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Psychological ownership: a study of autonomy and the nature of its association with task commitment
Abstracts
PSYCHOLOGICAL OWNERSHIP REYNOLDS PM (1973) PsychologicalOwnership:a study of autonomy and the nature of its association with task commttulent.Phl) Thesis, Palace Green Library, Durham University, County Durham, England. THE STUDY begins with an investigation designed to test the Motivator-Hygiene theory developed by Herzberg and his co-workers [1]. They hypothesized that genuine motivators of behaviour in an organization have a positive effect on behaviour. These motivators are intrinsic, i.e. relate to the personal needs and desires of the individual. Conversely, hygienic factors relate to the material and physical environment of the job situation. They are extrinsic aspects and affect performance negatively. When open-ended questions were used to discover how people felt about their jobs, the motivator-hygiene pattern emerged. Intrinsic aspects of the job were associated with satisfaction and extrinsic aspects with dissatisfaction. But it was also apparent that some negative opinions about motivators were being held back. The 2-factor phenomenon seemed, in part, to be a product of some defensive process. This became the basis for further research. If a person's account of his work was distorted in this way, it must have been of importance to him and work therefore, to which he felt committed. This being so, he is able to talk openly about its successes but may--as Herzberg's study demonstrated--report failure experiences defensively. The aim of the research was to learn more about how people perceived work to which they felt personally committed and to identify the sources of this commitment. Fifty-three managers (research scientists and engineers) were asked to describe in detail a task they felt committed to and one they were less enthusiastic about. The main difference which emerged between the tasks was the extent to which a manager saw each as "his own" and identified it as part of himself. Tasks for which a person expressed "ownership" in this way, proved to be those in which he had significant autonomy. He was afforded enough freedom of choice in decision-making to be able to see the influence he had had on the task. It appears from this study that autonomy is not merely one of a number of of factors, such as status or challenge. It is a specific and integral part of the process by which commitment is generated. The more we can put our ideas and skills into a task the more it becomes "ours". This implies a greater emphasis on autonomy than is usual in current approaches to participative management. It would suggest that where decisionmaking begins from a process of group sharing, ownership and subsequent commitment may be limited.
434
Omega, Vol. 2, No. 3
REFERENCES 1. H_~RznERoF, MAus~n B and SNYD~RMANB (1959) The Motivation to Work. Wiley, New York. Abstracted by PM Reynolds, School House, West Rainton, County Durham, England.
PARADISE
LOST--PROPERTY
REGAINED!
TAYLOR PH (1973) Prol~rty regained: an exploratory study of the notion of "job property dots". MSc Thesis, Durham University Business School, Durham City DH1 3HN, England.
THE UNDERSTANDING of Industrial Relations, even when restricted to the familiarity of one's home country is no easy task. Paradoxically, it is made less easy through the cursory, even complacent regard given to many of the concepts that pervade the explanation of most texts [1]--at least so argued the author. How well do we understand the notion of "Job Property Rights"? What standards have been invoked to establish our level of knowledge ? How does that compare with our understanding of other related concepts ? The first part of the task toward greater understanding was an ANALYSIS. The second, a RECONSTRUCTION. The ANALYSXSbegins with a naive description of the appearance of "Job Property Rights" in current Industrial Relations literature. An historical perspective is given by renaissance of the Webb's three-fold category of "What should be produced, how, and under what conditions of employment" [2]. The ideas of Industrial Democracy that followed the Webbs were pursued--particularly G D H Cole and Guild Socialism, and Flanders and The Socialist Union. However, ideas are similar, rarely the same. It is in the reasons for this diversity yet essential similarity that understanding lies. Thus the analysis turns to discuss the recognition of the "Interest to Workers", both as an individual and as a collective body. A statement that the Law is evolving is as trite as it is essential. The legal recognition of worker interest is not a constant phenomenon. Nor are the demands for interest or their modes of expression-which was the one major deficiency in the Webbs's analysis. When they complained: We must count it a further shortcoming of the Trade Union world that it has been unable to come to any clear or consistent view as to where it would wish the authority, or the power to give decisions in the factory or in the mine, ultimately vested [3]. The observation lost its meaning with the interjection of normative bias. The Law which does express changes in the social environment must move in a jerky progression through the gears, partially insulated against the complexity of social change. Thus while this "newfangled" notion of Job Property Rights, reflected in the Redundancy Payments Act of 1965 and the more recent 435
