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Measuring Psychological Ownership: A Critical Review

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Theoretical Orientations and Practical Applications of Psychological Ownership

Abstract

In the fields of psychology and management, psychological ownership has been identified as an important positive psychological predictor of workplace motives, attitudes and behaviours. Given its importance, the highly respected authors Avey, Avolio, Crossley, and Luthans (J Organ Behav 30:173–191, 2009) have posited that the development of psychological ownership within organisational contexts should be a strategic priority and that psychological ownership should be effectively measured, developed and managed. However, its effective measurement is still a challenge. Although various instruments exist to measure psychological ownership, their factor structures, item loadings and reliability differ in respect of different populations. Thus, two questions arise: Are these measures valid, reliable and complete? Why do these measures produce inconsistent results across samples? To explore possible answers to these questions a critical review of the existing measures is necessary. Therefore, this chapter aims to critically review the main measures of psychological ownership.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Resource Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Chantal Olckers

  2. Optentia Research Focus Area, School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resource Management, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

    Llewellyn van Zyl

  3. Department of Human Performance Management, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Llewellyn van Zyl

Authors
  1. Chantal Olckers
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  2. Llewellyn van Zyl
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Correspondence to Chantal Olckers .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Resource Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Chantal Olckers

  2. Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

    Llewellyn van Zyl

  3. Optentia Research Focus Area, School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resource Management, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

    Leoni van der Vaart

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Olckers, C., van Zyl, L. (2017). Measuring Psychological Ownership: A Critical Review. 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_4

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