback-Seeking Behaviour and Leader Support: An Attachment Theory Perspective

Organizations rely heavily on human capital to succeed and maintain competitive advantage in today’s fierce economic environment. Organizations that make effective use of feedback practices have greater business growth and more productive employees. In this thesis, I apply Attachment Theory to organizational research to more thoroughly understand working relationships and proactive behaviour. My study explores the relationship between attachment style and frequency of feedback-seeking behaviour, and the impact of leader support. Examining these relationships is important because feedback sharing is a critical tool in the workplace to encourage improved workplace behaviour and performance, however, there is a critical gap in the literature regarding the factors that encourage or discourage this behaviour. The results demonstrate a positive relationship between attachment anxiety and frequency of feedbackseeking, and a negative relationship between attachment avoidance and frequency of feedbackseeking, although neither finding is significant. Further, the interaction effect of leader support was also not significant. Future research should consider replicating the study and making appropriate modifications to mitigate limitations such as sample size and selection bias.