PSYCHOLOGICAL OWNERSHIP REYNOLDS PM (1973) PsychologicalOwnership:a study of autonomy and the nature of its association with task commttulent.Phl) Thesis, Palace Green Library, Durham University, County Durham, England. THE STUDY begins with an investigation designed to test the Motivator-Hygiene theory developed by Herzberg and his co-workers [1]. They hypothesized that genuine motivators of behaviour in an organization have a positive effect on behaviour. These motivators are intrinsic, i.e. relate to the personal needs and desires of the individual. Conversely, hygienic factors relate to the material and physical environment of the job situation. They are extrinsic aspects and affect performance negatively. When open-ended questions were used to discover how people felt about their jobs, the motivator-hygiene pattern emerged. Intrinsic aspects of the job were associated with satisfaction and extrinsic aspects with dissatisfaction. But it was also apparent that some negative opinions about motivators were being held back. The 2-factor phenomenon seemed, in part, to be a product of some defensive process. This became the basis for further research. If a person's account of his work was distorted in this way, it must have been of importance to him and work therefore, to which he felt committed. This being so, he is able to talk openly about its successes but may--as Herzberg's study demonstrated--report failure experiences defensively. The aim of the research was to learn more about how people perceived work to which they felt personally committed and to identify the sources of this commitment. Fifty-three managers (research scientists and engineers) were asked to describe in detail a task they felt committed to and one they were less enthusiastic about. The main difference which emerged between the tasks was the extent to which a manager saw each as "his own" and identified it as part of himself. Tasks for which a person expressed "ownership" in this way, proved to be those in which he had significant autonomy. He was afforded enough freedom of choice in decision-making to be able to see the influence he had had on the task. It appears from this study that autonomy is not merely one of a number of of factors, such as status or challenge. It is a specific and integral part of the process by which commitment is generated. The more we can put our ideas and skills into a task the more it becomes "ours". This implies a greater emphasis on autonomy than is usual in current approaches to participative management. It would suggest that where decisionmaking begins from a process of group sharing, ownership and subsequent commitment may be limited.
434
Omega, Vol. 2, No. 3
REFERENCES 1. H_~RznERoF, MAus~n B and SNYD~RMANB (1959) The Motivation to Work. Wiley, New York. Abstracted by PM Reynolds, School House, West Rainton, County Durham, England.
PARADISE
LOST--PROPERTY
REGAINED!
TAYLOR PH (1973) Prol~rty regained: an exploratory study of the notion of "job property dots". MSc Thesis, Durham University Business School, Durham City DH1 3HN, England.
THE UNDERSTANDING of Industrial Relations, even when restricted to the familiarity of one's home country is no easy task. Paradoxically, it is made less easy through the cursory, even complacent regard given to many of the concepts that pervade the explanation of most texts [1]--at least so argued the author. How well do we understand the notion of "Job Property Rights"? What standards have been invoked to establish our level of knowledge ? How does that compare with our understanding of other related concepts ? The first part of the task toward greater understanding was an ANALYSIS. The second, a RECONSTRUCTION. The ANALYSXSbegins with a naive description of the appearance of "Job Property Rights" in current Industrial Relations literature. An historical perspective is given by renaissance of the Webb's three-fold category of "What should be produced, how, and under what conditions of employment" [2]. The ideas of Industrial Democracy that followed the Webbs were pursued--particularly G D H Cole and Guild Socialism, and Flanders and The Socialist Union. However, ideas are similar, rarely the same. It is in the reasons for this diversity yet essential similarity that understanding lies. Thus the analysis turns to discuss the recognition of the "Interest to Workers", both as an individual and as a collective body. A statement that the Law is evolving is as trite as it is essential. The legal recognition of worker interest is not a constant phenomenon. Nor are the demands for interest or their modes of expression-which was the one major deficiency in the Webbs's analysis. When they complained: We must count it a further shortcoming of the Trade Union world that it has been unable to come to any clear or consistent view as to where it would wish the authority, or the power to give decisions in the factory or in the mine, ultimately vested [3]. The observation lost its meaning with the interjection of normative bias. The Law which does express changes in the social environment must move in a jerky progression through the gears, partially insulated against the complexity of social change. Thus while this "newfangled" notion of Job Property Rights, reflected in the Redundancy Payments Act of 1965 and the more recent 435