Collective Psychological Ownership Research Articles

Collective psychological ownership and turnover intention amongst social workers in China: the mediating effect of burnout

ABSTRACT This study, which utilises data from the CSWLS survey, examines the correlation between collective psychological ownership (CPO) and turnover intention (TI) among social workers. The results demonstrate a negative correlation between CPO and TI among social workers. Additionally, emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP) and lack of personal accomplishment (LOPA) from burnout all partially mediate the link between CPO and TI. Developing a culture of teamwork and a positive organisational environment can help decrease TI among social workers and better advance the social work sector.

Empowering employee creativity in service organizations: unlocking the role of ownership, employee vitality and supportive leadership

ABSTRACT This study examines the moderating effect of employee vitality and supportive leadership on the relationship between psychological ownership, that is, individual and collective psychological and employee creativity, among frontline employees in three service industries in Ghana. Five hundred and seventy-one (571) participants were selected using a convenience sampling technique and took part in the study by completing a paper and pencil self-reported questionnaire. The data was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The findings indicate that employees’ individual and collective psychological ownership, as well as employee vitality and supportive leadership, are good predictors of employee creativity. The study further reveals that the relationship between collective psychological ownership and employee creativity is enhanced by both supportive leadership and employee vitality. On the contrary, the relationship between individual psychological ownership and employee creativity is improved only by employee vitality but not by supportive leadership. The theoretical and empirical contributions of the study were highlighted, and directions for future research were also indicated.

Are we more welcoming as neighbors or as citizens? Collective psychological ownership and attitudes toward immigrants

While place attachment is an emotional bond with a place, collective psychological ownership is a similar feeling but additionally implies that the place belongs to “us”. Socio-psychological research points to the negative consequences of this feeling for attitudes toward immigrants. However, we argue that this link can vary depending on the place scale. We examined the psychological and demographic predictors and intergroup consequences of collective psychological ownership across three territories: neighborhood, city, and country, and compared those relationships with those observed for place attachment. Using a city-wide sample of Warsaw residents (N = 493), we found that neither collective psychological ownership of the city nor of the country were significantly related with acceptance of Ukrainian refugees. Meanwhile, for neighborhood as target of ownership there was a positive relationship. Further, sense of ownership of the neighborhood was predicted by need for power, while sense of ownership of the city – by need for autonomy. In relation to the country, neither need for power nor need for autonomy played a significant role. Instead, conservative political views emerged as a significant predictor, unlike in the other two places. Analysis of open-ended responses to the question about who are the ‘owners’ of each of the three places additionally revealed that the categorization for the country level tended to be based on nationality and for neighborhood it was more diverse. Altogether, our findings indicate that the meaning of psychological ownership may vary for places with different scales, resulting in positive intergroup outcomes of collective ownership in places with less rigid boundaries.

Influence of online brand community factors on customer brand engagement: mediating role of collective psychological ownership

Influence of online brand community factors on customer brand engagement: mediating role of collective psychological ownership

The Effectiveness of Female Authoritative Leadership Style Research

Background and Aims: From the perspective of female authoritarian leadership, this study reveals the role of individualized transactions in the leadership effectiveness of female authoritarian leaders. Materials and Method: Through literature research, first understand the research status of female leaders' leadership style, analyze the unresolved problems in the existing relevant research, and on this basis, look for important influencing factors from the perspective of management and psychology. Questionnaire method. In the data collection process of this study, the questionnaire survey method is mainly used to collect primary data from the surveyed objects in a specific area. The questionnaire method first needs to find the measurement scales of all the key variables in the theoretical model proposed in this research. Results: The results show that female authoritarian leadership negatively affects job performance; collective psychological ownership plays a mediating role between female authoritarian leadership, employee satisfaction, and task performance. In addition, the positive impact of collective psychological ownership and employees' organizational citizenship behavior has been confirmed by data. Conclusion: Female authoritarian leadership hampers job performance, mediated by collective psychological ownership while fostering positive organizational citizenship behavior. Thus, this paper provides guidance for leaders to choose effective management practices.

