Aim: This study aims to explore the knowledge hiding phenomenon among project teammembers in the consulting industry. This study investigated why, when, how and what type ofknowledge team members hide.Methodology: This research applied a qualitative research with inductive approach. Semistructuredinterviews with eleven participants from EY in Kazakhstan were conducted.Secondary data was obtained from existing scientific articles and books.Findings: Findings of the study provided that (i) variables affecting knowledge hiding atindividual level also influence at team level; (ii) the technological and organizational barriershad a minor influence on knowledge hiding at team level; (ii) tacit/explicit and key/commonknowledge are subject to hiding among team members; (iv) three additional variables arediscovered at team level, i.e. laziness, fear of being seen silly and self-study. Theoretical contributions: This study contributes to the counterproductive knowledgebehaviour by exploring patterns of knowledge hiding among team members. Additionalknowledge sharing barriers of why and when team members hide knowledge were found. Teammembers hide knowledge when they feel ownership over knowledge and territoriality servesas a mediating tool. Nevertheless, collective knowledge psychological ownership weakensknowledge hiding, because team’s success is more important than individual’s goals.Managerial implications: Organizations are encouraged to nurture team environment, becauseteam members might feel that they are obliged to share their knowledge. Also, managementshould consider to lower territoriality perspectives (e.g. by team buildings, etc.). Limitations and future research: Future research should increase the number of respondentsfrom different companies, industries and geographical areas. To validate the three newly foundknowledge hiding variables at team level, they can be tested at individual level. On top of thatfuture research can focus on the effects of interpersonal injustice on knowledge hiding on eachmember, motivational process on knowledge concealing/sharing and cross-cultural differencesof how knowledge concealing is interpreted can be researched.

In today’s world music streaming is the most dominant form of music consumption. Introducing platform capitalism to music streaming has changed the music commodity and its effects serve as a motivation for this thesis. The role of emotions in music listening is explored and design research is conducted to find unmet latent needs of users in respect to the emotional side of music.  Semi-structured user interviews are used to understand how users relate music to their emotional lives. Co-design workshops are conducted to identify unmet user needs and feelings. The data is analysed inductively and results treated through the theoretical lenses of emotional design (Norman D. (2003)) and psychological ownership theory (Pierce J.L., Kostova T., & Dirks K. Y., (2003)). The main themes generated by the research show that users want -- to know their music and their music service to know them; new ways to feel music, relive the “first time”; to connect music to their emotional and personal lives; to control music more easily. These findings motivate and inform the design of a conceptual artefact.

This dissertation research explores the factors that influence direct selling agents' sales performance and job satisfaction. In the direct selling channels, the agents not only sell the products to customers. They may concurrently perform a "distributor" role as a stand-alone entity composed of their own sales network. This dissertation research features two essays. The first essay investigates how direct selling agents' perceptions of control and sense of belonging relate to PO. This essay further explores how PO influences job performance and job satisfaction. Results suggest that perception of control and sense of belonging fuel PO. Furthermore, leader-member exchange mediates the relationship between PO and sales performance, as well as PO and job satisfaction in direct selling networks. The second essay introduces a new construct (relational incongruity) and discusses how complex sales environments and direct selling agents' organizational structures influence the relational incongruity in their organization and its ensuring effect on sales performance and job satisfaction. The results indicate that organizational complexity is positively related to relational incongruity. However, customer complexity has a negative impact on relational incongruity. Relational incongruity in direct selling agents' organizations has negative effects on job satisfaction but has no effects on sales performance. Epistemic curiosity undermines the negative effect of relational incongruity on job satisfaction but negatively influences independent distributors' sales performance.

In contemporary organizations, managing workers’ attention is more critical to success than managing workers’ temporal location. Mindfulness, which represents an essential dimension of attention, has been associated with many important individual and work outcomes. However, we know relatively little about how mindfulness is cultivated at the individual level, and the little we know places the individual in full control of cultivating mindfulness; implicitly conceptualizing managers as relatively passive characters in the cultivation of worker mindfulness. Integrating the mindfulness literature with work design, I propose an attention-based model of work design, through which key work characteristics are linked to worker mindfulness through the mediating effects of psychological demands and job-based psychological ownership. I test portions of this model with two samples. In sample 1, I use survey data from 555 employees from a regional healthcare system to examine the relationships between key work characteristics and job-based psychological ownership. In sample 2, I use survey data from 211 individuals to test both the proposed job-based psychological ownership path to mindfulness, as well as the proposed psychological demands path to mindfulness. I end with a discussion of the findings, limitations, and opportunities for future research.

