Predicting task performance from psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour: A cross sectional study

Abstract

The study examines a mediated mechanism for enhancing nurses’ task performance through the interaction of psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour. Data for the study was conveniently collected using self-reported questionnaires from a sample of 438 respondents and analysed using partial least square-based structural equation modelling . Results showed that psychological ownership of nurses improves their’ innovative work behaviour and task performance. Besides, innovative work behaviour was found to positively predict nurses’ task performance and further mediates the effect of psychological ownership on task performance. Health-care managers can capitalize on psychological ownership competencies of nurses to enhance their innovative work behaviour and performance. This can foster the promotion of quality and efficient health-care services which are critical in any health-care facility and for nations at large.

Keywords-:

• Psychological ownership
• innovative work behaviour
• task performance
• nurses
• health care facilities
• Ghana

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PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Public Interest Statement

This study investigated the mediating effect of innovative work behaviour on the direct relationship between psychological ownership and task performance among nurses in Ghana. The outcome of the study reveals the interaction between psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour positively enhances nurse’s task performance. The findings of the study have important implication for the management of health-care institutions. Managers should continuously monitor and evaluate employees’ innovative work behaviours so that such behaviours could be constantly reinforced and maintain within the organization.

1. Introduction

Job performance describes the effectiveness and efficiency of individuals in fulfilling their assigned roles and responsibilities (Van Scotter & Motowidlo, 1996); and is categorised as either contextual performance or task performance (Coleman & Borman, 2000). Task performance comprises of activities undertaken by employees as part of their job description that directly contributes to organisational productivity (Coleman & Borman, 2000) or the technical core of the organisation (Tong, 2018). Nurses task performance, the focus of this study describes how effective and efficient nurses perform their responsibilities and duties associated with the direct care of patients (Dieleman et al., 2006). Performance of nurses is regarded as an essential constituent in the delivery of quality and excellent health care (Amarneh et al., 2010; Kurniati et al., 2014). Hee et al. (2016) posits, an outstanding nurses’ performance is likely to engender fulfilled patients and create positive consequences for organisations. As a result, managers of health-care institutions should take keen interest in creating work environment and experiences that help to optimise nurses’ productivity. Furthermore, identifying and comprehending the factors that can enhance nurses’ task performance would enable managers to increase efficiency in their health-care interventions. Figure 1

Figure 1. Mediating effect of innovative work behaviour on the relations between ownership and task performance

Employees attitude and behaviour toward their duties plays a critical role in the competitiveness and the survival of enterprises (Akçin et al., 2018; Nasifoglu Elidemir et al., 2020). For example, employee psychological attachments towards an organisation and object may generate both attitudinal and behavioural consequences that can facilitate the employee’s continuous association with that organisation or object (Asatryan & Oh, 2008; Pierce et al., 2004; Yuksel et al., 2019). This sense of ownership forms an innate part of the employee’s relation with the organisation and helps to develop individuals’ sense of “mine” or “ours” feeling towards the organization (Akçin et al., 2018; Pierce et al., 2004; Van Dyne & Pierce, 2004). Literature suggests that employees that exhibit possessive ownership in organisations may undertake responsibilities, accept to assume risks and accountability for their actions regarding the organisation and thus influence the success of the organisation (Akçin et al., 2018; Md-Sidin et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2019).

Innovative work behaviour which consists of “idea generation, idea promotion and idea realisation” is conceptualised as the “creation, introduction and application of new ideas within a work role, group, organisation, in order to benefit the role performance of the group or the organisation” (Janssen, 2000, p. 288). Innovative work behaviour is a workplace behaviour that is based on social interaction among employees, provision of needed support for the promotion and the realisation of ideas required for innovation development (Janssen, 2000; Widmann et al., 2019). Employees who exhibit innovative work behaviour at the workplace are critical assets as they create and facilitate innovative processes, enable effective communication and proffer problem-solving schemes to move the organisation forward (Messmann & Mulder, 2015; Widmann et al., 2019) and promote a healthy relationship with clientele (Messmann & Mulder, 2015). Masood and Afsar (2017) and McSherry and Douglas (2011) contend that innovative work behaviour among health-care organisations and nurses is achievable by undertaking tasks differently and this approach can help in client management, quality care delivery and effective communication in hospitals. In Masood and Afsar (2017) study involving public sector hospitals in Pakistan, innovative work behaviour was found to be higher among nurses that shared their knowledge on inaccuracies and best practices with colleagues.

