Collective psychological ownership: A literature review and future directions

Abstract

It has been over a decade since the conceptual foundation of collective psychological ownership (CPO) was first built in the organizational behavior and management literature. A significant body of empirical studies has been conducted to examine CPO at either the team level or the individual level, providing divergent views of CPO and its application in different contexts. This article offers insights into the genesis and emergence of CPO as an outgrowth of prior scholarship on psychological ownership at the individual level to the team level. It also includes a systematic literature review of 96 studies that cited the seminal study of collective psychological ownership and had CPO as a major construct in its conceptualization and empirical setting. We conclude with directions for future scholarship that would enhance the theory of CPO, as well as methodological recommendations for testing the role of CPO in different applied contexts.