Unpacking Psychological Ownership: How Transactional and Transformational Leaders Motivate Ownership

Abstract

Psychological ownership represents feelings of responsibility for and possession over a target, which can be both tangible in terms of physical resources, or intangible regarding one's relationships. Here we examine how two well-established leadership styles can trigger six different facets of psychological ownership and their corresponding ownership behaviors, by using regulatory focus and identity theory to explain how psychological ownership emerges and influences an individual's work behavior. We provide specific propositions that link two leadership styles to an individual's activated regulatory focus and self-identity, which results in six different facets of ownership. We use these different facets of ownership to examine how each contributes to explaining how leaders motivate their followers to engage in and take on different work challenges and opportunities, thus advancing both the leadership and psychological ownership literatures. We combine leadership style and psychological ownership to determine the type of ownership behavior and work performance that results based on which ownership facets are triggered.