This chapter aims to look into individual and situational factors of attachment security to offer a relational perspective to explain why there are individual differences in employee proactivity and how managers and organizations can influence employee proactivity. First, the concept of attachment styles is used to explain individual differences in employee proactivity. The chapter then elaborates how relationships with different targets at work (for example, relationships with supervisors/leaders, work groups and organizations) can influence employees’ sense of attachment security at work and shape their proactivity at work.

Individual differences in proactivity

Why do people differ in their general propensity to be proactive? According to attachment theory, the answer lies in individual differences in the development of attachment styles from earlier interactions with caregivers. In brief, based on the proposition regarding a positive link between attachment security and proactivity, individuals displaying high levels of attachment security in their attachment styles are more likely to be proactive. As such, among the three attachment styles (that is, secure attachment, avoidant attachment and ambivalent attachment), individuals possessing secure attachment styles with their caregivers are more likely to be proactive than individuals with avoidant attachment or ambivalent attachment styles.

Individuals possessing secure attachment styles tend be proactive because, first, they are future-oriented and are able to identify goals to bring about changes that will influence their future (that is, goal envisioning) and second, they tend to possess positive self-views, have stronger autonomous motivation, and experience energy from interactions with others, and thus have more goal-regulatory resources for approaching proactive goals. They are more likely to be future-oriented because, through reliable interactions with their caregivers, they understand the relationship between their actions and the subsequent feedback. This in turn enables them to develop a sense of contingency, using their actions to influence future events. Supporting this line of reasoning, Laghi and colleagues (2009) found secure attachment to parents and peers in adolescents was positively correlated with future orientation, and noted that ‘those who are secure in their attachment and in peer relationships consider themselves to be more capable and willing to explore, which is widely intended as an autonomous and proactive ability to make future plans’ (2009: 191). Future orientation can contribute to individuals’ proactivity because it helps individuals think ahead, identify goals that they would like to achieve and create a vision that motivates them to achieve these goals.