A review of existing literature suggests that while innovative work behaviour (Weng et al., 2015; Xerri & Reid, 2018; Yang et al., 2019; Yasir & Majid, 2019) and psychological ownership(Kaur et al., 2013; Schirle et al., 2019; Yoo et al., 2012) constitute current and central issues in the nursing literature, the effect of psychological ownership on innovative work behaviour and task performance is understudied. In many nursing studies, psychological ownership has been examined either as a mediating variable in the study of spiritual and emotional intelligence and burnout behaviour linkage (Kaur et al., 2013) or outcome variable in the study of practice environment and psychological ownership relation (Schirle et al., 2019); professionalism, organizational citizenship behaviour and psychological ownership (Yoo et al., 2012). Surprisingly, an understanding of how innovative work behaviour contributes to task performance is still lacking, particularly among nursing professionals.

Furthermore, the mechanisms through which psychological ownership predict task performance among nurses need to be explained. Researchers have studied innovative work behaviour as a mediating variable in the work environment (Battistelli et al., 2014; Van Zyl et al., 2019). For example, Van Zyl et al. (2019) found innovative work behaviour as an important factor that translates the engaging energies of employees into performance. Understanding how nurses’ innovative behaviour interacts with their ownership feelings would be vital for the way they choose to perform at the workplace. Strangely, the mediating role of innovative work behaviour on psychological ownership and task performance nexus is yet to be empirically explored.

The purpose of the current research was to determine the role of psychological ownership in predicting task performance and innovative work behaviour of nurses and investigate the mediating role of innovative work behaviour on the association between psychological ownership and task performance. This comprehension is critical for the improvement in nurses’ task performance and ability to meet high expectations in the healthcare services delivery.

This study makes the following contributions to the health-care literature. First, the study adds to innovative work behaviour literature by identifying psychological ownership as its antecedent and further explains the probable influence of psychological ownership on nurses’ innovative work behaviour. The study unambiguously reveals that nurses’ innovative work behaviour can be immensely enhanced if they develop ownership feelings towards their organisation. Second, studies using mediating model of innovative work behaviour on psychological ownership and task performance relationship has not been explored in the nursing literature. Third, earlier health care studies that have examined innovative work behaviour and psychological ownership are conducted among Asias and Western countries (Kaur et al., 2013; Schirle et al., 2019; Weng et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2019; Yasir & Majid, 2019). The study therefore augments existing literature by examining the model within an unrepresented context, thus nurses in a developing country.

2. Theoretical framework

The study is informed by self-identity theory and theory of planned behaviour. Self-identity describes how individuals identify themselves that serve as a symbolic expression of the self. Proponents of the theory view self-identity as a crucial influencer on employee behaviour (Granberg & Holmberg, 1990; Markus, 1980; Rosenberg, 1981; Turner, 1982). When employees have a stronger identity towards their organisations, their feeling of belonginess or possession increases which may lead to increases in task performance and engagement in innovative work behaviour (Pierce et al., 2001).

The theory of planned behaviour was developed by social psychological Ajzen, 2002). This theory provides a means of predicting and comprehending human behaviour. The theory suggests that employee behaviours are a direct function of perceived behavioural intentions and control, where intentions is influenced by a combination of three factors including attitude towards the behaviour, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. In the current study, we argue that employees will demonstrate more innovative work behaviour when they feel more attached to the organisation. Besides, individuals who show innovative work behaviour would demonstrate tough attitudes (Yousef, 2000), and with high-level of involvement and motivation to perform a given organisational responsibilities effectively (Khan et al., 2015), thereby enhancing their performance level.