The annual cost of low employee engagement in Australian workplaces was $18.7 billion in 2015. Healthcare managers who adopt employee engagement strategies have the potential to achieve robust clinical, operational, and financial results that benefit both the organization and the community as a whole. The purpose of this single case study was to explore effective employee engagement strategies that some healthcare managers used to increase organizational performance. Social exchange theory was the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected through semi structured interviews with 8 healthcare managers in Queensland, Australia. Participants who implemented successful employee engagement strategies were selected using a snowball sampling technique. Data analysis consisted of generating themes through coding using a deductive approach and reporting emergent themes. Five key themes that emerged from the data analysis were psychological ownership, job resources, leadership, training and development, and rewards and recognition. The process of member checking ensured that findings accurately represented participants' views. Recommendations from the study highlight the need for healthcare managers to implement employee engagement strategies that motivate discretionary efforts, resulting in improved quality patient care and organizational performance. The implications for positive social change include providing healthcare managers with effective employee engagement strategies that could improve patient experiences, operational efficiencies, and quality healthcare provisions in the healthcare industry.

Acquisition is a crucial element of consumer behavior. By gaining a deeper understanding of the factors that influence consumers' acquisition of products, marketers and managers can develop more effective marketing strategies, and design products that better align with the needs and desires of their target customers. This dissertation develops two essays that examine key components of consumers' interest to acquisition: (1) the impact of ownership language on product evaluation, and (2) the influence of dispositional greed on the experience of diminishing marginal utility. Essay 1 investigates the impact of ownership language (e.g., this is my car) on prospective buyers' item evaluation. Results show that using ownership language has a negative effect on both tangible and intangible item evaluation. Specifically, using more ownership language raises contamination concerns and leads to decreased item evaluation. Essay 2 focuses on the individual differences in the experience of diminishing marginal utility (DMU), which is an essential component of consumers' interest in acquisition. By examining the relationship between dispositional greed and the experience of DMU, this research provides valuable insights into the motivations and desires that drive consumer behavior. The findings from six studies demonstrate that individuals with higher levels of dispositional greed are less likely to experience DMU and that such a heterogeneous experience of DMU depends on consumption scenarios (i.e., quantity-based vs. non-quantity-based). / Doctor of Philosophy / Understanding what motivates people to buy things is a key focus for consumer research. By studying consumers' interest in acquisition, businesses can gain valuable insights into the factors that drive consumer behavior, which can help them design better marketing strategies and create products better suited for the needs of their target customers. This dissertation features two essays that focus on the concept of "consumers' interest in acquisition." Essay 1 studies how using phrases like "this is my car" (i.e., ownership language) affects consumers' evaluation of second-hand products. The results find that using ownership language makes consumers evaluate both tangible and intangible items less favorably. To be specific, using ownership language raises contamination concerns (e.g., the feeling of having been "polluted"), which leads to lowered item evaluation. Essay 2 investigates an aspect of consumer behavior that has received little attention in previous research: the individual differences in the experience of diminishing marginal utility (DMU). I argue that individuals' dispositional level of greed (e.g., dissatisfaction of not having enough, combined with the desire to acquire more) is related to the experience of DMU, such that individuals with higher levels of greed tend to experience less DMU compared to less greedy consumers. In other words, as greedy consumers acquire more of a good or service, the additional satisfaction they gain from each additional unit does not decrease as rapidly as it does for less greedy people. Moreover, I discovered that this heterogeneous experience of DMU was more evident when consumption experiences involved changes in quantity vs. attributes or features of a product/service.