Ownership through Internal
Communication in SMEs:
The case of employees in a small Swedish digital agency.
BACHELOR THESIS
THESIS WITHIN: Business Administration NUMBER OF CREDITS: 15 credits
PROGRAMME OF STUDY: Business Administration AUTHOR: Pontus Karlsson 19931228-5092
Acknowledgements
I would sincerely like to to express my thankfulness and gratitude towards my tutor Elvira Kaneberg for her fantastically optimistic, constructive and supportive feedback throughout the process. I would also like to thank the seminar group for the invaluable discussions that has helped me to put together this research in an effective manner. I would like to thank Anders Melander for being very helpful prior to the start with the clear guidance and information that helped me get off to a good start.
I also want to acknowledge the participants in this research and thank them for their contribution to this thesis and their contribution to the research field. Without the help from these the research would never be able to take shape.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude towards my classmates, friends and family that has helped to motivate me and to keep my spirit up when the project felt overpowering.
Pontus Karlsson
Abstract
Title: Ownership through Internal Communication in SMEs Author: Pontus Karlsson
Tutor: Elvira Kaneberg Date: 2016-12-15
Subject Terms: Internal communication, psychological ownership, SME
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine internal communication to promote employees’ psychological ownership. In that end, providing guidance in the conduct of effective internal communication.
Problem
By neglecting the importance of effective internal communication and low levels of focus on human resources, small and medium sized enterprises often find themselves with disengaged employees. It is found that psychological ownership has a relation to organizational commitment, and to job satisfaction. There is no prior research on the connection between internal communication and psychological ownership. This knowledge gap has complicated the process of defining how the internal communication should be conducted.
Method
A combination of primary- and secondary research has been used to fulfil the purpose of this thesis. The empirical data comes from semi-structured interviews conducted by the author on a case company. This empirical data has then been compared to existing theories and studies to provide a foundation on which the analysis can be built upon and a conclusion can be drawn from.
Conclusion
The author has successfully distinguished a number of essential elements in promoting psychological ownership; a clear structure, a clear vision, positive feedback and involvement. It has also become clear from the research that the most preferred communication channel for promoting psychological ownership is face-to-face. By involving employees in a structured communication process and giving them positive feedback and providing them with information about the vision, psychological ownership will be promoted.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ... 1 1.1 Background ... 1 1.2 Problematizing ... 2 1.3 Delimitation ... 3 1.4 Purpose ... 3 1.5 Key words ... 3 1.6 Research questions ... 3 1.7 Clarifications ... 4 2. Theoretical framework ... 4 2.1 Communication ... 4 2.1.1 Internal Communication ... 4 2.2 Internal communication channels ... 6 2.3 Psychological Ownership Theories ... 8 2.4 Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME) ... 9 2.5 Theoretical framework summary ... 10 3. Methodology ... 10 3.1 Research Strategies ... 11 3.2 Deductive, inductive and abduction theory ... 11 3.3 Exploratory, Descriptive or Explanatory approach ... 12 3.4 Case Study ... 13 3.5 Reliability and validity ... 14 3.6 Sampling ... 15 3.7 Data collection ... 15 3.8 Interviews ... 16 3.9 Confidentiality ... 16 3.10 Pilot Test ... 17 3.11 Ontology ... 17 3.12 Secondary Data ... 18 3.13 Hanging out ... 18 3.14 Assessing Psychological Ownership ... 18 4. Empirical Findings ... 19 4.1 Case Company ... 19 4.2 Internal communication ... 20 4.2.1 Structure ... 21 4.2.2 Vision ... 22 4.2.3 Involvement ... 23 4.2.4 Feedback ... 25 4.3 Communication channels ... 25 5. Analysis ... 27 5.1 Essential elements in internal communication that promotes psychological ownership ... 27 5.2 The most effective communication channel for creating psychological ownership 30 5.3 How can internal communication be improved to promote psychological ownership? ... 32 6. Conclusion ... 33 7. Discussion ... 35 7.1 Implications ... 35 7.2 Research Strengths ... 357.3 Research Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research ... 36
7.4 Final Words from the Author ... 37
8. References ... 38
1. Introduction
The introduction chapter presents a background over the chosen field. The background is followed by a problematizing of the research topic. Next sub-chapter is delimitations and the introduction ends with this study’s purpose and research questions.
1.1 Background
As a response to the globalization of the economy and the following increase in competition, it is crucial for organisations to strategically respond to the new situations they are faced with (Akhter & Fernando Pinto Barcellos, 2013). But for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, SMEs, to be able to create a competitive advantage and extract maximum performance the importance of the employees’ impact needs to be acknowledged (Sheehan, 2013). For organizations’ well-being, it is highly important to keep employees involved, motivated and enthusiastic to align these in a construction that will facilitate the organizations interests and objectives. Organizations’ entire ability to survive and stay competitive can be dependent on employees’ enthusiasm and their aim to reach organizational success (Ehambaranathan & Murugasu, 2015).
One field that has been proven to have an impact on employees’ performance and attitudes is psychological ownership (Van Dynde, 2004). Psychological ownership is the state when an individual feel that an object is theirs. It has been shown to improve the employees’ organisational self-esteem and increase their job satisfaction (Van Dynde, 2004). To nurture this state of psychological ownership the employee needs to invest time and energy in, create a relationship to, and be given controlling power over the object (Pierce, 2001). This can be facilitated by internal communication.
For employees to get an understanding of the organizations situation and where it is heading, effective internal communication is inevitable (Erikson, 2008). Through effective internal communication that ensures that the strategic objectives of the organisation is understood by employees you will develop commitment (Foreman, 1997). It has been shown through in-depth research that the level of commitment is connected to the level of trust, and pointing towards that low levels of trust is connected to poor communication (Welch, 2007). By examining the relation between psychological ownership and internal communication the author’s objective is to bridge the gap in the existing research in the fields to provide guidance in the conduct of effective internal communication. Thus, by creating a foundation of empirical data in combination with former theories the knowledge gap in how to communicate internally could possibly be bridged to help organizations to improve their internal communication and enforce their ambitions of becoming better.
