The relationship between psychological ownership and knowledge sharing

Abstract

Despite great attention to the effectiveness of psychological ownership in organizations, its relationship with knowledge sharing has been barely understood with theoretical and empirical evidence. There are inconsistent theoretical predictions and empirical results on the relationship between psychological ownership and knowledge sharing. To clarify the relationship, we apply social identity theory to theorize that psychological ownership experiences a significant psychological mechanism. We posit that organization based psychological ownership (OBPO) and job based psychological ownership (JBPO) can influence knowledge sharing differently through identification with coworkers. Additionally, we propose that diversity climate can amplify or suppress the effects of psychological ownership on knowledge sharing. Using a two-wave study design, we examined the distinctive roles of diversity climate in the relationship between psychological ownership and knowledge sharing. With this study, we highlight that the relationship between psychological ownership and knowledge sharing is dependent on employees’ social identity surrounding ownership targets and diversity climate.