Psychological ownership and feelings of possession: three field studies predicting employee attitudes and organizational citizenship behavior

TLDR

Scholars and practitioners increasingly view feelings of ownership as crucial for organizational functioning, even when employees lack legal ownership. This exploratory study investigates how psychological ownership relates to employees’ work attitudes and behaviors. The authors formulate hypotheses from possession and ownership theories and test them using data from three field samples comprising over 800 employees, supplemented by manager and peer observations. Results show that psychological ownership positively predicts organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organization‑based self‑esteem, performance, and organizational citizenship, adding explanatory power for self‑esteem and citizenship beyond job satisfaction and commitment, but not for performance. © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Abstract An increasing number of scholars and practitioners have emphasized the importance of ‘feelings of ownership’ for the organization (even when employees are not legal owners). In this exploratory study, we examine the relationships of psychological ownership with work attitudes and work behaviors. We start by developing hypotheses based on the psychology of possession and psychological ownership literatures. We then test these hypotheses with data from three field samples, using responses from over 800 employees, as well as manager and peer observations of employee behavior. Results demonstrate positive links between psychological ownership for the organization and employee attitudes (organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organization‐based self‐esteem), and work behavior (performance and organizational citizenship). More important, psychological ownership increased explained variance in organization‐based self‐esteem and organizational citizenship behavior (both peer and supervisor observations of citizenship), over and above the effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Contrary to prior theoretical work on psychological ownership, results, however, fail to show an incremental value of psychological ownership in predicting employee performance. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.