1.2 Problematizing
The problem at stake is bridging existing research gap in internal communication and its connection to psychological ownership. Despite that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) often find themselves in situations of unclear guidelines, structures and processes, the research on organizational behaviour do not widely discuss the way the internal communication in SMEs is conducted and that the communication is often mainly based on friendliness and informality (Richie, 1993). Rather, researchers to date has primarily focused on the impact of communication on companies’ results. More specifically, in their view, internal communication is found as a factor of structures that can create dissatisfaction (Welch, 2007). Likewise, what make employees demotivated to take on tasks and projects is the lack of distinguished responsibilities and ownerships. Thus, internal corporate communication in this study focus on strengthen the employment commitment, promote a sense of belonging among the employees and introduce employees to external changes to create understanding that there will always be a need to adjust and improve to face these external factors. If there is a lack of this kind of strategic internal communication the employees might experience the opposite, leading to detached employees (Welch, 2007).
In Van Dyne and Pierce (2004) studies regarding psychological ownership and its impact on employee behaviour there is a relation to organizational commitment, and to job satisfaction. Hammer, Landau and Stern (1981) claim that the positive effects psychological ownership can be connected to employees’ perception that they are part of strategic decisions and have an impact on the organization. Hence it is very important that the employees feel that they are taking part in the organizational strategic processes and the strategic movements. The difference between the SMEs lack of engagement around human resources and the proof of its importance makes it an interesting field to research.
It is found that the impact of internal communication has been researched on various topics such as motivation and employee satisfaction (Zvirbule, 2015; Jacobs et al., 2016). Since these factors are affected by psychological ownership (Pierce, 2001) there is a great interest in researching how these can be interlinked and research what factors in internal communication that have an impact on the psychological ownership of employees. When the small and medium sized organizations skip the process of refining their internal communication, which they often do they might find themselves in issues that could have been prevented. By neglecting the importance of taking care of the employees, many SMEs face issues with talent retention and disengagement (Richie, 1993). Therefore, it is important to challenge the existing ways of conducting internal communication and to make organizations realize that the need for improvements in the internal communication.
1.3 Delimitation
There are many factors that could affect the psychological ownership among employees such as experience, organizational culture, industry, job position, personal characteristics of the employees, size of the organization etc. To be able to examine solely how internal communication can affect psychological ownership, all these factors will be excluded. For this thesis, the elements refer to instrumental communicational directions and approaches.
Internal communication can be defined in various ways but have in this thesis been noted as the communication within an organization, and does not regard the communication with other stakeholders than managers, employees and owners.
The respondents in the interview were chosen from their accessibility and proximity, with the common denominator being that they were not in a manager position. The reason for this is that employees with a lot of decision making capabilities and authority are more likely to feel psychological ownership already (Pierce, 2007). Therefore, the author was intrigued by interviewing the employees that do not have the authority per se, to distinguish important elements in internal communication to promote psychological ownership.
1.4 Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine internal communication to promote employees’ psychological ownership. In that end, providing guidance in the conduct of effective internal communication.
1.5 Key words
Internal communication, psychological ownership, SME
1.6 Research questions
RQ1: What are the essential elements in internal communication that promotes psychological ownership?
RQ2: What communication channels are most effective for creating psychological ownership?
RQ3: How can internal communication be improved to promote psychological ownership?
1.7 Clarifications
SMEs refer to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. This is covered in the section 2.4, but to ensure full understanding the author here wants to clarify this.
2. Theoretical framework
This part of the thesis aims to frame the relevant existing literature and theories regarding internal communication, psychological ownership and SMEs. These fields are broken into four sections, communication, psychological ownership, SMEs and the last section that interlinks and integrate these to establish a streamlined theoretical framework. This will be very important to be able to create a foundation for the empirical findings to be compared to to either strengthen or weaken the findings.
2.1 Communication
Communication is based from the Latin word communis, which means common. The purpose of communication is to create a common understanding (A.C. Krizan et el. 2004). According to Grunig (1992) the key feature to communication is to create an understanding of information. Communication is the exchange of information between different parties (Welch et al., 2007). It can be defined as the transfer of information between parties, that is relevant, accurate and well-timed (Lefaix-Durand & Kozak 2009). The decision of what type of communication practices the organization will engage in is based on different factors; timing, content, emotional state and the wanted outcome. These factors also affect what communication channels will be chosen when communicating (Mason & Leek, 2012). We communicate through the use of symbols. These symbols are not only verbal but can also be gestures, facial expressions, tonality and body language. There are many goals with communication, where one of them is to impact attitude (Krizan et al., 2004). Conversations among organizational members can facilitate the understanding of the different attitudes and levels of trust the employees might feel towards the management (Welch, 2007).
2.1.1 Internal Communication
Throughout organizations there are constant communication. This can take different shapes and forms and includes both managed meetings and discussions as well as informal conversations (Welch & Jackson, 2007). Some argue that internal communication is the management of interactions between all stakeholders (Scholes 1997) and some argue that internal communication is the communication among employees (Van Riel, 2007). Internal communication can be divided into two main
information, such as objectives, timeframes, responsibilities and other informative messages. Informal communication is the parallel communication that is constantly ongoing, which includes discussions, gossip, talks and spontaneous meetings (Wood, J. (1999).
Farrant (2003) states that internal communication done by management and employees of an organisation should be aligned with their vision, objectives and goals to be considered effective. He also states that the company’s employees need to be constantly up-to-date with changes and processes that are being conducted within the company. Internal communication can according to Larkin and Larking (1996) be distinguished in three key areas. These are;
• Downward communication – information from managers to employees • Upward communication – Information from employees to managers • Horizontal communication – information between employees
The downward communication is the process when managers directs the employees, gives orders, informs them about what is going on and also distributes the responsibilities. Upward communication is the information flow from employees to managers. This is of big importance since the information acquisition of employees can be of high relevance for the decisions that are to be taken by the management. Horizontal communication is done between employees that are in the same departments and on the same hierarchical level (Larkin & Larkin, 1996).