2.1. Literature review

2.1.1. Psychological ownership, task performance and innovative work behaviour

Han et al. (2015) posit that employee performance can be improved when they experience psychological ownership at the workplace. Though little is known about the relationship between psychological ownership and employee task performance in the context of the health sector, previous empirical evidence from other fields of study have established that psychological ownership positively influences performance since it encourages a sense of ownership and belongingness (Avey et al., 2009; Pierce et al., 2003, 2019; Renz et al., 2020). For example, in a recent meta-analysis conducted by Zhang et al. (2020), psychological ownership positively predicted performance. Similarly, Ghafoor et al. (2011) found psychological ownership of 270 telecommunication employees in Pakistan to positively influenced their performance. Again, Md-Sidin et al. (2009) reported a positively significant relation between psychological ownership and performance in the study of 329 business school lecturers in 17 public universities in Malaysia. Finally, Han et al. (2015) reported a positive influence of psychological ownership on 330 employees’ contextual performance in Germany.

According to Liu et al. (2019), workers are encouraged to participate in behaviours that protect their organisation when they feel the organisation is part of them. Several scholarly works have noted psychological traits and processes are predictors of individual’s innovative work behaviour (Liu et al., 2019; Michael et al., 2011; Yuan & Woodman, 2010). For instance, Woo et al. (2019) reported a positive association between psychological ownership and employees innovative work behaviour among 146 military health personnel in China. The study of Liu et al. (2019) also identified a significant relationship between psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour and conclude that, the feeling of belongingness of employees strengthens individuals’ possessive feelings and inspires a sense of responsibility that energises them to engage in innovative behaviours in their respective organisations. Based on the above evidence, the following hypotheses are proposed.

H₁: Psychological ownership will positively predict nurses’ task performance.

H₂: Psychological ownership will positively predict nurses’ innovative work behaviour.

2.1.2. Innovative work behaviour and task performance

Berisha et al. (2020) posit that employees who exhibit higher levels of creative behaviour are likely to be top performers at work. Workers’ creative job behaviour has been shown to influence their performance (Ali & Al-Owaihan, 2008; Hayati & Caniago, 2012). For example, Leong and Rasli (2014) examined 300 employees in an integrated automotive organisation based in Malaysia and found their innovative work behaviour predicted work role performance. Similarly, the finding of Berisha et al. (2020) involving 214 respondents from 134 private and 15 public organisations in the Republic of Macedonia suggests that innovative work behaviour correlates positively with employee work performance. Based on the above evidence, it is hypothesis that:

H₃: Innovative work behaviour will positively predict nurses’ task performance.

2.1.3. Mediating role of innovative work behaviour.

Earlier review has demonstrated that psychological ownership has a positive influence on performance (Avey et al., 2009; Han et al., 2015; Pierce et al., 2003; Renz et al., 2020) and employees innovative work behaviour (Liu et al., 2019; Michael et al., 2011; Woo et al., 2019; Yuan & Woodman, 2010). Similarly, when an employee participates in innovative work behaviour, they perform their work more effectively, which contributes to improved task efficiency and performance (Aryee et al., 2012; Berisha et al., 2020; Hayati & Caniago, 2012; Leong & Rasli, 2014). In effect, this implies employees who feel strong attachment with their organisations are more likely to take initiative in their work, thus find innovative means to improve upon their work or performance. This study therefore assumes that innovative work behaviour has a mediating impact on the relationship between psychological ownership and task performance.

H₄: Innovative work behaviour mediates the effect of psychological ownership on nurses’ task performance.

3. Methodology

3.1. Sample and procedure

Four hundred and thirty-eight (438) nurses working across 25 district, municipal and regional health facilities in the Volta Region of Ghana participated in the study. A convenient sampling technique was used to select the respondents at their workstations with the help of their supervisors. The questionnaires were administered in April 2018 and took 22 minutes on the average to be completed. Prior to handing over the self-reported questionnaires to the respondents, the participants were informed about their right to consent to participation in the study as well as assuring them of anonymity and confidentiality of information they have provided.

