eprintid: 1650
rev_number: 6
eprint_status: archive
userid: 1379
dir: disk0/00/00/16/50
datestamp: 2025-08-27 07:29:22
lastmod: 2025-08-27 07:29:22
status_changed: 2025-08-27 07:29:22
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: London, Manuel
creators_name: Zobrist, Christopher
title: Leadership communication behaviors and attachment styles: theory for educating leaders to meet communication challenges
ispublished: pub
subjects: L1
divisions: JPS
full_text_status: public
keywords: Leader communication, Relationship building, Attachment style, Personality
abstract: Purpose – This conceptual article provides a basis for designing leader development programs that assess and train leaders to recognize demands for communication and how their personality affects the ways they transmit information, influence others and form positive relationships.
Design/methodology/approach – Adult attachment theory, Big Five personality dimensions (extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism) and pro-social and social sensitivity personality traits are proposed to shape the extent to which leaders enact relational, transmission and manipulative models of communication. These personality dimensions and communication models are the basis for assessment and training leaders to use in-person and various electronic media in ways that promote listeners’ attention, understanding and psychological safety.
Findings – Secure attachment leaders who are extraverted, prosocial and socially sensitive are proposed to use high touch media to communicate in ways that establish positive relationships. Avoidant and anxious attachment leaders use low-touch media that are manipulative or mitigate accountability.
Practical implications – The behaviors associated with transmitting information, influencing others and forming relationships can be a basis for assessing leaders’ attachment styles. Leaders can learn to diagnose situations to determine the best mixes of communication models to meet the demands of the situation.
Originality/value – Leaders who are promoted to higher levels of responsibility need to learn how to communicate with multiple stakeholders often during times of challenge and stress. How they communicate is likely to be a function of their comfort with interpersonal relationships, which in turn affects their use of personal and impersonal media.
date: 2025-08
date_type: published
publication: Journal of Leadership Education
volume: 24
number: 2
publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
pagerange: 1-16
refereed: TRUE
issn: 1552-9045
official_url: https://www.emerald.com/jole
citation:   London, Manuel and Zobrist, Christopher  (2025) Leadership communication behaviors and attachment styles: theory for educating leaders to meet communication challenges.  Journal of Leadership Education, 24 (2).  pp. 1-16.  ISSN 1552-9045     
document_url: http://eprints.iab.edu.my/v2/1650/1/artikel%203.pdf