To reach successful internal communication Larkin and Larkin argues that the flow of information needs to be developed throughout all levels of the organization (1996). Welch and Jackson (2007), on the other hand, divides internal communication into four pillars which in its constellation creates a strategic approach to internal communication.The four pillars are internal line manager communication, internal team peer communication, internal project peer communication and internal corporate communication. By dividing the internal communication like this it is easier to answer the questions regarding: who communicates, to whom, in what way, with what content, and finally the purpose. In this model they also distinguish in what direction the communication is done. Internal line management is done between the line-managers and employees and covers team briefings, the employee’s roles and feedback on the work. Internal team peer communication is between team members and covers the team information and how to face various team tasks. Internal project peer communication is between project group members and regards project information e.g various issues they
might face along the way. Internal corporate communication on the other hand, is the communication that is done from the top management towards all employees, and covers strategy, organizational goals and objectives (Welch, 2007). Internal corporate communication aims to strengthen the employment commitment, promote a sense of belonging among the employees, and to introduce employees to external changes to create an understanding that there will always be a need to adjust and improve to face these external factors (Welch, 2007).
To be able to engage employees and stakeholders, and to reach set goals it is critical that effective internal communication exists (Welch, 2007). The most well-run organizations have been characterized by symmetrical communication, meaning that the message sent is mutually beneficial for the sender and receiver. Normally this is achieved through two-way communication to ensure complete understanding, but according to Grunig (1992) the communication does not have to be two-way as long as employees understand their role and part in the organisation, top-management know about plans and policies, and everybody involved in the organisation understands its role in the society (Grunig et al., 1992). For absolute symmetry it is therefore important that the internal corporate communication does its job of teaching the employees about environmental changes and what these will mean for the organisation (Welch, 2007). By communicating clearly and making sure that the strategic objectives of the organisation is understood by employees you are able to develop commitment (Foreman, 1997). It has been shown through in-depth review that the level of commitment is connected to the level of trust, and also pointing towards that low levels of trust is connected to poor communication (Welch, 2007). If there are low levels of understanding of the organizations’ strategic directions and decisions among the employees, it might create a weaker trust for the management, leading to less engagement and commitment (Welch, 2007).
To face the rapidly changing environment around us, organizations need to motivate and facilitate employees’ performances and satisfaction. Through effective internal communication it is possible to enhance job satisfaction and performance. (Lawrence et al., 2004). If the internal communication is inadequate this will lead to organizational inefficiency (Profile, 2006).
2.2 Internal communication channels
In organizations there are a number of various channels that is used for internal communication. To reach efficient and successful internal communication it is of high importance to choose the channels that suits the organization in a constructive and favourable way (Farrant, 2003). If the deciding managers inform the employees, takes
feedback, and listens to their opinions, they are more likely to choose a communication channel that will best suit the organization (Mishra et al., 2014).
When determining what channels to be used in internal communication, the communication objective and the task should be defined. Richard Daft (2007) describes that the choice of channels should be based on the richness of the channel. Channel richness is the amount of information that can transmitted during a communication episode (Daft, 2007). The richness is based on three different factors. The ability to handle multiple questions simultaneously, the ability for rapid two-way feedback, and the ability to create a personal focus in the communication. The channel that possess most richness is face-to-face communication, because this also enables other, nonverbal factors such as eye-contact, body language and posture that can help understand if there is something if there are unspoken issues underlying (Daft, 2007). The second richest is phone calls, where you get the same characteristics as a face-to-face meeting except the visual and kinetic factors, this has in some ways been bridged by video-conferences which enables the communication participants to use body language (Daft, 2007). In todays digital era, a lot of communication is done through emails and other electronic communication. According to Daft (2007) this can be a rich channel if used properly, but it has also lead to less communication face-to-face among employees. It has also been shown that there is a negativity effect connected to email communication due to lack of emotional cues (Walther and D’Addario, 2001). After these comes memos, letters and formal reports due to the lack of feedback possibilities and slowness (Daft, 2007).
According to Farrant (2003) when deciding on what communication channel to use for the message that is to be communicated it is important to understand the process of communication, which is;
• Sender formulates ideas, selects the information;
• The information is encoded into symbols, communication channel is selected • Sender develops and delivers a message;
• Message is decoded and the information is perceived;
• Receiver interprets the message and creates an answer, feedback is established.
By spreading the communication over multiple channels the information is more likely to reach and be understood correct and effectively by the recipient. For example, if the information in an email is not adequate for full understanding, this can be complemented with a face-to-face meeting (Mishra et al., 2014).
2.3 Psychological Ownership Theories
Psychological ownership emerges when an individual feel that an object is theirs (Pierce, 2001). By being tied to an object – it becomes a part of oneself – creating psychological ownership. A lot of research has been done on the topic of ownership and its impact on individuals. Since Isaacs (1933) wrote in her research on children’s’ development back in 1933 that “what is mine, becomes part of me”, ownership has transitioned from physical property to the psychological meaning of possession. In the theories of ownership one prominent theory is from Russell W. Belk (1988) where he describes possessions as if they were a part of the owner, and that the things that we own represents who we are and becomes “our extended selves”. Humans are possessive and the feeling of ownership is deeply rooted in us. We can feel ownership towards many different kinds of objects, tangible and intangible, close and far. Feelings of ownership have also proven to impact our behaviours, emotions and our psychological state and can also have protective characteristics. We want to protect what is ours and might therefore react when others intrude or talks bad about the thing in our possession (Pierce et al., 2001).
In Van Dyne and Pierce (2004) studies regarding psychological ownership and its impact on employee behaviours it is clear that there is a relation to organizational commitment, and to job satisfaction. It is also very clear that there is a positive impact on employees’ organisation-based self-esteem. In their study they conclude that we can with the use of psychological ownership impact, understand and predict employee attitudes and behaviours. The positive effects of employee ownership can according to Hammer, Landau, and Stern (1981) be stemmed from employees’ perception that they are a part of strategic decisions and are involved in making organizational change. This has been addressed by Long (1977) as his research in the associations between ownership and employee attitudes and performance proved that there is a bigger impact of the psychological ownership than of formal ownership, meaning that the perceived participation has a higher level of relation to the behaviour than formal ownership, such as equity possession (Long, 1977, 1978a,b).
According to Pierce (2001) there are three routes to Psychological Ownership. These are; • Controlling the Target
• Coming to Intimately Know the Target • Investing the Self Into the Target
Controlling the target means that when we feel in control of an object it is likely that we feel that it is in our possession. In organizations this is normally achieved through providing autonomy to the employees to make them feel ownership towards their job. In contrast, centralized organizations with centralized power might face employees that do
not feel ownership since they have no, in their eyes, impact and control of the organization (Pierce, 2001).