3.2. Measures

Data for the study was collected using existing validated scales. Table 1 provides a summary of the sources, number of items and scale range, and the original reliability of the latent variables examined in the study. Sample items include (a) psychological ownership-(i) “I feel I belong to this organisation” and (ii) “I take possible corrective action if anything goes off the track in my organisation”, (b) innovative work behaviour—(i) “I create new ideas for difficult issues” and (iii) “I transform innovative ideas into useful applications” and (c) task performance—(i)“I demonstrate expertise in all job-related tasks” and (ii) “I am competent in all areas of the job, handle tasks with proficiency”.

Table 1. Sources of measures of concepts

Latent construct	No. of items	Source	Original crombec alpha value	Range of scale
Psychological ownership	12	Shukla and Singh (2015)	0.79	5-point LS; 1(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree).
Innovative work behaviour	9	J. De Jong and Den Hartog (2010)	0.89	7-point LS; 1(never) to 7(always).
Task performance	9	Goodman and Svyantek (1999)	0.93	5-point LS; 1(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree).

3.3. Analytical approach

Data was processed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 24.0. Respondents’ profile was analysed using descriptive statistics. The hypotheses set out in the research model were tested using partial least square-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The choice of PLS-SEM was informed by its ability to estimate causal relationships among all latent constructs simultaneously, while dealing with measurement errors in the structural model (Hair et al., 2017). Measurement model including internal consistency, convergent validity and discriminant validity were assessed in the first step. The evaluation of structural model including test of collinearity among constructs and the significance and relevance of hypotheses was done in the second step.

4. Results

As shown in Table 2, respondents were made up of 65.30% female and 34.70% male. Exactly, 51.37% of the respondents were between 26 and 34 years, 51.83% were married and mostly State Registered Nurses (57.53%) and 49.77% have between 6 and 10 years working experience. The sex and age composition of the respondents of the study represent the demographic profile of nurses in Ghana (Asamani et al., 2019).

Table 2. Demographic profile of sample

Characteristic		Frequency	Percent
Gender	Male	152	34.70
	Female	286	65.30
Age	≤25 yrs	42	9.59
	26–34 yrs	225	51.37
	35–44 yrs	130	29.68
	45–55 yrs	12	2.74
	≥56 yrs	29	6.62
Marital status	Single	211	48.17
	Married	227	51.83
Tenure	≤5 yrs	138	31.51
	6–10 yrs	218	49.77
	11–15 yrs	64	14.61
	≥16 yrs	18	4.11
Category of nurse
Community nurses		186	42.47
State registered nurses		252	57.53

4.0.1. Measurement model assessment

The quality of the measurement model was tested using the reliability and validity coefficients of latent variables. The test of validity and reliability was performed and confirmed by iteratively observing the factor loadings. Items of latent variables that did not meet the threshold of 0.7 were removed. For example, two, three and seven indicators of innovative work behaviour, task performance and psychological ownership were deleted, respectively. As shown in Table 3, all measures of the latent variables were robust in terms of their reliability as their composite reliability coefficients ranged from 0.839 to 0.935 exceeding the recommended threshold value of 0.70 (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). Furthermore, the coefficients of Cronbach alpha ranged from 0.763 to 0.919, exceeding the recommended threshold of 0.7 (Nunnally, 1978). Likewise, the coefficients of average variance explained for all variables were higher than 0.50, ranging from 0.514 to 0.674, thus affirming the reliability and convergent validity of the model’s latent variables (Hair et al., 2014).

Table 3. Factor loadings, Q², R², validity and reliability of latent constructs

Constructs and items	Loadings	Q^2	CR	R^2	CA	AVE
Innovative work behaviour		0.143	0.935	0.231	0.919	0.674
IWB3	0.796
IWB4	0.813
IWB5	0.833
IWB6	0.893
IWB7	0.826
IWB8	0.849
IWB9	0.730
Task performance		0.151	0.894	0.288	0.858	0.584
TP4	0.727
TP5	0.760
TP6	0.741
TP7	0.796
TP8	0.855
TP9	0.798
Psychological ownership			0.839		0.763	0.514
PsyOw1	0.713
PsyOw6	0.630
PsyOw7	0.771
PsyOw8	0.819
PsyOw10	0.709

