Abstract:
The study investigated the relationship between workplace trust, psychological ownership
and turnover intent within a South African professional services organisation. The
measurements used were the Psychological Ownership Questionnaire, Workplace Trust
Survey, and Turnover Intentions Scale. A cross-sectional quantitative survey design was used
to collect data from a purposive sample (N = 302) of skilled, highly skilled and professional
employees in a professional services industry. Pearson product-moment correlations and
structural equation modeling (SEM) results confirmed that psychological ownership was
significantly related to workplace trust (positively) and turnover intent (negatively). In
addition, the study showed that psychological ownership fully mediated (large effect) the
relationship between workplace trust and turnover intent. By implication, work environments
that fostered workplace trust would increase the level of psychological ownership that
employees’ experienced, which, in turn, would reduce employees’ intent to leave their
workplace. The research contributes to new knowledge about the way contextual factors
could influence employees’ psychological ownership.