Coming to intimately know the target means that the individual by acquiring more information about the object creates a sense of psychological ownership. As the individual learn more and more about the object, the feeling of psychological ownership increases since the relationship becomes deeper (Pierce, 2001). This is one of the reasons why organizations communicate their objectives, goals, performance etc, to the entire organization, for the employees will create a stronger relationship to the organization due to the fact that they know more, hence leading to higher levels of psychological ownership (Pierce, 2001).
The last part of psychological ownership is Investing the Self into the Target. When employees invest their own creativity and ideas into their work, they will likely feel higher degrees of ownership towards their task and job. When individuals invest their time, energy and focus on specific objects, this will lead to an attachment towards the object that will nurture the sense of ownership (Pierce, 2001).
2.4 Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME)
SMEs are of big importance for the world economy (Sefiani & Bown, 2013). According to OECD contribute with 60-70% of the jobs in most OECD countries and a
disproportionately large share of new jobs (OECD, 2000).
In small and medium sized organizations, it is rarely formalized structures in terms of strategies or processes (Ritchie, 1993) and strategies are crafted “implicitly” rather than “designed” (Mintzberg and Walters, 1978). Communication is normally done through informal meetings and the impact of the owners are high. The owners are in a lot of contact with the rest of the employees on all different levels, open communication, often prevails and the “family atmosphere” in the organization creates trust and relation among the employees (Ritchie, 1993). With this informal attitude and communication comes issues. According to McEvoy’s study (1984) one of the main reasons of businesses underperformance is the low levels of focus on Human Resources (HR). The reason to the low emphasis on HR are both the size, the lack of expertise and the idea that there is no reason for expertise to manage people (Ritchie, 1993).
In SMEs the development is very connected to the employees’ decisions and the vision of the company is often created together with the employees giving the employees a chance to build the future of the company and their individual development. But for this to be positive and functional, there has be a set clear vision. This creates a stable base for the internal communication to be based on, which can lead to a well-defined focus.
Without a clear vision, the influx from all the employees might lead to a dispersed organisation (Kyriakidou & Bowen, 2002).
2.5 Theoretical framework summary
To create psychological ownership there are three main paths to take. These are Controlling the Target, Coming to Intimately Know the Target and Investing the Self Into the Target (Pierce, 2001). Accodring to Welch (2007) it is of crucial importance for the employees to have an understanding of the strategic directions and intentions to have build a trust among the workforce that will lead to higher engagement and commitment. Also Grunig (1992) points towards that employees need to understand the organization’s role in the society. Hence Welch (2007), Grunig (1992) and Pierce (2001) all conclude the significance of knowing and understanding the organization you are working for and its purpose.
By developing a higher level of engagement you could get the employee to be more inclined to Invest the Self Into the Target, that implies that when work, time and energy is put into a specific task or project, the psychological ownership will be promoted. Hence it is supported by most theories that the importance of clarity is inevitable and crucial for the development of psychological ownership.
There is a risk with SMEs that procedures and strategies are left to chance due to the owners’ ambition of having a family atmosphere in their organisation and it seems like there seems to be a black or white approach to HR meaning that you either have it or you do not. This is due to the lack of expertise, the size and the ignorance towards the importance (Ritchie, 1993).
3. Methodology
By researching and examining various existing literature on the subjects of internal communication, psychological ownership and the characteristics of SME the author has created a theoretical foundation to build the empirical research from. The author will conduct qualitative interviews with employees of a medium sized media agency. The focus on these qualitative interviews will be put on what essential elements in internal communication that can promote the sense of psychological ownership.
3.1 Research Strategies
This research will be conducted with qualitative data since the research objectives are not tangible and quantifiable and there is a need for a deepened understanding of the responses to be able to extract the relevant data to answer the research questions. Also since the thesis aims to examine what factors that influence an intangible notion, qualitative data will be more useful.
In academic researching you have two main directions to take in terms of the information acquisition. These are quantitative and qualitative. A quantitative research focuses on data that can be quantified, visualized and interpreted trough numbers, proportions and numerical information. A qualitative research focuses on the often intangible fields of study, such as feelings, behaviours and relations, this is the most appropriate method when it is not possible to quantify the data, and the researcher wants to get a deeper understanding of the research topic (Bryman & Bell, 2013). The depth of qualitative research sometimes raises other questions regarding the objectivity of qualitative studies. This is due to the fact that words are more subjective than numbers and figures are, hence it is harder to conclude absolute truths. In this research semi-structured interviews will be conducted. This allows the respondents to expand their answers and gives a qualitative empirical foundation where analysis and conclusions hopefully can be successfully drawn upon.
Qualitative research can be done through questionnaires and interviews, with interviews being the strongest method due to the ability to get a deeper understanding of the responses and data. Questionnaires are normally inefficient due to the low response-rate meaning that there is a need for a big number of questionnaires to be handed out to be able to get enough comprehensively questionnaires (Daymone et al., 2011). This is the reason why this research will be strictly based on existing theories and qualitative interviews. Questionnaires are also a one-way communication which does not allow for any interaction and might therefore limit the respondent’s way of expanding their answers. Due to a strict time frame questionnaires were hence not conducted.
3.2 Deductive, Inductive and Abduction Theory
When examining the relationships between empirical findings and existing theories there are two main approaches to decide between, induction and deduction (Bryman & Bell, 2013). In an inductive approach the theory is based in the empirical data, meaning that there does not have to exist any past research when conducting this kind of research. In deductive research the author uses existing literature to make predictions about the empirical findings and then tries to verify these with the acquired data (Björklund & Paulsson, 2014).
According to Björklund & Paulsson (2014) the balance of abstraction will be the fundament on which you base the decision of what approach to take in the choice between inductive, deductive and abductive. According to Bryman and Bell (2013) the most suitable method for qualitative research is an inductive method, meaning that the author will compare the results and theory with the existing theories and not the other way around. While a deductive approach is focused on testing hypotheses created from existing literature, the inductive is the opposite, meaning that the aim is to create a new theory through the use of the new data. The simplest explanation of the difference of the approaches is that while inductive is based on observations, deductive is based on theory. On top of inductive and deductive, there is a third approach, referred to as abduction. This is a combination of the inductive and deductive approaches, which means that the abduction is shifting between the existing theories and the empirical findings throughout the process. This means that the empirical research and data will be combined with the existing theories to be able to get an in-depth understanding of the empirical findings. This gives a broader perspective and is useful to create non-biased conclusions (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2008).