Discriminant validity was appraised using Fornell and Larcker (1981) and Heterotrait Monotrait (HTMT) criteria (Henseler et al., 2015). As shown in Table 4, the square root of AVEs of all variables in the matrix diagonal is greater than the related correlation in corresponding rows and columns, thus demonstrating the quality of the reflective model (Hair et al., 2013). For example, the square root of AVE for task performance (0.717) is greater than the corresponding row correlation (0.483) and column correlation (0.426). Subsequently, the three latent variables used in the study differ from each other, thus signifying the quality of the measured variables. Finally, we evaluated the Heterotrait-Monotrait proportion of associations (HTMT) criteria for each pair of reflective variables based on the item correlations (Henseler et al., 2015). As shown in Table 4, the results from the correlations pair of variables are less than the threshold values of HTMT = 0.90 (Gold et al., 2001; Henseler et al., 2015; Teo et al., 2008), we therefore confirmed the model’s discriminant validity.

Table 4. Discriminant validity (Fornell–Larcker and Heterotrait–Monotrait criteria)

	Fornell–Larcker criterion			Heterotrait–Monotrait ratio (HTMT)
	IWB	TP	PsyOwn	IWB	TP	PsyOwn
Innovative work behaviour (IWB)	0.821
Task performance (TP)	0.483	0.717		0.558
Psychological ownership (PsyOwn)	0.496	0.426	0.764	0.534	0.479

4.1. Analysis of structural model

The model fit was evaluated using the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) composite factor model (Henseler et al., 2016). For the model, SRMR was 0.079 < 0.08, demonstrate a good model fit (Hu & Bentler, 1998). The adjusted R² (Table 3) criteria were used to assess the model’s explanatory power (Shmueli & Koppius, 2011). An examination of the endogenous constructs’ explanatory power shows that task performance (0.288), the primary outcomes have very weak R² values. Prediction of innovative work behaviour is also very weak with an R² value of 0.231. This is an evidence that joint effect of psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour explains 28.8% of the variations in task performance while psychological ownership accounted for 23.1% of variations in innovative work behaviour.

To evaluate the predictive accuracy of the tested research model, the Stone-Geisser’s Q² Test (Geisser, 1974; Stone, 1974) was estimated using the blindfolding with an omission distance of 7 (J.F. Hair et al., 2011) procedure to calculate the cross validated redundancy measure, Q² for the endogenous variables (Table 3). As a rule of thumb, Q² values higher than 0, 0.25 and 0.5 depict small, medium, and large predictive relevance of the PLS-path model (Hair et al., 2019). For task performance and innovative work behaviour, the Q² values of 0.151 and 0.143, respectively, demonstrate small predictive relevance. The effect sizes of the main exogenous construct were examined using Cohen’s (1988) f². Our analysis revealed that the magnitude of the effect of psychological ownership on innovative work behaviour (f² = 0.304) and task performance (f² = 0.064) met the threshold of medium and near a small effect size, respectively. Similarly, effect of innovative work behaviour on task performance (f² = 0.155) had small effect.

Before hypotheses testing, the variance inflation factor (VIF) was used to check for the collinearity between each set of predictor variables (J.f. et al., 2016). As a rule of thumb, VIF values ≤3 show absence of collinearity. The results in Table 5, indicate that all VIF values are below 3, indicating the absence of collinearity among the interaction of psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour. The direct (H₁–H₃) and indirect (H₃) hypotheses of the inner model were evaluated using bootstrap t-statistics, based on 5,000 subsamples, with a bias-corrected bootstrap, testing for a two-tailed significance of 95% (Anderson & Gerbing, 1984). As indicated in Table 6, results of the path coefficients and the p-values showed that all the four path relations were significant.

Table 5. Collinearity assessment (inner VIF values)

	IWB	PsyOwn	TP
Innovative work behaviour (IWB)			1.304
Psychological ownership (PsyOwn)	1.000		1.304
Task performance (TP)

Table 6. Path coefficient and hypothesis assessment of direct and indirect paths

Hypothesis	Path	Path coefficient	T Statistics	P Values
H1	Psychological ownership -> Task performance	0.243	4.163	0.000
H2	Psychological ownership -> Innovative work behaviour	0.483	10.191	0.000
H3	Innovative work behaviour -> Task performance	0.379	7.458	0.000
H4	Psychological ownership -> Innovative work behaviour -> Task performance	0.183	6.696	0.000

H₁ was supported as the relation between psychological ownership and task performance was positive and significant (β = 0.243; t-value = 4.163; p = 0.000).

