The psychology of ownership: Work environment structure, organizational commitment, and citizenship behaviors

This study explored a potential mediating role of psychological ownership (of the job and the organization) in the relationship between levels of work environment structure and employee responses, in a diverse sample of 239 New Zealand workers and their managers. It was reasoned that low levels of work environment structure permit employees to exercise more personal control, have greater knowledge (of their job and organization), and invest themselves more extensively into their work. Hence, less structured work environments are more conducive to the development of feelings of psychological ownership for the job and organization than are more highly structured work environments that allow less personal control. Results from this investigation suggest that psychological ownership (especially feelings of ownership for the organization) mediates the relationship of work environment structure with employee citizenship behaviors and organizational commitment.