This research was conducted with an abduction approach; hence the existing theories was used to create a foundation that the research was to be built upon. By the use of the existing theories it was possible to shape the interview questions in ways that would ensure their accuracy in answering the research questions. The inductive approach was then used when interviewing the employees of the case company and using this to answer the research questions.
3.3 Exploratory, Descriptive or Explanatory Approach
There are three different approaches that are used when doing a research study. These are exploratory, descriptive and explanatory studies. They are all useful for different purposes and should be used in specific ways. When conducting research there could be intertwining of these theories and they are not in any way mutually exclusive which means that they can be used in a mixed way in a research paper. The three approaches will be covered in the following section to get an understanding of what the different methods are useful for.
Exploratory research is concerning the first research done in a specific theoretical field. This is done when the goal is to learn and understand more about a certain topic. When trying to distinguish questions and factors to get a better insight of a specific situation and
When the ambition is to provide information and background on a field, a descriptive approach would be suitable. This is a more detailed description where the actions are described more thoroughly and the goal is to describe the observations of occurrences and how these have occurred (Kowalczyk, 2015). The more information the better in the descriptive approach to get an understanding of the situation.
An explanatory research aims at explaining certain relationships. It is based on a thrive to explain why occurrences takes place and what is the cause for these. The interactions of things and phenomena is central in the approach. When conducting an explanatory research, the ambition is to predict the future outcomes by explaining the cause and effect of past occurrences (Kowalczyk, 2015).
When examining the research question, the purpose and the problem of this thesis, the author found that the most suitable approach to be used would be an explanatory research. This one is used to understand the relationship between certain factors and would hence be very appropriate for the research on what factors in internal communication that promotes psychological ownership and what channels that be the most effective in this development of psychological ownership.
3.4 Case Study
To comply with the purpose of this thesis, a case study was found the most suitable. They are made to compare the results between the real-world phenomena and the theories existing, and since the internal communication and its impact of psychological ownership might have a dynamic relation, this would be best to study in a real-life context (Yin, 2009; Ellram, 1996). When conducting case studies, there are multiple techniques that can be used for information acquisition and the use of one technique does not exclude the other (Yin, 2009).
There are four main strengths of conducting a case study (Yin, 2009). They strive to explain the causality in events and phenomena, meaning that they try to explain relationships between things that happen, in this case psychological ownership, and the factors that are causing it, in this case the factors in internal communication. Case studies also describe the issue from the natural environment of the phenomena, meaning that they aim at depicting the real phenomena for what it is. They can be used to distinguish trends and themes in the case. And lastly they are a good way to clarify uncertain outcomes in phenomena (Yin, 2009).
The downside of a case study is the fact that them in themselves can not be used to describe a generalization due to the limitation of samples and also because of the biases of the respondents that can affect the outcome of the research (Yin, 2009). For example, in this case the chosen case company might not be representative for all SMEs but are very good at portraying the natural environment of a phenomena.
3.5 Reliability and validity
With qualitative studies there is a risk of bias and that the researcher influence in a way that might have impact on their validity and reliability. This is often referred to as researcher bias. According to Johnson (1997) this is a result of selective observations and selective recording of information and because the researcher involves his or her own values, perspectives and prior knowledge into the analysis and interpretation of the data. To ensure the validity of this research the author has gone through three steps proposed by Johnson (1997). These cover the descriptive validity, the interpretive validity and the theoretical validity.
The descriptive validity concerns how the assure the accuracy of what is reported in the research is correct and has actually been said and that the interviews have actually taken place (Johnson, 1997). This is covered in the section Interviews where the interviews and the respondents are described to get an understanding of the situation and the answers. One way to approach this issue is to use a triangulation approach, meaning that there are more than one observer of the interview to get more than one perspective on the interview and the answers that came out from this (Johnson, 1997). This was not possible for this thesis due to the fact that the author was working on his own. Instead the author chose to voice record the interviews, and re-listen to these after the interview, on the same time as he compared the notations done throughout the interview to ensure that there were no questions about whether or not the research has taken place.
Interpretive validity refers to the notion of making sure that the way the information received is understood correctly and interpreted without major biases and misunderstandings. To limit the risk of this and to establish an interpretive validity one commonly used technique is “member check” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). This is the technique used by the author of this research and it means that you check with the respondent that what the author have understood from the answer is what the respondent actually meant. This was only used when the answer could be in some way interpreted in multiple ways. To give an example; the interview covers one part about the importance of two-way communication. After the respondent talked about the importance of this but on a broad level the researcher asked the respondent “Am I understanding it correct if you consider a two-way communication to be very important?”. This then gave the respondent
Theoretical validity is referring to how the theoretical background is applicable in the development of the thesis and how valid the theories are in helping to ensure a useful answer of the research questions (Johnson, 1997). The approach that has been used to approach this issue has been peer review, meaning that the author of this research has together with the examiner and the peers, that are doing their theses paralleled, continuously discussed the progress and the explanations concluded throughout the process as supported by Johnson (1997). By doing this the author gets feedback on the progress and what should be considered in further development of the thesis and its validity.
To ensure the reliability of this thesis the interviews have been documented well by audio recording (Eisenhardt, 1989). To be able to get an overview of the collected answers and empirical data, these were analyzed and structured by extracting some words and concepts that were mentioned in the interviews. These were written down and then highlighted to get a clear overview of the themes found in the answers. This concentrated the information and goes along with Johnson (1997) proposed praxis on how to use the information. This is referred to as pattern matching, meaning that you check for patterns in the responses and then extract these to use them in the answers. Due to lack of time, the interviews were never transcribed, which might weaken the reliability of the research.
3.6 Sampling
The respondents all work for the case company and were chosen out of convenience, meaning that they were not chosen at random, but they were chosen because of their accessibility and relation to the researcher. This is the fastest and easiest way to create a sample, due to the proximity. It has the lowest cost in time, effort and money and are thus a very common sampling method (Marshall, 1996).