Value Compatibility: Work–Family Conflict, Psychological Ownership, Person–Organisation Value Congruence and Turnover Intention amongst Chinese Social Workers

Abstract Chinese social work has experienced a sharp rise in staff turnover. Work–family conflict is a key risk factor for employees’ turnover intention. Whilst the relationship between work–family conflict and turnover intention has been widely documented, little is known about its mediating and moderating mechanisms, especially amongst social workers in China. This study explored the mediating role of job-based and collective psychological ownership and the moderating role of person–organisation value congruence. The study drew on data from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study 2019, a nationally representative sample of 1,421 Chinese social workers (79.73 per cent female; mean age = 28.9 years old). We performed a moderated mediation analysis combining a simple slope test and the Johnson–Neyman technique. Both job-based psychological ownership and collective psychological ownership were found to mediate the association between work–family conflict and turnover intention. Person–organisation value congruence moderated the indirect relationship between work–family conflict and turnover intention via collective psychological ownership. This study enhances understanding of the impact of the psychological mechanisms of work–family conflict on Chinese social workers’ turnover intention. Specific strategies should be adopted to establish a work environment that supports psychological ownership, enhance social workers’ identification with and attachment to their organisations, and thus reduce their turnover intention.

Aversion to loss of place: The endowment effect for local facilities

Facility-decline is often met with community responses including protective behaviour. These reactions to place-change are preceded by the conscious and unconscious valuation of public places as communal assets and subsequent negative evaluation of closure. Previous studies show that closure of local facilities can be perceived as a loss to the community. However, a gap in place-based research in geography and environmental psychology is the lack of attention to psychological biases, such the endowment effect, that could influence in the perceived loss of facilities because people attach more value to something they are used to ‘having’. This paper uses insights from prospect theory as a reference point to theorise the socio-psychological process of dealing with place-change caused by the closure of local facilities. Analysis of a survey conducted in the Province of Fryslân, Netherlands, shows that positive subjective valuation of eight local facilities, as well as negative evaluation of closure, is influenced by the current availability and the social function of this facility in the neighbourhood. The results indicate that the endowment effect exists in the context of facility decline. This paper hopes to ignite a discussion, and to stimulate further research into the effect of psychological biases on place-based behaviour. Moreover, since previous studies show that a perceived sense of ownership and emotional and cognitive bonds can lead to endowment effects in other context, this study paves the way for research into the relationship between collective psychological ownership, place attachment, the endowment effect and overall aversion to loss of place.

Collective psychological ownership as a new angle for understanding group dynamics

ABSTRACT Even without legal ownership, groups can experience objects, places, and ideas as belonging to them (‘ours’). This state of mind–collective psychological ownership–is understudied in social psychology, yet it is central to many intergroup conflicts and stewardship behaviour. We discuss our research on the psychological processes and social-psychological implications of collective psychological ownership. We studied territorial ownership, in different parts of the world and at different geographical levels, offering not only a cross-national but also conceptual replication of the processes. Our findings show that collective psychological ownership is inferred based on primo-occupancy, investment, and formation. Further, we demonstrate that collective psychological ownership can have positive intragroup and negative intergroup outcomes, which are guided by perceived group responsibility and exclusive determination right. We then discuss ownership threat (losing what is ‘ours’), and we consider the role of group identification in ownership-related processes. We conclude by providing directions for future research.

The Joint Influence of Individual and Collective Psychological Ownership and its Social Consequences

The Joint Influence of Individual and Collective Psychological Ownership and its Social Consequences

Management innovation in SMEs – taking psychological ownership of Hoshin Kanri

Management innovations are an important source of competitive advantage, but we lack knowledge on the implementation process, not least in small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs). Recognising that psychological ownership (PO) represents a crucial aspect of the implementation process, we address micro-foundational characteristics of the implementation process. PO and critical incident theory (CIT) provide a lens enabling this micro analysis. The empirical setting is the implementation of Hoshin Kanri, a strategic management system in eight small companies. From the analysis of the eight cases, we operationalise four dimensions that characterise how PO evolves in the implementation process: types of PO incidents, frequency of PO incidents, incidents indicating an increase or decrease in PO, and incidents addressing individual or collective PO. Looking at how PO is developed both among CEOs and managers in SMEs, we use the four dimensions to characterise the evolvement of PO within the focal organisations. In doing so, our article elaborates on PO as a driver and, if insufficiently developed, an impediment to effectively implementing management innovations.