H₂ was supported as the relation between psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour was positive and significant (β = 0.483; t-value = 10.191; p = 0.000).

H₃ was supported as the relation between innovative work behaviour and task performance was positive and significant (β = 0.379; t-value = 7.458; p = 0.000).

H₄ was supported as the mediation of the relation between psychological ownership and task performance by innovative work behaviour was positive and significant (β = 0.183; t-value = 6.696; p = 0.000).

4.2. Discussion

With the aim of improving quality health-care services delivery, this research sought to understand the role of psychological ownership in predicting task performance and IWB; and secondly, explore the mediating role of innovative work behaviour on psychological ownership among 438 nurses in both public and private health institutions from a developing country’s perspective.

Consistent with previous studies (Akçin et al., 2018; Daneji & Bambale, 2019; Md-Sidin et al., 2009) psychological ownership was found to positively predicted nurses’ task performance and is indicative that nurses attain better task performance when they exhibit a sense of belongingness towards the health facilities they work in. Thus, nurses with a true attitude towards their organisations and jobs generally perform well. In confirmation with the study of Liu et al. (2019), finding from our research reveal that psychological ownership positively predicts nurses’ innovative work behaviour, suggesting a feeling of possession and belongingness of nurses promotes their individual innovative behaviour, since it affords them influence and power, sense of control, and feeling of security (Dawkins et al., 2015; Pierce et al., 2004). This finding complements the scarce literature demonstrating that nurses’ innovative work behaviour can be enhanced through developing an ownership feeling towards their institutions. Thus, in order to encourage nurses’ innovative work behaviour adequate and consistent efforts must be made by managers and practitioners to build a culture of positive psychological ownership among nurses in the workplace. The relationship between psychological ownership and task performance on one hand and psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour can be explained by the self-identity theory (Granberg & Holmberg, 1990; Markus, 1980; Rosenberg, 1981; Turner, 1982). The findings support the expectation that the influence of self-identity significantly increases nurses feeling of belongingness with the organisation which subsequently enhances their level of task performance. The possessive feelings of nurses help them to individually extend themselves (Belk, 2000; Dittmar, 1992) towards their organisations and jobs. Thus, enabling them to strive to preserve, guard and consolidate their possessive feelings for organisation and the job (Brown et al., 2014; Pierce et al., 2003) by exhibiting superior performance and innovative work behaviour. Similarly, innovative work behaviour positively predicts task performance. This finding corroborates earlier studies (Baba & Abdullahi, 2019; Van Zyl et al., 2019) and suggests nurses engaged in innovative behaviour return a better task performance. The findings suggest nurses’ innovative work behaviour play a key role in promoting performance therefore supervisors must encourage workers in ways that will propel them towards engaging in innovative behaviours.

Finally, innovative work behaviour mediates the relationship between psychological ownership and task performance. The finding is indicative of how innovative work behaviour as a social and independent mechanism can be used to support and promote performance in the workplace (Messmann & Mulder, 2015; Ma Prieto & Pilar Pérez-Santana, 2014; Widmann et al., 2019). Therefore, employee support in the promotion and implementation of innovative ideas is necessary within a collaborative work environment to stimulate and encourage innovative work behaviour among nurses. The mediating effect of innovative work behaviour in the relation between psychological ownership and task performance is supported by theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 2002). The findings support the expectation that employees demonstrate innovative work behaviour because of a strong feeling of attachment to the organisation and this improves their levels of task performance.

4.3. Conclusions

In this study, relations between psychological ownership, innovative work behaviour and task performance were explored using 438 responses from nurses and data analysed using PLS-SEM. The study’s findings lead to the conclusion that psychological ownership has the potential to positively affect nurses’ level of innovative work behaviour and task performance. Besides, innovative work behaviour is likely to inspire nurses to perform better. Therefore, enhancing nurses innovative work behaviour will encourage them to excel in their given occupation. Finally, based on the study’s findings, innovative work behaviour of nurses mediates the relation between psychological ownership and task performance.

