The Measure of Psychological Ownership in Organizations
James B. Avey & Bruce J. Avolio
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The Psychological Ownership Questionnaire (POQ) assesses two theoretically derived, unique forms of psychological ownership: Promotive and Preventative.
Preventative Psychological Ownership
Preventative psychological ownership is characterized as territoriality. That is, when individuals feel ownership over something they may tend to be territorial about it. This may include the feeling of not wanting to share the object (such as resource use or information) and feeling as though, in general, they should be the one to determine what happens to or with the object.
Promotive Psychological Ownership
The second and likely more ideal form of psychological ownership is promotive in nature. Promotive psychological ownership is comprised of four distinct yet related dimensions. They are self efficacy, accountability, sense of belongingness, and self identity.
Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy constitutes one’s belief in their personal ability to accomplish a given task. This has also been referred to as confidence.
Accountability
Accountability is the tendency for an individual to feel a sense of responsibility to hold individuals and organizations accountable for the object of ownership. For example, if an individual felt psychological ownership in an organization, they may be more likely to challenge the leadership of the organization to justify their decisions regarding the management of the organization as they feel they have a “right to know” what is happening with their object of ownership.
Sense of Belongingness
The third dimension of promotive psychological ownership is a Sense of Belongingness also referred to as a “sense of place”. This dimension, assesses the extent to which an individual feels “at home” in their place of work. Those who tend to feel a sense of ownership at work that is more positive will report they have a place where they belong in the organizational context.
Self Identify
The fourth and potentially most desirable dimension of promotive psychological ownership is a sense of self identify. At the highest level of psychological ownership an individual will personally identify with the object (such as an organization) of ownership. At this level, the object is seen by individuals as an extension of who they are. Therefore, great care and attention is given to this object of ownership.
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For Non-Commercial Unsupported Research
The authors are making the POQ available for research use to grow the information database associated with the POQ and to provide further evidence of validity and reliability. The POQ can only be used by researchers who have submitted the Agreement for Permission to use the POQ and meet the requirements including the description of their research. A key requirement is that you will only use the POQ for research and not for consulting, training or any similar purpose, but only for non-commercial unsupported research purposes. Non-commercial research purposes means that you will not now or in the future directly or indirectly use the content for profit-seeking or other financial or commercial motivations but rather will use the content solely to further research that is purely academic or public-good driven. Your license to the content is personal to you and is solely for such non-commercial research purposes. For all reproduction in any medium outside of the specific research project you post in the abstract of research form and outside of non-commercial research purposes, you must purchase a License to Reproduce/Administer or the Online Survey.
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Example Items
Instructions
Below are statements that describe how you may think about yourself right now. Use the following scales to indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with each statement.
| Strongly Disagree | Somewhat Disagree | Disagree | Agree | Somewhat Agree | Strongly Agree |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 1. | I feel I need to protect my ideas from being used by others in my organization. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 5. | I am confident in my ability to contribute to my organization's success. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 8. | I would challenge anyone in my organization if I thought something was done wrong. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 11. | I feel I belong in this organization. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 14. | I feel this organization's success is my success. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Copyright © 2007 Psychological Ownership Questionnaire (POQ) by James A. Avey, Ph.D. & Bruce J. Avolio, Ph.D.. All rights reserved in all medium. Published by Mind Garden, Inc.
References/Resources
Books:
Luthans, F., Avolio, B.J., & Youseff, C. (2007). Psychological Capital: Developing the Human Capital Edge. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Avolio, B.J., & Luthans, F. (2006). High impact leader: Moments matter in authentic leadership development. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Articles:
Avey, J.B., Avolio, B.J., Crossley, C.D., & Luthans, F. (2008). Psychological ownership: Theoretical extensions, measurement and relation to work outcomes. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 1-19.
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