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:29:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sebastiao Elyseu Junior 2.pdf: 1309648 bytes, checksum: 780dfab0e8a1fc758aa3bbf94ec05941 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-12 / This work deals with the building and validation of a scale of ownership of self-report, based on clinical experience and in an ethological ownership theory, that postulates it as a instinctive tendency of the individual to achieve and/or mantain the dominion of one or more figures of ownership by means of instinctive patterns of ownership behaviour, regulating the provision for self usufruct and/or of the offspring. This first version was composed of 25 items, related to the ownership of the two general types of figures of ownership: people and things. These items allow the subject to indicate the degree of intensity of the answers, in a 4-point Likert scale type (1-weak, 2-medium, 3- strong, 4-excessive). The phase of building included the semantical and theoretical analysis of the items by university students and judges, respectively. The level of agreement among five independent judges in relation to its theoretical pertinence was 90% and Kappa = 0,88, being, thus, high. The sample of the test was constituted of university students (N= 296, 140 male and 156 female) from the areas of humanities, exacts and biologics, aged 18-28. The phase of validation involved the reliability valuation, the construct validity and the criteria validity. The reliability study, made by the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (N= 84, 38 male and 46 female), indicated that the secure and anxious ownership patterns and envious pattern, for people figure, and the secure and anxious ownership patterns, for thing figure, presented acceptable temporal stability in the retest (p< 0,01), four months later. The study of construct validity, made by factorial analysis by the method of analysis of principal components and Oblimin rotation, resulted in three interpretable factors (21,88% of variance), that evaluate the following dimensions: F1 - Ownership security People, F2 - Ownership security Things, and F3 - Ownership detachment. The good internal consistency of the scale was revealed by an Alpha of 0,70. As measure of external criteria, for the study of criteria validity, semi-structured clinical interviews were carried out in a smaller sample (N= 30, 15 male and 15 female). A valuation of agreement among three independent judges, the author included, about the categorisation and quantification of the answers of four interviews, of 69,69% and, by the Kappa coefficient, of 0,51, 0,43 and 0,73 for each pair of judges, was considered acceptable, suggesting the reliability of the criteria. The Spearman rank correlation coefficients, between the scale and interviews, indicated good validity (p< 0,01) for the secure (rs = 0,65) and anxious (rs = 0,73) ownership patterns and envious pattern (rs = 0,65), when they refer to the figure of person or animal. When they refer to the figure of things, the coefficients were a little more modest, but significant (p< 0,01) for the secure (rs = 0,51) and jealous (rs = 0,54) ownership patterns. A descriptive analysis of the distribuition of the referred patterns, in the general sample and by sex, has also been carried out. / Trata-se da constru??o e valida??o de uma escala de posse de auto-relato, baseada na experi?ncia cl?nica e numa teoria etol?gica da posse, que a postula como uma tend?ncia instintiva de o indiv?duo obter e/ou manter o dom?nio de uma ou mais figuras de posse, por meio de padr?es instintivos de comportamento de posse, regulando a provis?o para usufruto pessoal e/ou da prole. Essa primeira vers?o ficou composta por 25 itens, referentes ? posse dos dois tipos gerais de figura de posse: pessoas e coisas. Esses itens permitem ao sujeito indicar o grau de intensidade das respostas, numa escala do tipo Likert de quatro pontos (1-fraca, 2-m?dia, 3-forte, 4-demasiada). A fase de constru??o incluiu a an?lise sem?ntica e te?rica dos itens por universit?rios e juizes, respectivamente. O ?ndice de acordo entre cinco juizes independentes sobre a sua pertin?ncia te?rica foi de 90% e Kappa = 0,88, sendo, portanto, alto. A amostra do teste foi constitu?da por universit?rios (N= 296, 140 homens e 156 mulheres) das ?reas de humanas, exatas e biol?gicas, entre 18 e 28 anos de idade. A fase de valida??o envolveu a estimativa de precis?o, a validade de constructo e a validade de crit?rio. O estudo de precis?o, feito pelo coeficiente de correla??o por postos de Spearman, com uma amostra (N= 84, 38 homens e 46 mulheres), indicou que os padr?es de posse segura e ansiosa e padr?o invejoso, para a figura de pessoa, e os padr?es de posse segura e ansiosa, para a figura de coisa, apresentaram estabilidade temporal aceit?vel no reteste (p< 0,01), quatro meses depois. O estudo de validade de constructo, feito por an?lise fatorial pelo m?todo de an?lise de componentes principais e rota??o Oblimin, resultou em tr?s fatores interpret?veis (21,88% de vari?ncia), que avaliam as seguintes dimens?es: F1 - Seguran?a da posse - Pessoas, F2 - Seguran?a de posse - Coisas, e F3 - Desprendimento da posse. A boa consist?ncia interna da escala foi revelada por um Alpha de 0,70. Como medida de crit?rio externo, para o estudo de validade de crit?rio, foram realizadas