3.7 Data collection
The interviews with the employees from the case company was conducted between the 14th to the 20th of November 2016. There were 5 interviews. These lasted approximately 40 minutes and was carried out face-to-face. This gave the interview a richer context than if it would have been done over the phone, this is also supported by Saunders et al (2007). All interviews were recorded and taken notes during to ensure the quality of the data and to remember the most relevant topics discussed. The interviewees were Swedes, but since many Swedes are bilingual and the thesis language is to be done in English, two interviews were performed in English and three interviews were conducted in Swedish. To certify that there were no misunderstandings, the interviewees were informed prior to the interviews to interrupt if there of any chance were something that they did not
understand. The interviews were performed in a logical order to make it easy for the interviewee to follow and grasp, see appendix 1. By ending the interviews with the research questions the author was given the interviewees estimates of the general answers.
3.8 Interviews
To be able to answer the research questions of this thesis in a successful matter, interviews were conducted. As suggested by Saunders et al. (2007), a pre-determined script containing open-ended questions was used to ensure to do the semi-structured interviews. To keep the structure and stick to the topic, a semi-structured version was selected, since the questions were open ended. With open ended questions the respondents are able to explicitly describe their views and answers on the specific fields and questions with a connection to their current situation. This gives a more detailed insight and makes the answers easier to understand leaving little room for misunderstandings (Jacobsen, 2002).
To answer the research questions, the author decided to conduct five semi-structured interviews with the employees of the company. To get a better understanding of the case company’s everyday life and tasks, the interviews were decided to take place in their office. To ensure the responders’ understanding of the intangible concept of psychological ownership the interviews were deemed to be most suitable for face-to-face meetings. To ensure that no sayings or answers was left out or that they were forgotten, the interviews were recorded. As covered earlier the author is aware of the risk that a single interviewer might cause some bias in the way the interviews plays out but by sticking to the pre-curated questions this risk is minimized. There is also a risk that non-verbal factors that might influence the perception of the responses might be left out due to the fact that there is only one interviewer.
To keep a clear structure and to make the purpose of the questions evident, the interview was divided into three parts. These were, General Background, Internal communication and then Psychological Ownership and lastly improvements. This created an aligned information acquisition and the relevance and quality of the interview was hence considered high.
3.9 Confidentiality
According to Bower and Gasparis (1978), people will be more likely to tell truthful stories and insights, if their answers and sharing of information will be kept confidential. Above this, confidentiality is also an ethical guiding component in research (Koocher and Keith-Spiegel, 2008). It is a key factor, and a core value, in research (Hopkins, 1943). For these reasons it is crucial that the confidentiality principle needs to be kept to enable scientists
and researchers to be able to continue their research. Hence, all stakeholders taking part of this research is asked to keep the empirical data confidential for the good of science. It is of high importance to ensure that the participants in a research are aware of their privacy and confidentiality. Therefore, the interviewees were well informed prior to the interview that they would be completely anonymous in the research. The author needed the results to be unbiased and chose to keep the research participants anonymous to clear them from any risk that their colleagues would have anything to say about their answers, and that that they therefore would not feel that they could answer truthfully. By doing this the interviewees could feel confident that they could speak their mind and the author could feel secure about the unbiasedness of the answers.
The result of this thesis could not be acknowledged if it would incorporate unethical data, hence it followed a deontological research perspective (Saunders et al. 2007). Before conducting the interview, the author received feedback from an expert to make sure the relevance, the reliability and the quality of the interview questions.
3.10 Pilot Test
Before conducting the real interviews, the author pilot tested the interview questions on a university teacher to check for possible improvements in the structure. To ensure the relevance and function of an interview it is according to Saunders et al. (2007) essential that the structure is first pilot tested in order to further develop the questions, the technique, and to ensure the validity of the answers. Through pilot testing the interviewer is given the chance to review the method and hence see if there is room for improvements. By doing a quick pilot test one can also see if the answers you receive automatically leads on to effectively answer the research questions. If it is found that there is a need for improvements, these should be done. Hence it is important with a clear time and resource structure to make room for alterations. In many cases when research is done on a smaller level, there is possibility of doing in-depth analysis of the interviews from the pilot testing, but the importance is still essential (Saunders et al. 2007). After the pilot test some minor alterations were done before the final interviews were conducted with the employees of the case company.
3.11 Ontology
This research has a constructionist ontological approach, hence acknowledging that truths and meaning is built through individual and collective perceptions and experiences that we might never know is real or not (Bryman, 2013).
3.12 Secondary Data
Information gathered from existing sources is defined as Secondary data. This is a very cost- and time efficient form of data due to the fact that everything is pre-made. It is crucial to use secondary data to build your knowledge base on. The downside on the other hand is the lack of control you have over the existing research content, the information gathered, and also the perspective on the research content (Vartanian, 2011). The secondary data used in this research are described in the Theoretical Framework. To add value to the secondary data it is important to combine it with the primary data gathered. Before collecting primary data, it is important to first interpret the existing secondary data and then use it to define the research problem and to help with the information gathering. In the creation of this research the secondary data was acquired through reviewing the existing literature about psychological ownership and internal communication. The literature that created a foundation for research was found in articles and publications, these were found through searching online and in traditional books and were chosen based on the amount of citations and the relevance for the research questions.
3.13 Hanging out
As an employee of the case company during the last year, the author has gained a big amount of information from informal talks and meetings, such hints, clues, secrets and gossip that regards the organization and its employees. On top of this, the fact that I have participated in multiple formal meetings, structured talks, workshops and seminars, has led to a very good understanding of the organisation and its structures. In research this kind of information is referred to as ”hanging out”, meaning that the research is a part of the everyday work and the organizational setting (Kaneberg, 2016). For the author this includes taking part in discussions not only with managers about operational tasks but also with the CEO about strategic directions. On the same time the author gets a lot of insights from the employees during lunches and after-works, and all this helps the author to get a full picture of the organization.
