Psychological ownership, organization-based self-esteem and positive organizational behaviors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of organizational psychological ownership (OPO) and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) on positive organizational behaviors (POBs). Design/methodology/approach – Based on empirical survey, 2,566 employees from 45 production enterprises in China were surveyed by a self-designed questionnaire on OPO, OBSE and POB. Then, the methods of correlation analysis, multiple regressions, impact effect and path analysis were used to verify the research hypothesis. Findings – The results showed that POB is positively related to OPO and OBSE, and that OPO and OBSE are positive predictors of POBs. The results also demonstrated that OBSE has partial mediating effects on OPO and POB. In particular, psychological ownership has a significant impact on each sub-factor of POB, while OBSE has a remarkable effect on the behavior of devotion and interpersonal harmony. Research limitations/implications – This is a non-experimental field study and as such inferences about causality are limited, and there is a possibility that the results may be influenced by common method variance. Practical implications – The findings of the present study reveal that to strengthen employees’ POBs, manager should enhance employees’ OPO and OBSE, and therefore the organizational performance and the individual efficacy will be improved. Originality/value – This is the first research which studies the relationship among OPO, POB and OBSE under the background of China.