Table Of ContentPsychological Ownership and the
Organizational Context
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Psychological Ownership and the Organizational Context
Theory, Research Evidence, and Application
Jon L. Pierce and Iiro Jussila
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Psychological
Ownership and
the Organizational
Context
Theory, Research Evidence, and Application
Jon L. Pierce
University of Minnesota Duluth, USA
and
Iiro Jussila
Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland
NEW HORIZONS IN MANAGEMENT
Edward Elgar
Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
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© Jon L. Pierce and Iiro Jussila 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
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mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission of the publisher.
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Printed and bound by MPG Books Group, UK
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Dedication
To LLC – I dedicate this book to Larry L. Cummings. Professor
Cummings served as the magnet that drew me to pursue my doctoral
studies at the University of Wisconsin. Larry occupied many diff erent
roles cutting across my personal and professional life. Professor, tutor,
dissertation co-chair, and following my graduation from Wisconsin, he
became my mentor, co-author, and for more than twenty years he was my
greatest cheerleader. In addition to his being a fi shing partner he became
a very close friend, and together (along with Chris J. Berger) we served on
the Board of Directors of ‘The Institute.’
With a shared interest in psychological ownership, it was in our plans
to eventually write this book. Larry’s untimely death prevents him from
taking an active role in its creation, yet much of his thinking and infl uence
fi nds its place in this text. It is to Larry that I dedicate this book.
Jon L. Pierce
Duluth, Minnesota, USA
To my family – my dedication goes to my wife Teija and our three amazing
sons Anton, Eemil, and Niklas. Trying to make us a living I came to
travel down the routes to a sense of ownership at Alhstrom Kuitulasi Oy
in Mikkeli. Trying to build us a better future I came across literature on
the psychology of ownership at Lappeenranta University of Technology.
Pursuing my academic dreams I came to co-author this book on psych-
ological ownership at our ‘Intercontinental Virtual World’ with Jon.
My work is always for us, more than it is for me. Who I am and where
I am is because of you. It is your love that has given me the strength to
succeed. It is to my family that I dedicate this book.
Iiro Jussila
Lappeenranta, Finland
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Contents
The authors viii
Preface and acknowledgments x
1 Life’s ownership experiences: an introduction to psychological
ownership 1
2 The construct: psychological ownership 15
3 Roots: the genesis of psychological ownership 31
4 Owners and the targets of ownership feelings 53
5 The ‘routes’ to psychological ownership 76
6 Eff ects: the hypothesized consequences of psychological
ownership 86
7 The hypothesized antecedents of psychological ownership 119
8 Formal and psychological ownership: the employee-owned
organization 153
9 The sense of ownership within the work and organizational
context: the empirical evidence 172
10 Psychological ownership and its measurement: construct
validation evidence 207
11 Collective psychological ownership 237
12 Where do we go from here? Theory, empirical research, and
application 265
Appendix 284
Bibliography 286
Index 317
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The authors
Jon L. Pierce is Professor of Organization and Management in the
Department of Management Studies at the Labovitz School of Business
and Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), USA. He
received his Ph.D. in management and organizational studies at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2005 Pierce was named one of the
University of Minnesota’s Horace T. Morse Distinguished Professors in
recognition of excellence in teaching, research, and advising in the areas
of management and organizational studies. In the same year he received
the UMD Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Research. His research
focuses on the psychology of work and organizations with a recent interest
focused on organization-based self-esteem and psychological ownership.
Pierce has co-authored and edited seven diff erent books, and published
and presented more than seventy articles. He is a member of the Academy
of Management, was inducted in to their Journals Hall of Fame in 2000,
and has served on the editorial review board for several journals (for
example, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, and
the Scandinavian Management Journal).
Iiro Jussila is Professor of Management and Organization in the
Department of Management and International Business at the School of
Business, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. He earned
his Doctorate in Science (Economics and Business Administration) at
Lappeenranta University of Technology. Jussila is also the Head of
Degree Programmes overseeing the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs at
his business school. His research is focused on ‘collective being’ in general
and on topics such as collective psychological ownership, collective
territoriality, and collective entrepreneurship (for example, co-operatives,
family businesses) in particular. Jussila has published about twenty aca-
demic articles and about thirty of his manuscripts have been presented
at international conferences. He has served as a supervisor of doctoral
students at Lappeenranta University of Technology and a mentor of
academics in other universities. Jussila is a member of the Academy of
Management, the International Family Enterprise Research Academy,
and the Nordic Academy of Management, and he has served in a variety
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The authors ix
of editorial roles for several journals (for example, International Journal
of Co-operative Management and Scandinavian Journal of Management).
As part of his pro-education activities in Finland, he is serving as the
Chairman of the Board for the Co-op Network Studies.
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Preface and acknowledgments
Jon L. Pierce
I have had longstanding interest in learning about the genesis of the ideas
(that is, research questions) that scholars fi nd themselves interested in and
the fruits of their academic labors. Now as I commence the writing of this
book on psychological ownership (the possessive sense that something is
mine or ours), I fi nd myself refl ecting on the origins of this work, the con-
fl uence of events that pushed my thinking and inquiry in one direction as
opposed to another, and the people who played a signifi cant role in this
process. It is this story and those individuals who played an instrumental
role in my journey that will be acknowledged in this preface. If it were
not for their infl uence and contributions this treatise on psychological
ownership would have never been written.
Portions of our thinking as expressed here have been published piece-
meal and elsewhere, often appearing in this text without self-quotation,
yet not without citation and referencing when deemed important to do so.
The intent behind this book is to bring the psychological ownership lit-
erature (theory and research evidence) together in a single place for those
students, academics, and practitioners who fi nd themselves interested in
the topic. In addition and to the extent possible, in the closing chapter we
off er those managerial implications that we believe can be drawn at this
point in time. We also intend to use this platform to make suggestions
as to directions for future research with the hope that such direction will
contribute to moving this body of knowledge forward.
My journey into psychological ownership began in the mid-1980s, a
time during which there was a surge of interest (both in practice and the
academy) in employee ownership as an organizational arrangement. An
entrepreneurial friend, Scott Harrison and a small group of investors
decided to re-open a recently closed meat processing plant, and to operate
the organization under an employee-ownership arrangement known as
an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Harrison, a venture capital-
ist and trained in fi nance, inquired as to my willingness to monitor the
‘psychological climate’ of the organization during its fi rst few years of
operation, as he wanted to make sure that the employee-ownership scheme
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