3.14 Assessing Psychological Ownership
To acquire enough data to be able to define the important elements in internal communication that would promote the psychological ownership it is important to first make an assessment of the concept to make the distinction in the answers. Since the respondents might not use the precise words from the definition of psychological ownership the author will consider the following expressions as signs of psychological ownership; An individual talk about ownership in relation to a specific object/task/company, An individual is completely devoted, An individual are offended when outsiders speak negatively about the object. Also if the respondent refers to the
4. Empirical Findings
By introducing the case company, the reader is given a deeper understanding of the background, situation and goals of the company. This gives the reader a better insight in how the business is conducted and a background to understand the interview and interviewees. By giving an introduction the reader is also given the opportunity to self judge the relevance and applicability of the results. The research done on the organization creates a construction that makes it possible for the analysis of the empirical data to be more accurate. The descriptive information about the company is found from the interviews, the personal experience from the author hanging out and from their website.
4.1 Case Company
From the case company’s website you can find that it is a Swedish, digital, media agency. They produce videos, websites, smart phone applications, strategic workshops and whatever is asked from them from their clients. The organization is based in Stockholm, Sweden, but they are working with clients from many parts of the world. The author has found from hanging out that there are two main income sources for the case company; production from the studio, and strategy from the strategy department. A big part of the production comes as an output of the strategy department’s work when they are out helping to define existing businesses focus questions, future client needs, and industry shifts. From hanging out the author has learnt that one type of client that has been common during the last years have been the media houses. The media houses have been facing challenges due to the clients shift from traditional sources to digital sources. These have then contacted the case company, which has then deployed their strategy department, that defined that they need a certain digital product, which is then produced by the case company’s production studio.
The company has recently gone through a change when they outspokenly decided to divide the company into Strategy and Studio, this makes it a very interesting company to research due to the need for communication to bridge the uncertainty in this period of transition. There are 21 people currently working for the case company and they have formerly had a significant employee turnover rate. According to the respondents this is due to a combination of rapid quick-fix recruitment and unstructured organization (Interview 1, personal communication, 2016-11-14).
As they work with digital strategy they see a lot of opportunities ahead as all the big corporations have to enter the digital scene to keep up with start-ups and more agile companies that are trying to disrupt their industries. The author has understood from
hanging out that the company culture is very laid-back with ping pong-tables, after work on Fridays and flexible time schedules.
Except for the Account Managers the employees have no set goals and objectives. The time and energy put on HR is very limited which has led to issues with internal communication, employee disengagement and the structures. In Interview 2 (Interview 2, personal communication, 2016-11-15) the respondent said that the employees are not involved in thre strategic discussions in the way they would prefer and “it is more that we are like Santa’s little helpers”. There is a dissatisfaction towards the management and their lack of communication skills and when asked why this is the case, respondent 1 answered; “I think it is a combination of the managers and the leader not being that experienced in leading teams or especially not effective teams. They have no idea in how to do that. And then I also think that they believe that they are clear enough and it is also a problem because they never look to themselves if something goes wrong in a project. So then it is the employees fault so they never learn either. So it is a combination of ignorance and expertise” (Interview 1, personal communication, 2016-11-14). Currently they work very project oriented and with smaller groups, which has led to that they do not refer to the organisation as a “we” as long as they are not involved in the projects discussed (Interview 1, personal communication, 2016-11-14).
From hanging out the author have distinguished a typical process of a project. It would be that a Key Account Manager gets in contact with a company that wants to develop their website. The Key Account Manager then contacts a Project Leader to check the availability of the designers, front-end developers and back-end developers. Then the Key Account Manager contacts the client and gives a proposal, before the work is further developed. There is a lack of briefing the employees before selling the solutions, which sometimes lead to extra work and client dissatisfaction due to the lack of hands-on understanding of the craftsmanship, from the Key Account Manager. This chain of communication is normally done in a combination of face to face-meetings and e-mail communication.
4.2 Internal communication
In order to comply the purpose of this study concerning internal communication to promote psychological ownership, two research questions where stated; What are the
essential elements in internal communication that promotes psychological ownership?
and What communication channels are most effective for creating psychological
ownership? In this section the author will address the first question by presenting the
results of the interviews. The interviews were conducted with semi-structured questions where the aim was to give the respondents the ability to extend their answers. The
they created the foundation that will lead to the answer of the research questions. From the answers on the questions from some distinguishing factors were extracted. These are the following;
4.2.1 Structure
The shared opinion on the situation was that there was a lack of defined communication structures. On the question What is important in internal communication? Respondent 1 answered “That there is a structure for it, and that everybody knows how the internal communication is supposed to work. I don’t think that the platform that you choose is important. Not at all. But someone, or you together, has to decide on how you want to communicate”. Respondent 2 also directed focus towards the lack of structure and the risks associated with this by saying; “If there is no formulated structure for how the internal communication is supposed to be done, it creates space, and this space will always be filled with misunderstandings. Those misunderstandings always slow down the process and creates frustration.” This is an indicator that for the communication to be successful, there need to be a collective understanding on how the communication should be done. This means that the way the people interact and communicate with each other should be similar in their conduct and predetermined to decrease the possibility of misunderstandings and frustration and to ensure a structured communication. On the other hand, respondent 1 also said that the structure can be flexible in a longer term by saying that “structures will change from project to project, but there needs to be an overall; this is how we in this company communicate, and this is how we decide to do it in this project. And that should be clear for everyone involved.“ There is hence a clear desire for a clear structure for the internal communication to make sure the full understanding and decrease the risk of misunderstandings.
The case company has had issues with distributing responsibilities which has made the employees unsecure if they own specific projects an if they have the authority to do something about issues, structures and projects. Respondent 1 said “No one knows if they own something, and if they have the authority to do something” (Interview 1, personal communication, 2016-11-14). It is according to the respondents very important that there are clear hand-overs trough clear communication for them to feel confident with taking on a project. There is a shortage of documentation which creates a lot of extra work for the employees, when they have to redo and think in retrospect what was done a while ago. There is also a dissatisfaction in how the briefings are conducted and that these are not sufficient for the full understanding and especially not sufficient for the employee to feel comfortable in taking full responsibility and ownership of a project. “You have to know what your responsibilities are and you have to know where to find those responsibilities. Now, sometimes it can be something said in a meeting and you are not sure when you are handed a responsibility. You have to have a structure on how to go back and look at it. Also if there is good documentation the entire team knows who does what. If the structure
varies from day to day then you are never sure. It makes your life a whole lot easier if you have a clear structure” (Interview 1, personal communication, 2016-11-14).
