Is there a Relationship between Psychological Ownership and Turnover Intention among IT Professionals - Report Example

Paper Is there a Relationship between Psychological Ownership and Turnover Intention among IT Professionals? Introduction Management practitioners and consultants have recently focused their attention on ownership as a psychological phenomenon (Pierce, Kostova, & Dirks, 2001). The concept of ownership as an important work-related attitude is on the rise. T.L. Brown stated that “the key to effectively managing in the 90’s and the 21st century is to know how to instill psychological ownership, that which makes the competitive difference and this will be the key to effective management in highly uncertain and turbulent environment” (p. 203, Pierce & Gardner, 2004). Pierce and Gardner (2004) predicted that psychological ownership will be even more important in the 21st century as organizations continue to confront environmental turbulence, uncertainty, intense competition, and the need for change, continuous improvement and innovation. The Information Technology (IT) Age has created many opportunities for employment in the IT and IT services industry. IT professionals are in demand all over the world. Organizations worldwide invest money that go not only into salaries but for further training of IT professionals they hire. However, around the world, the demand, supply, selection, recruitment and particularly retention of IT professionals has threatened organizations that use, manage or deal in IT or IT services for the past few years. This is why the departure of an IT professional from a company usually comes with disastrous effects to the organization. When an IT professional resigns, the organization suffers loss of business process knowledge and acquired technical skills Paré & Tremblay, 2000) Since late 1996, the turnover for IT professionals has jumped from 15% to 20% annually, with only 8 of 10 IT positions being filled with qualified candidates (McNee et al., 1998). With the annual turnover rate estimated at 20% or more (Kosseff, 1999), job-hopping of IT professionals has been one of the biggest problems among managers and human resources (HR) experts (Paré & Tremblay, 2000). IT professionals seem to have a tendency to change their jobs faster than other employees when they feel dissatisfied with their current employer (Hacker, 2003). Problem Statement Given the dire situation that the IT industry is faced with, the current paper intends to investigate whether psychological ownership is related with turnover intention among IT professionals. In establishing this relationship, HR may then focus its interventions in developing a stronger sense of psychological ownership among its employees. The research aims to answer the following: Is psychological ownership significantly correlated with turnover intention? Review of Related Literature Van Dyne and Pierce (2004) defined psychological ownership as the psychologically experienced phenomenon in which an employee develops feelings for the target. Moreover, Furby and Dittmar, and Pierce and his colleagues (as cited in Pierce, et al., 2001) linked feelings of possession with feelings of ownership and defined psychological ownership as the state in which an individual feels that an object (i.e., material or immaterial) is experienced possessively (i.e., it’s “MINE”). Three Motives of Psychological Ownership Pierce et al (2001) proposed a framework for understanding psychological ownership. Three motives underlie the concept of psychological ownership. These are efficacy and effectance, self-identity, and having a place. Efficacy and Effectance. Efficacy is concerned with peoples beliefs in their capabilities to exercise control over their own functioning and over events that affect their lives, while effectance motive is the individual’s desire to interact with his/her environment. Furthermore, the sense of being in control and gaining desirable outcomes of controlled actions are important factors in creating psychological ownership. The desire to experience it leads to attempts to take possession and to the emergence of ownership feelings (Pierce et al., 2001). Self-Identity. A possession serves as a symbolic expression of the self. There is a close connection among possessions, self-identity, and individuals. McCracken and Mead (as cited in Pierce et al., 2001) stated that possessions play an important role in the process of self-understanding and self-identity because of the meaning and importance ascribed to them by society (Pierce et al., 2001). Thus, people use ownership for the purpose of defining themselves, expressing their self-identity to others, and ensuring their continuity of the self across time. Having a Place. According to Darling (as cited in Pierce et al., 2001), territory is an essence of psychological expression. For example, people devote significant amount of time, energy, and resources to acquire, protect, decorate, and display their homes. This motive arises from the need to have a certain own area. This includes both actual places and objects. This familiar “area “of known targets becomes a part of the objects identity (Pierce et al, 2001). Effects of Psychological Ownership This section presents the effects of psychological ownership. These effects are citizenship, personal sacrifices and the assumption of risk, Experience of responsibility and stewardship (Pierce et al., 2001). Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Pierce, et al. (2001) describes citizenship as the behavior that contributes to the community’s well-being. Moreover, it is voluntary and it is intended to be positive in nature (Organ, as cited in Pierce et al., 2001). Pierce et al. (2001) stated that behavior is, in part, a function of one’s self-identity, as the individual opens to and maintains his sense of self by initiating stable patterns of behavior that infuse roles with personal meaning. Therefore, when individuals feel ownership for a social entity, they are likely to exhibit citizenship behavior towards the entity. Personal Sacrifices and the Assumption of Risk. The willingness to assume personal risk or make personal sacrifices on behalf as a social entity is another important outcome of psychological ownership (Pierce et al., 2001). Pierce et al. (2001) further stated that these behaviors will be prompted by feelings of ownership for the target and that target has been brought into the citadel of the self, and thus represents important results for the self. Experience of Responsibility and Stewardship. Pierce et al. (2001) stated that psychological ownership for the target may also promote feelings of ownership because when individuals’ sense of self is closely linked to the target, a desire to maintain, protect, and enhance that the identity will result in enhanced responsibility (Dipboyle, as cited in Pierce et al., 2001). Related Empirical Studies A study conducted by Van Dyne and Pierce (2004) examined the relationship of psychological ownership with work attitudes and organizational citizenship behaviors emphasizing the importance of “feelings of ownership” for the organization. The development of the hypothesis is based on the psychology of possession. The hypothesis is then tested from three field sampling using responses from 800 respondents. The results demonstrate positive links between psychological ownership for the organization and employee attitudes, and work behavior. Psychological ownership increased explained variance in organizational based self-esteem and organizational citizenship behavior over and above effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The study conducted by Pierce, Driscoll, and Coghlan (2004) examined the extent which individuals experience control over their job and the organization and used supervisory report data on work environment structure and self-reports on experienced control and psychological ownership were used to test for the mediating effects of experienced control in the relationship between work environment structure and psychological ownership. Two hundred and thirty-nine respondents from seven for-profit organizations in New Zealand were used as sample. The result showed that experienced control mediates the relationship between three sources of work environment structure- technology, autonomy, and participative decision making and psychological ownership of the job and organization. Process of Survey Development The items that were used in the survey were self-constructed, but were patterned after the Psychological Ownership for Organizations, which is a 7-item measurement instrument developed by Pierce in University of Minnesota measuring the attitude of feeling ownership of the organization shall be used. A likert-type scale anchored on 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree will be used. Cronbach alpha for this measure is.89 (VandeWalle, et al., 1995). On the other hand, the last item of the questionnaire inquires about the respondent’s intent to resign (i.e. turnover intention) and this has likewise been self-constructed by the researcher. Essentially, the task of the researcher was to construct parallel items from the original instrument. Moreover, it was also the researcher’s accountability to ensure that the resulting instrument both had face validity and content validity. To ensure content validity, he showed the instrument to an expert, particularly a colleague who had a Master’s degree in Industrial Psychology. On the other hand, face validity was checked through pilot testing. The instrument was distributed to 10 respondents for the sole purpose of checking clarity of questions and smooth flow in addition to ‘looking’ like a valid tool. Revisions were made following pilot testing before the final tool was deployed to the target sample. References Hacker, C.A. (2003, Spring). Turnover: A silent profit killer. Information Systems Management, 14-18. Kosseff, J. (1999, September 6). Info-tech firms increase efforts to keep workers. Crain’s Detroit Business, 21. McNee, B., Morello, T., Zidar, E. & Smith, C. (1998). IT staff retention and recruitment: Addressing a critical problem for the IS organization. Gartner Group Strategic Analysis Report, September 28. Paré, G. & Tremblay, M. (2000). The measurement and antecedents of turnover intentions among IT professionals. Scientific Series Ciprano, September 2000. Pierce, J. L, Driscoll, M. P., & Coghlan, A. M. (2004). Work environment structure and psychological ownership: Mediating effects of control. Journal of Social Psychology 144 (5), 507. Pierce, J. L., & Gardner, T. (2004). Organizational behavior. New York: Prentice Hall. Pierce, J. L., Kostovo, T., & Dirks, K. T. (2001). Toward a theory of psychological ownership in organization. The Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 298. Van Dyne, L., & Pierce, J. L. (2004). Psychological ownership and feelings of possession: Three fields studies predicting employee attitudes and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 10, 439-459. VandeWalle, D., Van Dyne, L., & Kostova, T. (1995). Psychological ownership: An empirical examination of its consequences. Group & Organizational Studies, 20(2), 210. Paper 2 Introduction The succeeding sections are a continuation of Paper 1, which presented the introduction, review of related literature and process of survey development on the topic, “Is there a Relationship between Psychological Ownership and Turnover Intention among IT Professionals?” They shall consist of the implementation process of the survey, data collection and analysis, evaluation of results, recommendation, and summary. Implementation Process for the Survey The respondents for the study are all IT professionals who meet the following inclusion criteria: 1) must have worked in the IT industry for at least 3 years; and 2) has explicitly expressed consent in participating in the study. They were chosen using purposive sampling; that is, they have to meet the two criteria so that they would qualify as a respondent to the study. In total, 30 IT professionals will be invited to participate in the study. Once they have expressed consent, the researcher has asked them to fill out a 6-item questionnaire, which are all in Likert scale format. These shall form the basis for the research data. Data Collection and Analysis There are seven questions which are stated in the questionnaire, as follows: 1. This is MY organization. 2. I sense that this organization is OUR company. 3. I feel a very high degree of personal ownership for this organization. 4. I sense that this is MY company. 5. This is OUR company. 6. Most of the people that work for this organization feel as though they own the company. 7. It is not hard for me to think this organization as MINE. The last question dealt with turnover intention, which was phrased as follows: I am intent on resigning from this organization. For all 7 questions that were used to measure psychological ownership, the scores were tallied as is; on the other hand, those for turnover intention, were reverse scored. That is, the higher the turnover intention, the lower is the score coded. Means and standard deviations were computed. The Pearson correlation coefficient was also used to determine whether there was a significant correlation between psychological ownership and turnover intention. Evaluation of Results Table 1. Means and standard deviations for psychological ownership items. Mean St Dev I feel that I own this company. 5.17 1.04 I feel I share ownership of this organization. 5.17 1.04 I personally have a stake in this organization. 5.31 1.00 I believe and feel that this company is mine. 5.31 1.04 This company is ours. 5.24 1.02 This feeling of ownership of the company is shared by my colleagues. 5.28 1.07 It is easy for me to feel that I co-own this company. 