entrevistas cl?nicas semi-estruturadas numa amostra menor (N= 30, 15 homens e 15 mulheres). A estimativa de acordo entre tr?s juizes independentes, inclu?do o autor, sobre a categoriza??o e quantifica??o das respostas de quatro entrevistas, de 69,69%, e, pelo coeficiente Kappa, de 0,51, 0,43 e 0,73 para cada par de juizes, foi considerada aceit?vel, sugerindo a fidedignidade do crit?rio. Os coeficientes de correla??o por postos de Spearman, entre a escala e as entrevistas, indicaram boa validade (p< 0,01) para os padr?es de posse segura (rs = 0,65) e ansiosa (rs = 0,73) e padr?o invejoso (rs = 0,65), quando se referem ? figura de pessoa ou animal. Quando se referem ? figura de coisas, os coeficientes foram um pouco mais modestos, mas significantes (p< 0,01) para os padr?es de posse segura (rs = 0,51) e ciumenta (rs = 0,54). Uma an?lise descritiva da distribui??o dos referidos padr?es, na amostra geral e por sexo, tamb?m foi feita.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&amp;A) is a widely used strategy, however, the failure rate is high, and especially in the acquired firm, acquisitions often result in higher turnover rates. There is a lack of understanding of psychological processes causing employee turnover. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of employees’ psychological processes that determine employee retention following an acquisition, which will be achieved by studying the relationship between perceived psychological ownership and employee retention from the perspective of employees at the acquired firm. Nine interviews were conducted with employees at two acquired firms, one finance firm and one IT consultancy firm. Using a conceptual model, employees’ psychological processes are analyzed. The data illustrates that psychological ownership, commitment, and involvement decreased due to loss of control and changed feelings towards the organizations. In conclusion, it was found that there was a loss in psychological ownership for most respondents, which further decreased their commitment and involvement, leading to their resignation. The respondents who chose to stay indicated higher psychological ownership and higher commitment. The findings support the conceptual model and contribute to more understanding of employees' psychological processes in acquisitions.

This dissertation aims to understand the role of territoriality in peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation guest experience by answering four questions: (1) How do P2P accommodation guests feel about staying in P2P accommodation rentals as a territorial complexity? (2) What factors influence P2P accommodation guests’ perceptions of being in P2P accommodation rentals? (3) What kinds of territorial behaviors do guests experience from hosts in P2P accommodation rentals? How does host territoriality affect P2P accommodation guest experiences? (4) Do guests engage in territoriality in P2P accommodation rentals? If so, what territorial behaviors do guests use? A convergent mixed-methods design was used to answer these questions based on two studies: a qualitative study intended to develop an overall understanding of territoriality in P2P accommodation guest experiences (Study 1); and a scale development and validation study intended to develop a scale of perceived host territoriality in P2P accommodation settings (Study 2). Study 1 followed the procedures of interpretative phenomenological analysis, including semi-structured interviews with 13 P2P accommodation guests. Interview transcripts were analyzed to identify themes related to territoriality in P2P accommodation guest experiences. Results of Study 1 show that P2P accommodation guests possessed two territorial senses while staying in a shared rental: a sense of being in others’ territory and a sense of being in their own territory. Feelings associated with staying in others’ territory vs. their own territory were identified. Eight sets of factors were found to influence territorial senses, including home amenities and facilities, personal items/décor items, length of stay/use, physical presence of the host, entire rental vs. private rental, disturbance from others, hospitableness of the host, and travel companionship. Multiple factors that enhanced P2P accommodation guests’ sense of being in others’ territory were related to host territoriality. A closer examination of host territoriality revealed six types of host territoriality: personalization of the rental, house rules, accessibility, intrusion, hands-on hosting, and service failure. Guests’ reactions toward host territoriality fell into four categories: adaption, assertive defense, appeal, and avoidance. The impacts of host territoriality on guests’ evaluations of hosts, evaluations of their P2P accommodation experiences, and future use of P2P accommodations varied depending on guests’ reactions and attributions of host territoriality. P2P accommodation guests were also found to need their own space in P2P accommodation rentals. Influenced by this need and a sense of being in their own territory, P2P accommodation guests sometimes also engaged in territoriality to