Psychological ownership in relation to workplace trust and turnover intent

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.