Attachment and responses to employment dissolution

•We propose that attachment theory helps explain the employment dissociation experience.•Individuals perceive themselves as being in a relationship with their organizations.•Attachment models determine individual responses to the loss of employment relationships.•We suggest that strong organizational attachment may have negative implications.

We propose that theory and research on how individuals deal with loss or potential loss of personal relationships can inform our understanding of how employees deal with the loss or potential loss of the employment relationship. In particular, we examine the possibility that attachment theory – which plays a central role in explaining an individual's affective, cognitive and behavioral response to the loss of central close relationships – may explain the psychological mechanisms and behavioral reactions associated with the loss of an employment relationship. A key tenet underlying attachment theory is the idea that people develop internal models of attachment, which determine how individuals handle a variety of life's adversities, including but not confined to relationship loss. This research provides a theoretical perspective suggesting that the psychological and physiological effects of job loss may perhaps be related to the emotional trauma, grief and abandonment associated with the loss of the “employment relationship”, rather than the financial and social strains associated with the job loss. Further, our research also suggests that strong psychological ties with the organization are not always associated with positive outcomes for the organization, specifically, in the event of employment dissolution. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.