심리적 소유감의 선행요인과 영향요인‐건설적 비정상행동와의 관계

Abstract

Psychological ownership has been theorized to result in positive organizational consequences because feelings of ownership stimulates an individual to common organizational interests, psychological partnership, shared responsibility, collective consciousness, and employee commitment and integration. Feelings of ownership can also develop proactive behaviors that protect and enhance the target object and minimize employee shirking. Furthermore, feelings of ownership is pleasure producing and is accompanied by efficacy and competence. Consequently, an individual’s perception of possession psychologically binds the target object to the individual, thus allowing the target object to be felt as an extension to oneself. Therefore, previous studies have consistently found psychological ownership to be significantly related to positive outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior. To further study the positive effects of psychological ownership, this study empirically tested the relationship between psychological ownership and constructive deviant behavior. Constructive deviant behavior exists in three different forms: innovative constructive deviant behavior, organizational constructive deviant behavior, and interpersonal constructive deviant behavior and at first, they may be misinterpreted as they are deviant in nature. Employees engaging in constructive deviant behavior do not follow organizational norms and actually bend organizational policies and rules. However, these voluntary behaviors have good intentions as they are thought to be functional and intended to improve the organization. In addition, the study empirically tested the three conceptualized antecedents that allow the emergence of psychological ownership: control, intimate knowledge, and self-investment. Similar to the rights from formal ownership (equity, influence, and information), the three antecedents will develop feelings of ownership due to the freedom and flexibility within the job, more familiarity and closer association with the organization, and the individual’s investment such as his or her time, skills, and abilities toward the organization. The study sampled 230 blue-collared employees in Korea and as hypothesized, the study found control, intimate knowledge, and self-investment to be significantly related to psychological ownership and psychological ownership to be significantly related to all three forms of constructive deviant behavior. And as expected, psychological ownership resulted in having the strongest effect on innovative constructive deviant behavior although innovative constructive deviant behavior does not conform to normal job processes and it does not bend or break organizational rules and policies. However, for organizational constructive deviant behavior and interpersonal constructive behavior, the effects of psychological ownership may have been lower due to employees who perceive they are at the crossroads. These two forms of constructive deviant behavior may increase an individual’s cognitive dissonance because they have to voluntarily violate organizational norms and policies even though they are with good intentions that can increase an organization’s effectiveness. Therefore, psychological ownership should be treaded carefully as it can be a double edged sword. As the study results show, it may be a determinant that can improve organizational performance because of the increased sense of responsibility and collective interest toward the organization but it may also distort an individual’s perception on deviant behavior. Relatively, psychological ownership may then increase an employee’s perceptions on entitlement because employees with strong ownership feelings may feel they have certain privileges within the organization. And last, we suggest that psychological ownership may have a dark side as it can have potential to be positively related to other forms of deviant behavior.