The Influence Of Attachment On Implicit Followership Theories: The Moderator Role Of Core Self-Evaluations

Leaders’ expectations of followers impacted their treatments and attitudes,which had a significant effect on followers’ job performance.These expectations were also called Implicit Followership Theories(IFTs),which referred to leaders’ cognitive schemas of followers’ traits and behaviors.Consequently,IFTs had great influence on leader-member exchange relationship,employees’ job satisfactions and job performance,etc.Since the impacts of IFTs on both organizational management and team development were profound,it was of utmost important to study the antecedents and outcomes of IFTs.However,there was an imbalance in the research area of IFTs.Many researchers focused on the consequences of IFTs brought to organizations but ignored the antecedents to IFTs.Therefore,this paper would discuss the causes of IFTs from the perspectives of attachment and core self-evaluations.Six companies,four governments or public institutions in Chengdu,Shanghai,Beijing and Shenzhen was selected.A total of 323 employees who were holding leader positions took part in our research.The results of this study were as follows: firstly,attachment predicted leaders’ IFTs significantly.Attachment close and attachment depend predicted IFTs prototypes positively while predicted IFTs anti-prototypes negatively.Attachment anxiety predicted IFTs anti-prototypes positively while predicted IFTs prototypes negatively.Secondly,attachment predicted core self-evaluations effectively.Attachment close and attachment depend predicted core self-evaluations positively while attachment anxiety predicted core self-evaluations negatively;Thirdly,core selfevaluations had significant effect on IFTs.They predicted IFTs prototypes positively while IFTs anti-prototypes negatively.Fourthly,core self-evaluations mediated the relationship between IFTs and attachment.Fifthly,leaders’ IFTs and core self-evaluations were significant different between various attachment style.Compared with anxious and avoidant attachment styles,people with secure attachment styles had higher core selfevaluations,more IFTs prototypes and less IFTs anti-prototypes.The results of this study deepened our understanding of the antecedents to IFTs from the theoretical aspects,and provided some practical guidance for leader selection,cultivation and training.