The Effects of Decent Work and Social Support on Enhancing Collective Psychological Ownership Amongst Young Adult Social Workers

Abstract It has been a pronounced concern for social service organisations (SSOs) on how to foster a sense of co-ownership amongst their employees. A total of 937 valid questionnaires were collected amongst social worker participants aged twenty-one to twenty-nine years working in three different places of China, namely, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. By confirming the hypotheses, the findings revealed that decent work and social support were positively associated with the collective psychological ownership (CPO) held by young adult social workers, and decent work enhanced CPO shared by them through an indirect mechanism of enhancing their social support at work. This is the first-ever study providing empirical evidence to support the association of decent work and social support with CPO amongst young adult employees in organisational context. The findings of this study can help inform the development of human resources management strategies for cultivating CPO, justify and expand the promotion of decent work in conjunction with the framework of psychology of working theory and interpersonal perspective, and inspire relevant research and practice with regard to the personal development of young adult social workers and the sustainable development of SSOs.

Collective forest land rights facilitate cooperative behavior

AbstractThe introduction of formal collective property rights to forest lands appears to have improved both environmental and economic outcomes, but there is limited evidence on how these reforms affect cooperative behavior among local resource users. We propose that when national governments issue collective land rights, they strengthen the collective psychological ownership among coowners and produce increased levels of cooperative behavior. Analyzing data from 213 forest user groups in 10 countries, and a framed field experiment in a subset of sites, we find that collective land titling is associated with significantly higher levels of cooperative behavior including increased levels of trust, more frequent interpersonal interactions related to both forestry and nonforestry activities, more self‐governing institutions, and greater equality in resource extraction patterns.

Why is bottom-up more acceptable than top-down? A study on collective psychological ownership and place-technology fit in the Irish Midlands

Previous research has shown that bottom-up governance approaches enjoy higher community acceptance than top-down approaches. However, it is unclear why this is the case. We investigated this in a survey-based field study in a community in the Irish Midlands that is transitioning away from fossil fuel-based (peat) based energy generation to a renewable energy system. Community members evaluated two scenarios that were part of the actual public debate, that is - a scenario proposed by the government and industry (a top-down scenario), and a scenario proposed by some local community members (a bottom-up scenario). The results showed that, compared to the top-down scenario, the bottom-up scenario was more acceptable, community members felt stronger collective psychological ownership over it, and it was perceived as more place-fitting. Mediation analysis confirmed that higher community acceptance of the bottom-up scenario compared to the top-down one was mediated by stronger feelings of collective psychological ownership and perceptions of place-technology fit community members had regarding the proposed bottom-up development than the top-down one. These results imply that community acceptance is higher under bottom-up governance approaches as they strengthen collective psychological ownership and perceptions of place-technology fit among communities where renewable energy projects are being developed.

A study of collective psychological ownership predicted by work environment and mediating role of employee self-efficacy among nursing staff in Oman

A study of collective psychological ownership predicted by work environment and mediating role of employee self-efficacy among nursing staff in Oman

“Nature is mine/ours”: Measuring individual and collective psychological ownership of nature

Psychological ownership of nature (i.e., the feeling that nature is “mine” or “ours”) has been examined to encourage pro-environmental behaviors. However, a psychometrically validated measure that assesses the core of the construct is currently lacking, which undercuts its value and growing research efforts. Following recommended procedures, this paper developed and validated 6-item scales of individual and collective psychological ownership of nature, using a representative sample of Australian adults (total N = 836). The two scales exhibited high reliability and evidence of convergent, discriminant, predictive, and incremental validity, with measurement invariance across gender, age, and political subgroups. The validated individual and collective psychological ownership of nature scales were statistically distinct from proximate constructs (e.g., connection to nature and place attachment). The two scales had unique power in explaining civic pro-environmental behaviors, over and above connection to nature. Collective (but not individual) psychological ownership of nature contributed additional variance over place attachment in civic pro-environmental behaviors. This paper advances research on psychological ownership of nature by offering validated scales measuring the core of this increasingly important construct.

