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

This study investigates the relationships between psychological ownership and work attitudes and behaviors. Hypotheses were developed based on the psychology of possession and psychological ownership literatures. These hypotheses were tested using data from three field samples, encompassing responses from over 800 employees, as well as manager and peer observations of employee behavior. The results show positive correlations between psychological ownership for the organization and employee attitudes (organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organization-based self-esteem), and work behavior (performance and organizational citizenship). Psychological ownership added to the explained variance in organization-based self-esteem and organizational citizenship behavior (both peer and supervisor observations of citizenship), beyond the effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, the results did not demonstrate the incremental value of psychological ownership in predicting employee performance.