The effects of psychological ownership and attitude towards organizational change on job satisfaction, work stress and intention to quit: A research on healthcare professionals

It has been suggested that with the help of psychological ownership, which is defined as a state of mind, a feeling that one has ownership over material or intangible targets, even if it is not legal ownership, individuals who do not have legal ownership can develop a sense of ownership towards their jobs and organizations. In recent years, many academic studies emphasize the importance of psychological ownership towards the job and the organization, and state that psychological ownership will be a potential predictor of employees' attitudes and behaviors. In this context, the relationship between psychological ownership and job satisfaction and the intention to quit has been frequently the subject of research. Although it has been proposed that feelings of excessive ownership may increase the stress level of employees, there has been no empirical research to prove this until now. In addition, the relationship between psychological ownership and attitudes towards organizational change has been expressed in many studies since the time when the psychological ownership theory was put forward. Although it has been stated again as a proposition in many studies that psychological ownership may have different consequences such as resistance to change or support for change, and that psychological ownership may have the potential to explain why individuals support or oppose organizational change initiatives, there is no empirical study on this subject. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between psychological ownership and attitudes towards change and their effects on some job attitudes and job results. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the outcomes of psychological ownership phenomenon in the context of organizational change. In particular, it was aimed to investigate the links between psychological ownership and attitude towards change and job satisfaction, job stress and intention to quit among healthcare workers. For this purpose, a questionnaire was applied to healthcare professionals in nine public hospitals, one university hospital and one private hospital in Ankara. In the questionnaire, validity-tested scales adapted to Turkish in various academic studies in the literature were used to measure the psychological ownership of healthcare workers, attitude towards change, job satisfaction, job stress and their intention to quit. When the survey results were analyzed, it was found that psychological ownership positively affected attitudes towards change and job satisfaction, and negatively affected job stress and intention to quit; it was also determined that attitudes towards change play a mediator role in the relationship between psychological ownership and job satisfaction. In addition, some important findings were obtained between the demographic questions asked to the participants within the scope of the survey and our research variables, which were considered to contribute to the literature.