Psychological Ownership and Openness to Change: The Mediating Effects of Work Engagement, and Knowledge Creation

Abstract

While most studies on psychological ownership have examined the effect on work-related attitudes and behaviors, little research has focused on knowledge-creation practices and openness to change. Another concern is that most research on psychological ownership that has been conducted has mainly focused on private-sector organizations. In contrast, research on this topic in the public sector is scarce. Although public-sector organizations have become more competitive with the shift toward a performance-oriented paradigm and openness to change, the findings in the private-sector organizational context may not be applicable in a public-sector organizational context. Despite public = sector organizations' efforts to change, the organizational cultures of public and private sector organizations are still quite different (Choi & Park, 2014; Suh, Harrington, & Goodman, 2018). Most importantly, employees in public-sector organizations may conceptualize their psychological ownership differently in that the employees may have only psychological ownership. In contrast, employees in private organizations may have both legal and psychological ownership. Therefore, it is critical to explore the relationships among psychological ownership, engagement, change, and creation/innovation in the public-sector organizational context. Another limitation of previous studies is the lack of knowledge about psychological ownership in diverse cultural contexts. While much research on psychological ownership has been conducted in Western cultural contexts, very few studies have been conducted in non-Western cultural contexts (e.g., collectivistic and hierarchical cultures). Since the concept and measures of psychological ownership have been developed and validated in Western contexts, it is critical to validate them in the non-Western organizational and culture contexts (e.g., South Korea) to further explore the implications of the concept and measures. With advancements in South Korea's (Korea hereafter) industrial structure, the need for change and creativity has become inevitable in publicsector organizations to support the quickly transforming society and private-sector organizations (De Vries, Bekkers, & Tummers, 2016; Suh et al., 2018). Thus, the current study aims to examine the effects of psychological ownership on work engagement, knowledge creation, and openness to change in a Korean publicsector organization. Further, we examine the direct relationships among the constructs and the mediation effects of work engagement and knowledge creation in this context.

Setting Organisational Culture to Develop Potential and Innovativeness

“…First and foremost, employees can help their organisation to effectively set processes (process innovations) by implementation of their ideas, for example by introducing new or improved production or delivery methods. Employee commitment to organisational culture impacts knowledge creation, and openness to change, and positively influence employees' knowledge creation (Chai, Song and You, 2020). Significant effect of organizational culture on organizational sustainability in cultural characteristics and to maintain the core business competencies as marketing, operations, customer orientation, and financial management (Srisathan, Ketkaew and Naruetharadhol, 2020).…”

Openness Toward Organizational Change Scale (OTOCS): Validity evidence from Brazil and Portugal

“…The OTOCS has previously shown good validity evidence in different studies [28,[31][32][33]. In terms of its dimensionality, the measure has shown a stable number of items and dimensions.…”

“…The OTOCS assesses respondents' favorable attitudes toward change in the organization and the absence of resistance or rejection of change. Researchers have used the scale to measure specific changes [10] or potential changes [31].…”

Generational differences in psychological ownership

“…Psychological ownership is a cognitive-affective construct based on individuals' feelings of possessiveness towards and their psychological attachment to objects that are material or immaterial (Pierce et al, 2001). Psychological ownership has been associated with: (1) increased organisational commitment, (2) greater individual accountability, (3) increased extra-role credibility, (4) reduced turnover, (5) increased job satisfaction, (6) improved performance, (7) improved well-being, (8) increased organisational-based self-esteem and more engaged employees (Avey, Avolio, Crossley, & Luthans, 2009;Chai, Song, & You, 2020;Chen et al, 2020;Olckers, Du Plessis, & Casaleggio, 2019).…”

“…Evidence of the importance of psychological ownership as a predictor of workplace motives, attitudes and behaviours has been provided in a large body of literature over the past decade (e.g. Chai et al, 2020;Chen et al, 2020;Jussila, Tarkiainen, Saestedt, & Hair, 2015;Olckers et al, 2019).…”