Time will tell: psychological ownership, temporal focus and attitudes toward women as managers in Ethiopia

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the individual factors that directly and indirectly favor (or hinder) employees’ attitudes toward women in management. Two sides of psychological ownership (PO), promotion-focused and prevention-focused PO, are studied as having a direct effect on employees’ attitudes toward women in management. Past and future temporal focuses are examined as possible antecedents to the sides of PO, and as indirectly affecting employees’ attitudes toward women in management. Design/methodology/approach Survey questionnaires were collected from 230 MBA and related program students who were currently working and enrolled in one of six different universities in Ethiopia. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to validate all measurement scales, and structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses using Mplus software. Findings Employees with promotion-focused PO and employees with prevention-focused PO had a favorable and unfavorable attitude, respectively, toward women in management. In addition, a future temporal focus had a significant positive effect on promotion-focused PO, and a past temporal focus had a significant positive effect on prevention-focused PO. Overall, this mediation model showed that promotion-focused PO partially mediates the relationship between future temporal focus and attitudes toward equal opportunity for women managers, whereas prevention-focused PO fully mediates the negative relationship between past temporal focus and attitudes toward women in management. Practical implications This study provides new insight for organizations by showing how employees’ temporal focus explains their side of PO and how that affects their reaction toward women in management. Originality/value A new mechanism for revealing gender inequality in organizations is introduced. Moreover, the relationship between temporal focus and PO is discovered. This study is novel in providing an understanding of the antecedent to and effect of prevention-focused PO, which are largely overlooked in extant research.