Social exchange and psychological ownership as complementary pathways from psychological contract fulfillment to organizational citizenship behaviors

Abstract

PurposeSocial comparison and job-based psychological ownership (JPO) are compared and contrasted as explanations for relationships between organization relational psychological contract fulfillment (ORPCF) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 241 employees and 82 of their managers at an information services company. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test for hypothesized and exploratory indirect relationships.FindingsConsistent results were found for sequential mediation from ORPCF to employee investment of the self into the job, to JPO, to supervisor-rated helping and voice OCBs. Employees' perception of their relational psychological contract fulfillment (social exchange) did not simultaneously mediate the relationships between ORPCF and employees' OCBs.Research limitations/implicationsPsychological ownership presents a complement to social exchange to explain effects of relational psychological contract fulfillment on employee outcomes. Because of the cross-sectional nature of the data conclusions about causality are quite limited.Practical implicationsOrganizations and managers should emphasize that fulfillment of relational psychological contract obligations represent a significant investment in employees, who reciprocate by investing themselves into their work. This in turn bolsters JPO and its positive employee outcomes.Originality/valueThis is the first study to directly compare social exchange and psychological ownership explanations for effects of psychological contract fulfillment on employees.

Role of psychological ownership in job crafting, work engagement, and counterproductive behavior

“…In relation to the behavioral effects of psychological ownership, our findings concur with previous findings (Brown, 1989;Gardner et al, 2020) that psychological ownership can have a positive impact on employee behavior. We find that psychological ownership for the job is positively associated with work engagement (β = .22, p < .05).…”

Sustainability of Positive Psychological Status in the Workplace: The Influence of Organizational Psychological Ownership and Psychological Capital on Police Officers’ Behavior

“…The sense of possession also affects personal attitudes and behaviors [18]. This target of ownership would result in providing a more complete explanation for sustained positive behaviors [20]. In the organizational context, psychological ownership can be a critical predictor of employees' attitudes, behaviors, and performance [18,21].…”

Effect of Psychological Ownership on Employee Defensive Voice in IT Services Organisations: The Moderating Role of Power Distance Orientation

“…It is also posited that, while negative triggers in an organisation can cause the negative reaction of defensive voice from an employee, positive triggers in an organisation [such as positive organisational behaviour (POB) of PO experienced towards job or organisation (Avey et al, 2009)] may mitigate the negative reaction of defensive voice from an employee. On examining the extant literature on the relationship between different predictors and defensive voice (Bharanitharan et al, 2019;Lu et al, 2019;Ng et al, 2021), and the relationship between PO (experienced towards job or organisation) and positive employee voice (Andiyasari et al, 2017;Gardner et al, 2021;Mustafa et al, 2015;O'Driscoll et al, 2006;Ramos et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2019), it was identified that the relationships between PO (organisation-based) and negatively-intended defensive voice to supervisor and between PO (job-based) and negatively-intended defensive voice to supervisor are not examined in existing literature. This research gap is examined in hypotheses 1 and 2 (associated with RQ1) discussed below.…”