5.28 1.07 Overall 5.25 .90 The means of the 7 items measuring psychological ownership have an overall average of 5.25, indicating moderately high to high sense of psychological ownership among the IT professionals surveyed. The following graph shows the means across the 7 items: Next, the Pearson correlation coefficient was computed and interpreted using the table in Appendix B. The resulting correlation coefficient is -0.84, suggesting that there is a very strong linkage between an IT employee’s sense of psychological ownership and his intent to stay or resign from the organization. The more that he feels that the organization is ‘his’, then the higher is the probability of him staying with the company. The fact that the respondents expressed high psychological ownership suggests that their respective companies have been successful at promoting their efficacy and effectance, self-identity, and having a place (Pierce et al, 2001). Recommendation By way of recommendation, an employer thus, should find means of increasing their employees’ sense of psychological ownership to be able to lower turnover intention. Some of the areas which may be considered in carrying this out are enhancing task significance, optimizing workload, providing IT training and specifying job-required skills. The IT employee must constantly feel the relevance and importance of the work he produces, no matter how small, and what it contributes not only to the organization, but to society in general. When the employee feels his work is relevant, the less likely he will think of looking for another job if he gets a feeling of accomplishment in his own organization. IT training thus, hand in hand with job-required skills, will greatly boost an IT employee’s know-how, skills, and development. IT training whether in-house through training sessions and seminars, invitation of lecturers or demonstrators, or through subsidizing an IT professionals’ studies outside the office, will not only boost morale but will help the IT professional develop the skills required for his job. This allows him to stay on top of his game. Lastly, a balanced workload allows for a more harmonious working environment. The IT employee should feel both compelled to perform diligently, but not feel like a slave to the system to the extent that he ends up resenting his job due to the heavy workload. The IT employee must however not view a moderate workload as an opportunity to goof-off. Workload may be more acceptable or more loathed by an employee depending on the commensurate pay or salary that he or she receives. All these may account for increased sense of psychological ownership, which in turn may lead to decreased turnover intention. Summary The present study showed that on the average, the IT professionals surveyed exhibit moderate to high psychological ownership. Through the Pearson correlation coefficient, it has been established that psychological ownership is significantly and negatively related to turnover intention. This suggests that as psychological ownership increases, the intent to resign correspondingly decreases. As such, the management of IT companies, especially those tasked in designing people programs ought to think of ingenious ways of increasing their IT employees’ sense of psychological ownership to effectively promote retention. Appendix A - Psychological Ownership Questionnaire Dear Respondent, Greetings! I am currently undertaking a research for academic purposes. Your responses to the following questionnaire will compose the data for the study. Rest assured that the results of the study shall be used exclusively for research thrusts only. Your anonymity and the confidentiality of your responses shall be stringently maintained. I appreciate your candid responses. 1. I feel that I own this company. 7 – Strongly Agree 6 5 4 3 2 1- Strongly Disagree 2. I feel I share ownership of this organization. 7 – Strongly Agree 6 5 4 3 2 1- Strongly Disagree 3. I personally have a stake in this organization. 7 – Strongly Agree 6 5 4 3 2 1- Strongly Disagree 4. I believe and feel that this company is mine. 7 – Strongly Agree 6 5 4 3 2 1- Strongly Disagree 5. This company is ours. 7 – Strongly Agree 6 5 4 3 2 1- Strongly Disagree 6. This feeling of ownership of the company is shared by my colleagues. 7 – Strongly Agree 6 5 4 3 2 1- Strongly Disagree 7. It is easy for me to feel that I co-own this company. 7 – Strongly Agree 6 5 4 3 2 1- Strongly Disagree 8. I am intent on resigning from this organization. 7 – Strongly Agree 6 5 4 3 2 1- Strongly Disagree ***End of Survey. Thank you for your time. *** Appendix B - Interpretation of correlation coefficients Degrees of Freedom Probability, p   0.05 0.01 0.001 1 0.997 1.000 1.000 2 0.950 0.990 0.999 3 0.878 0.959 0.991 4 0.811 0.917 0.974 5 0.755 0.875 0.951 6 0.707 0.834 0.925 7 0.666 0.798 0.898 8 0.632 0.765 0.872 9 0.602 0.735 0.847 10 0.576 0.708 0.823 11 0.553 0.684 0.801 12 0.532 0.661 0.780 13 0.514 0.641 0.760 14 0.497 0.623 0.742 15 0.482 0.606 0.725 16 0.468 0.590 0.708 17 0.456 0.575 0.693 18 0.444 0.561 0.679 19 0.433 0.549 0.665 20 0.423 0.457 0.652 25 0.381 0.487 0.597 30 0.349 0.449 0.554 35 0.325 0.418 0.519 40 0.304 0.393 0.490 45 0.288 0.372 0.465 50 0.273 0.354 0.443 60 0.250 0.325 0.408 70 0.232 0.302 0.380 80 0.217 0.283 0.357 90 0.205 0.267 0.338 100 0.195 0.254 0.321 Table 0. Adapted from “Correlation and regression analysis for curve fitting”, http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/statistics/table6.html#Correlation%20coefficient Read More