4.2.2 Vision
There is an aligned desire among the respondents to have a clear vision. “We have to know where we are heading and how we are aim to go to get from here to there” (Interview 4, personal communication, 2016-11-19). It is important for the employees to know about the direction of the company, where it is heading, what the obstacles are and how the organisation plan to tackle these. The respondents of the interview also say that it is very important for them to know about the big organizational directions. There is a need for a clear vision and a plan on how to reach this, otherwise the interviewees says that they will be demotivated and disconnect their personal self to the organization. “The importance of identity was mentioned in a clear way in Interview 2, “It could be improved by us sitting down together to discussed what our identity is, what is our goal, what do we represent and what is our identity? If you have a clear identity and vision you will create things that are aligned with this identity. Through this lack of identity, you could say that a lot of our communicative problems arise. Because we do not know what we do. We extinct fires on houses we will never finish.” (Interview 2, personal communication, 2016-11-15). This has led to that the majority of the respondents would not refer to the case company as “we” unless they have been practically involved in the project.
The communication between the employees and the organization should be transparent and the organization should have the courage and ambition to communicate where it is heading, how they are getting there and what issues there might be along the way. This is important for the employees to feel that they see the bigger purpose of the company and to understand its role in the society. The respondents also said that the lack of this kind of communication has led to a lack of sense of belonging. One person said in the interview that “we are in the same vehicle but it does not feel like we know where it is heading. And that is frustrating” (Interview 3, personal communication, 2016-11-17). The lack of adequate internal corporate communication, meaning the top-down communication, has led to issues with confidence, confusion and disengagement among employees. Respondent 1: “There needs to be an aligned vision. You need to know where you are heading and who you are. It is not only about communication because it is also about making your employees a part of that process. If my boss communicates where we should be in two years, but I have not been a part in designing that, then I will not care for it.” (Interview 1, personal communication, 2016-11-14).
4.2.3 Involvement
The involvement of the employees seems to be highly important for them to feel ownership. From start to end they want to know what is going on and they want get a full overview of the project’s background, situation and expectations. “Companies come to us because they lack something. They see that there is something we can do that they can not. When we are then handed a brief the brief might not be what they really need. If someone who does not know is about your competence is selling that project. Then you are going to work on a project that the client does not need and that our company does not need [..] I think you have to be part of asking the questions from the beginning” (Interview 4, personal communication, 2016-11-19). This was also raised in an other interview, “It does not matter if you are a designer, if you work with strategy or if you work as a project manager, if you do not know why you are doing the project and what you have promised to deliver it is impossible to know how much time you should invest, how you should tackle the project and why you do what you do” (Interview 5, personal communication, 2016-11-20). There is hence a want from the employees to be included in the strategic work and the communication with clients to increase the likelihood of them feeling psychological ownership and engagement towards the organisation. The employees ask for involvement in project backgrounds, updates and any information that might concern the progress of the project. By involving the employees in the construction of the debrief and client feedback the respondents said that they will make sure that the project’s description and tasks will be aligned with what the client wants on the same time as they ensure that it will be doable for the employees. In this way the respondents said that they will be comfortable with taking on ownership of tasks.
When asked what could be improved the respondents also complained about being involved in irrelevant e-mails and meetings while being left out of information that would be highly relevant for them to know about in their work. “If it is a task that I will do on myself, then you can just e-mail me or Slack me, but if it something that is good for the entire team to know, then it should come up in our team channel. But, we are a small company so I think the best thing is to just go and talk to me. Sending an e-mail or posting it on some channel, is mainly so that you can go back and remember what you did. It is also good to track what you have done if you do not track hours” (Interview 2, personal communication, 2016-11-15). This was further developed in Interview 1 where the importance of involving was very outspoken. “I would start with involving the employees in where we are heading because I don’t believe that you can as an owner of the company can do that all by yourself. That is not how it works. And then when it comes to project, I want the managers to come to us early on. And that could be a face-to-face meeting with the team that will work with the project. Then I want us to debrief together so that we will all understand the client and also understand where we are heading in the project. Then once in the project I want the managers to have the main contact with the client. If it is something that I need to answer directly, then of course include me, but if it is not then just brief me” (Interview 1, personal communication, 2016-11-14).
In the same time as involvement is a crucial part for the employees to feel ownership, they also dislike being involved in communication that might be irrelevant. This causes a complex situation for the management. ”I do not want to take part of ”unnecessary” emails. I dont want to read 10 emails to find what could concern me. It is the managers’ role to communicate clearly”. According to Interview 2 the reason for the inefficient internal communication was because of the fact that this is not valued by the management on the same time as they lack the experience. “The managers lack of experience in leading effective teams, so they believe that they are good enough. But they never learn due to their ignorance towards the importance. Ignorance and lack of expertise” (Interview 2, personal communication, 2016-11-15).
According to the respondents it is crucial with a de-brief, which means that you break down the brief or instructions that you have received from the clients to be respond to the client what this will mean and to ensure full understanding. No matter how clear and specific the instructions are, it should be feedbacked on, to either get clarification or confirmation before the resources are put into the work. “You have to know about the background and expectations in a project to feel invested in it and to save time in the process of trying to understand it” (Interview 1, personal communication, 2016-11-14). “I think it is very important to raise follow-up questions and to the ones I am working with, I do this all the time. I am trying to establish a communication culture that concerns both the operational work but also how involved are feeling about a project. I truly believe that this is crucial” (Interview 2, personal communication, 2016-11-15).
The case company uses a very horizontal organizational structure with low levels of authority for the superiors. From the interviews it is clear that there are issues with the upward communication because of the lack of respect for the employees’ feedback. This has led to a less incentives to take full ownership or responsibility over projects due to the lack of trust from the managers to the employees. When asked about the importance of two-way communication in SMEs respondent nr 2 answered “I believe that there is a need for this within all organizations that work with intangible concepts such as creativity since it is so easy to be absorbed into too large structures and systems that can not feel and understand how the employees feel and what they need. But small organizations especially since everything happens on the same location, everyone sees each other and the communication can be more direct since there are fewer people. And maybe this means that the communicational energy is transformed and absorbed a lot faster into the organization than a large organization” (Interview 2, personal communication, 2016-11-15).
