Facades of conformity: a values-regulation strategy links employees' insecure attachment styles and task performance

This study explored relationships between insecure attachment styles (avoidant attachment and anxious attachment) and task performance. We conducted a three-wave survey of 216 employees (42.10% of the participants are females) in China and adopted a moderated mediation model grounded on attachment theory and trait activation theory. Results indicated significant and positive associations between insecure attachment styles and facades of conformity, and facades of conformity mediated the negative relationships between insecure attachment styles and task performance. Task interdependence moderated the relationship between facades of conformity and task performance such that the relationship was weakened when task interdependence was higher. Furthermore, task interdependence moderated the indirect negative relationships between insecure attachment styles and task performance via facades of conformity, such that the negative indirect relationships were attenuated when task interdependence was higher. The results from our study indicate that facades of conformity may serve as a values-regulation explanatory mechanism in the relationships between insecure attachment styles and task performance.
Author(s): Wen Cheng [sup.1] , Jiaxin Huang [sup.2] , Jun Xie [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/0064kty71, grid.12981.33, 0000 0001 2360 039X, Lingnan College, Sun-Yat Sen University, , Guangzhou, China (2) [...]