The Association Between Work Environment, Work Attitudes, and Turnover Intentions Among Geriatric Social Workers in China

ABSTRACT The psychological state of geriatric social workers affects the intention to leave and thus the quality of services provided to older adults. This study explored the relationship between the work environment, work attitudes, and turnover intentions of geriatric social workers. This study obtained an analytic sample comprising 999 geriatric social workers from the 2019 Longitudinal Study of Social Work in China. Multivariate regression techniques combined with a mediation analysis was performed to explore the relationships. The study results provided preliminary evidence on the complex associations between and among work environment, work attitudes, and turnover intentions of geriatric social workers in China. We demonstrated that perceived organizational support reduced the turnover intentions of geriatric social workers through increased collective psychological ownership and reduced burnout. Regular inter- and intra-agency communication between social workers and their supervisors and colleagues have important roles in reducing turnover by enhancing support and emotional commitment to organizations. Policy decision-makers are suggested to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of geriatric social works to release their administrative burdens, which may help to reduce their burnout level and improve the stability of the geriatric social work force.

The Two Routes of Collective Psychological Ownership: Rights and Responsibilities Explain Intentions to Exclude Outsiders and Engage in Stewardship Behavior.

People can have a sense of collective ownership of a particular territory, such as "our" country, "our" neighborhood, and "our" park. Collective psychological ownership is argued to go together with rights and responsibilities that have different behavioral implications. We found that collective psychological ownership leads to perceived determination right, and indirectly to the exclusion of outsiders from "our" place. Simultaneously, collective psychological ownership leads to perceived group responsibility, and indirectly to engagement in stewardship behavior. These results were found among Dutch adults, cross-sectionally in relation to their country (Study 1; N = 617) and a neighborhood (Study 2; N = 784), and experimentally in relation to an imaginary local park (Study 3; N = 384, Study 4; N = 502, both pre-registered). Our research shows that the feeling that a place is "ours" can, via perceived rights and responsibilities, result in both exclusionary and prosocial behavioral tendencies.

Through Thick and Thin: Unpacking the Association between Role Stress and Job Performance by a Nationally Representative Sample of Chinese Child Welfare Workers

Abstract Role stress is considered a risk factor for child welfare workers’ job performance, but little is known about its influencing paths. This study examines the mediating effects of two dimensions of collective psychological ownership in the association between role stress and job performance and reveals how Chinese culture shapes child welfare workers’ thoughts and behaviours. A sample of 2,943 Chinese child welfare workers is obtained from the data-set of the 2019 China Social Work Longitudinal Study. Findings illustrate that the association between role stress and job performance is partially mediated by shared decision-making and shared hardship endurance. The mediating effect of shared hardship endurance is much stronger than that of shared decision-making. This study clarifies the underlying mechanisms between role stress and job performance, enriching the limited knowledge of the child welfare profession. Practical implications for improving the job performance of child welfare workers are provided.

Validation of the ultra‐short scale for measuring work engagement among social workers in Chinese contexts

AbstractBased on 683 valid questionnaires collected among a convenience sample of social workers from Hong Kong, Macau and three other cities in mainland China, this study investigated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the three‐item ultra‐short Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (C‐UWES‐3). The results of confirmatory factor analyses supported the discriminant validity of C‐UWES‐3 by differentiating its three items from other five items measuring emotional exhaustion and role ambiguity. The concurrent validity of C‐UWES‐3 was supported by its superior explanatory power to the original nine‐item version of the scale (C‐UWES‐9) in relation to explaining social workers' turnover intention. The convergent validity of C‐UWES‐3 was supported by its correlations vis‐à‐vis factors in the job demands‐resources model such as job demands, job resources, turnover intention and collective psychological ownership. The C‐UWES‐3 showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.81). Overall, the C‐UWES‐3 demonstrates excellent psychometric properties for informing future research.

Mechanisms from Person–Environment Fit to Professional Identity of Social Workers in China: The Roles of Person-Organization Value Congruence and Collective Psychological Ownership

Person-environment fit is identified as a significant factor in facilitating individuals’ professional identity, however, the understanding of its underlying mechanisms is still limited, especially among social workers. This study aims to investigate the serial mediating effects of person-organizational value congruence and collective psychological ownership when associated with a person-environment fit and professional identity. A total sample of 5965 social workers is drawn from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study (CSWLS) 2019. Results reveal that a serial mediating path from person-organizational value congruence with collective psychological ownership is posited to operate between a person-environment fit and professional identity. This study not only provides theoretical contributions for how person-environment fit influences professional identity, but also discusses implications for policy and practice. Future research directions, such as the adoption of longitudinal designs, use of objective measurement methods, and examination of cross-cultural generalizability, are also provided in this study.