Organizational-Change And The Provision Of A Secure Base - Lessons From The Field

In this article I lay groundwork for a theory of practice related to organization members' dependency on change agents. A promising place to begin such a theory of practice is attachment theory, a framework developed in child developmental psychology that focuses on how relationships between children and attachment figures (typically parents) facilitate or undermine children feeling secure. Using material from an organizational diagnosis and change project I conducted from multiple theoretical perspectives, I show how I as a change agent created and undermined a secure attachment with organization members. I then offer implications about how change agents-as temporary attachment figures-may undermine or facilitate fundamental change in organization members' patterns of relating.