Tian Li

How Volunteers Sense Their Ownership of the Job: the Relationship Between Leadership, Perceived Control and Psychological Ownership Tian Li

Concern with the successful management of non-profit organizations (NPOs) has become an issue of growing concern to organizations and managers in recent decades. leaders of for-profit organizations can learn from their NPOs counterparts, especially in the areas of motivation and productivity of knowledge workers. However, rigorous empirical research exploring management of volunteers working in NPOs has been surprisingly sparse. One of the reasons for this might be that we did not have coherent, well-established frameworks for understanding what drives volunteer behaviour in NPOs, notably the level of participation or withdrawal from the organization . The present study applied a psychological ownership approach to understanding volunteer behaviour in NPOs. This study investigates the relationship between leadership styles (e. g., taskoriented, relationship-oriented and participative leadership style), perceived control, psychological ownership of the job and several volunteers¿ work attitudes. Particular attention is given to turnover intentions, psychological withdrawal and senses of responsibility.