construct, communicate, and defend their territories. Guests’ territorial behaviors included personalization of the rental, exploration of the rental, giving instructions to others, and defending against territorial intrusions. Following an eight-step scale development procedure, Study 2 developed and validated a scale of perceived host territoriality in P2P accommodations. An initial list of scale items was generated from an online survey with open-ended questions (N = 116), independent coding of survey responses, and examples identified in Study 1. An expert panel (N = 5) and a panel of P2P accommodation guests (N = 26) were hired to assess the content validity of the original scale. A pilot study was conducted for initial scale validation (N = 93), after which the wording of scale items was modified. An online survey for scale purification and refinement was then conducted (N = 911). The dataset was split into a developmental sample and a validation sample to conduct exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. After scale purification, a second dataset was collected to validate the scale (N = 603). The final version of the scale included 18 items and four dimensions: Accessibility, House Rules, Signs of Ownership, and Intrusion. Known-group comparisons and criterion-related validity assessment confirmed the validity of the scale. Specifically, P2P accommodation guests who stayed in a private-room rental reported higher levels of host territoriality than those staying in an entire rental. Experiences of host territoriality were negatively correlated with perceived control, perceived self-efficacy, and personal sense of power among P2P accommodation guests. The newly developed scale was used to examine the impact of perceived host territoriality on perceived warmth and competence of P2P accommodation hosts, guests’ experience satisfaction, and guests’ behavioral intentions via a second-order structural equation model. Perceived host territoriality was negatively associated with perceived warmth and competence of P2P accommodation hosts, satisfaction with the P2P accommodation experience, and intention to reuse/recommend a P2P accommodation rental. However, dimensions of host territoriality had varying impacts on guest experience; host territoriality via signs of ownership and house rules positively influenced P2P accommodation guest experiences. A conceptual framework of territoriality in P2P accommodation guest experiences was proposed based on the findings of this dissertation, describing relationships among territorial senses, factors influencing territorial senses, host territoriality, guest reactions to host territoriality, and guest territoriality. Theoretical implications of these results on P2P accommodation research, human territory and territoriality research, and tourism and hospitality research were discussed, followed by implications regarding P2P accommodation platforms, hosts, and guests as well as management of guest experiences in other hospitality service encounters. / Business Administration/Interdisciplinary

Puisqu’ils représentent l’ensemble des sources de valeur du client pour une entreprise, les comportements d’engagement attirent largement l’attention tant des managers que des académiciens. Cette thèse de doctorat propose d’étudier l’impact de la propriété légale de la firme par les clients sur leurs comportements d’engagement. Les résultats d’une première étude (N = 26 781) montrent que la Customer Lifetime Value des clients propriétaires de la firme est plus élevée et croît plus rapidement dans le temps, comparativement à celle des clients non propriétaires. Dans un même temps, les clients propriétaires sont plus enclins à recommander la firme (Customer Influencer Value). Une seconde étude terrain (N = 295) a été menée dans l’objectif de comprendre le mécanisme d’influence de la propriété légale sur les comportements d’engagement. Les résultats de cette étude introduisent le rôle de la propriété psychologique pour expliquer les effets de la propriété légale sur la Customer Knowledge Value (suggestions et réclamations). Les implications théoriques et managériales, ainsi que les limites et voies de recherche sont présentées par la suite. / Considering that they represent all the customers’ valuable behaviors, engagement behaviors gain particular interests from both managers and academicians. This doctoral dissertation studies the influence of customers’ formal ownership over the firm on their engagement behaviors. Results from Study 1 (N = 26 871) reveal that customers-owners’ Customer Lifetime Value is stronger and evolve more rapidly, compared to customers-non-owners’ one. Furthermore, customers-owners present a stronger intention to recommend the firm (Customer Influencer Value). We perform a second study (N = 295) to understand the underlying process through which formal ownership influences engagement behaviors. Results introduce the importance of the psychological ownership concept, to explain how formal ownership influences Customer Knowledge Value (suggestions and complaints). These findings have implications for theory, practice, and further research.