Navigating emotional waters: Exploring the relationship between emotion validation and LMX: The moderating role of attachment style

Abstract

This study aims to explore the relationship between emotion validation and leader-member exchange, with a particular focus on the potential influence of attachment style. Using a cross-sectional design, this study investigates a sample of 183 Norwegian employees. The results show a positively significant relationship between emotion validation and followers' perception of the leader-member exchange quality. Our results imply that followers’ who experience that their leaders validate their emotional expressions, report a higher quality relationship with their supervisors. While our study did not yield empirical support for attachment style as a moderator, we did discover a noteworthy triple interaction effect by incorporating relatedness as a moderating moderator. This finding suggests that having an avoidant attachment style reduces the positive effect that emotion validation has on relationship quality in certain situations, particularly when experiencing negative emotions.