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Climate Change? Exploring the Role of Organisational Climate for Psychological Ownership

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Theoretical Orientations and Practical Applications of Psychological Ownership

Abstract

This chapter will explore the potential role that an organisation’s climate can have on employees’ sense of psychological ownership (PO) and work engagement. Specifically, socio-moral climate (SMC) is a construct of organisational climate based on organisational behaviours, and assumes that workplace practices and procedures, including communication, cooperation, and handling of conflict, can impact employees’ moral attitudes and behaviours. A positive SMC is hypothesized to promote the development of ethical attitudes and value orientations of organisation members, and to foster employees’ identification with the organisation and development of PO. Recent studies of SMC identified increased prosocial and community-oriented behavioural orientations, organisational commitment and innovation, as well as, lower turnover intention and less organisational cynicism as outcomes of SMC.

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Correspondence to Brigitte Steinheider .

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Steinheider, B., Verdorfer, A.P. (2017). Climate Change? Exploring the Role of Organisational Climate for Psychological Ownership. In: Olckers, C., van Zyl, L., van der Vaart, L. (eds) Theoretical Orientations and Practical Applications of Psychological Ownership. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70247-6_14

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