Leadership attachment and employee’s work withdrawal: mechanism of behavior

Purpose Work withdrawal behavior is defined as employees’ conscious efforts to distance themselves from the organization through specific attitudes or actions. Exploring this phenomenon can help diminish workplace negativity and support organizational health. Yet, past studies have often been restricted to a single perspective, neglecting the relationship between leaders and employees that influences employee negative behaviors. Drawing on attachment theory, this study constructs a mediation model from the perspective of leader–employee interaction, examining the influence of leadership attachment on employees’ work withdrawal behavior and exploring the moderating role of power distance orientation. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered in three phases from companies across three regions of China, surveying 273 leaders and employees. Hierarchical regression analysis and a bootstrapping approach were used to test the hypotheses. Findings Leader anxious attachment reduces employees’ work withdrawal behavior, where workplace loneliness fully mediates the relationship between leadership attachment and work withdrawal behavior. In contrast, leader avoidant attachment enhances employees’ work withdrawal behavior, with workplace loneliness serving as a partial mediator in this relationship. Moreover, employees’ power distance orientation moderates this relationship, mitigating the impact of leadership attachment on workplace loneliness and, consequently, reducing the occurrence of work withdrawal behavior. Originality/value First, this study explores how different dimensions of leadership attachment affect employees’ work withdrawal behavior from the perspective of the dynamic relationship between leaders and employees. Second, this study further uncovers the underlying mechanism between leader attachment and employee work withdrawal behavior by demonstrating the mediating role of workplace loneliness. Third, the moderating effect of employee power distance orientation was explored, expanding the boundary conditions of attachment to leaders.