4.4. Implications for theory and practice

The study proposed a mediating model to examine the effects of psychological ownership on task performance which have not yet been explored in the context of health sector. Thus, the hypothesis that the predictive validity of psychological ownership on task performance is mediated by innovative work behaviour. The results confirm all the stated direct and indirect hypotheses. These findings provide adequate support for the mediation mechanism introduced in this study. Second, it is imperative to note that this study was undertaken in underrepresented health sector context where research on the relationships between the proposed concepts is rare.

Besides the theoretical contributions, this study has useful practical implications for promoting effective task performance among nurses in the health-care industry. The study revealed that psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour are important in influencing nurses’ ability to provide quality health-care services. Accordingly, specific policies must be directed towards enhancing innovative behaviours of nurses and their ownership feelings towards the health organisations. In the case of innovative work behaviour, managers of health facilities can create the environment and conditions which enable the flourishing of innovative work behaviour. Consequently, safer innovative climate in which failed innovative projects will be considered as opportunities for learning, rather than as failures (Carmeli & Gittell, 2009) can be created for employees to stimulate their cognitive abilities. Second, employers should develop and implement empowering practices among nurses through the expansion of their decision latitude and autonomy in terms of the composition and organisation of their tasks (J.P.J. De Jong & Kemp, 2003). Additionally, appropriate financial rewards that do not undermine nurses’ intrinsic motivation should be developed and implemented to boost nurss’ innovative work behaviour (De Spiegelaere et al., 2012). Several scholars agree that leadership is key in facilitating innovation at the workplace (Chan et al., 2014; Ozorhon et al., 2016; Zheng et al., 2017). Therefore, managers should enhance nurses’ innovative work behaviour by adopting innovation-stimulating leadership approach. The approach consists of five behaviours including provision of resources, recognition, consultation, delegation and support for innovation that stimulate individuals to intentionally initiate novel and valuable ideas, procedures and processes within their group, work role and/or organisation (De Jong, 2007).

A sense of ownership feeling perhaps may be particularly significant for service personnel like nurses who have direct contact with patients and must take responsibility for instant decision making. In these circumstances, managers should enable the feeling of possession among nurses through the work designs that offer nurses the opportunities to exercise, acquire knowledge, control, have autonomy and invest personally in their work (Mayhew et al., 2007; Pendleton et al., 1998). Finally, efforts must be directed at providing and encouraging nurses’ opportunities to continuously participate in work-related decision making (Chi & Han, 2008).

4.5. Limitations and future research directions

The data for this study was cross-sectional and self-reported. This might present a problem of generalisation, common method variance and social desirability effects. This limitation should be an opportunity for future research on psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour and their impact on task performance in health organisations. The mediated model proposed in this study is open for expansion. There may be other additional influential moderating variables between (i) psychological ownership and innovative work behaviour and (ii) innovative work behaviour and task performance. Future studies can expand the model into mediation moderated model by identifying and introducing these moderators through vigorous literature search.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

The author declares that he/she has no conflict of interest.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Correction

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1939938)

Additional information

Funding

The present study did not receive funding support from any institution/organization for the submitted work.

Notes on contributors

Eli Ayawo Atatsi

Eli Ayawo Atatsi is a PhD holder and Lecturer in the Department of Modern languages and Communication, Ho Technical University. Her research interests are in the fields of organizational leadership, employee behaviours and oranizational performance.

Edem M. Azila-Gbettor is a Senior Lecturer and PhD holder in the Department of Management Sciences, Ho Technical University. His research interests are in the fields of governance, organizational leadership, employer and employee behavioural issues and higher education leadership and management.

Christopher Mensah: is Associate Professor of tourism at the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Ho Technical University. His research interests are in the fields of sexual harassment in hospitality and tourism/customer satisfaction; hospitality human resource management; academic dishonesty; festivals and trade fairs; and hospitality education.