Browsing by Author "Lee, Angela"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Development and empirical evaluation of an explanatory psychological ownership structural model
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Lee, Angela; Theron, Callie C.; Mariri, Tendai; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : A key competitive business advantage, in today’s globalised world, lies not in technology and products but in its people. Numerous psychological mechanisms have been identified within applied and academic research in an attempt to understand and influence the behaviour of these people within the working world. This network of latent variables underpinning behaviour offers numerous opportunities to explicate the mechanisms behind behaviour of man and specifically working man. A recently introduced construct in this nomological network of latent variables, suggested to underpin behaviour, is psychological ownership. Psychological ownership is posited to have both psychological and behavioural effects. Within the organisational context, benefits of psychological ownership include increased tenure, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviours, as well as enhanced performance. For human resources to utilise interventions to influence levels of psychological ownership, to benefit both the employee and the organisation, a valid understanding of the psychological mechanism that underpin levels of psychological ownership is required. The current research study examined variance in levels of psychological ownership within employees, within different organisational contexts, with the objective of developing and empirically testing an explanatory psychological ownership structural model in order to answer this question. Theorising, in this research study, culminated in a proposed explanatory psychological ownership structural model. This model, together with a narrow focused structural model investigating the subsequent impact of an interaction between salient individual psychological ownership needs and the ability of the job characteristics to satisfy these needs on the motivation to pursue the routes towards psychological ownership, was empirically evaluated using structural equation modelling (SEM) and polynomial regression. A convenience sample of 329 employees from various organisations and industries participated in the study. The initial psychological ownership model failed to converge. However a reduced psychological ownership measurement model obtained very good fit and a modified psychological ownership structural model obtained reasonable fit. Statistical support was found for all of the hypothesised paths except for the path suggested between psychological ownership and motivation to pursue the routes towards psychological ownership and the suggest path between the psychological safety motivation interaction and self investment. Results show that the characteristics of the job as well as an individuals’ need for a sense of belonging, self-identity and efficacy and effectance influence levels of motivation to pursue the routes towards psychological ownership. The results additionally indicated that feelings of ownership are impacted by self-investment, intimate knowledge and control afforded to employees within their jobs. This lead to certain suggestions pertaining to interventions that can be applied within the work place as well as thoughts pertaining to future research endeavours.