People who own and run their own businesses know that the “buck stops” with them – There is no one else to whom they can turn when there are actions to take, decisions to make, or difficulties to overcome. Developing and maintaining an ownership perspective as an employee means recognizing and embracing the power of our personal agency even when working with others. Agency refers to our “capacity to intentionally influence one’s own functioning and life circumstances, as self-organizing, proactive, self-regulating, and self-reflecting contributors, rather than passive observers” (Bandura, 2006, p. 165). Although it may not always feel this way, maintaining an ownership perspective while working can help us to respond to challenges and opportunities in productive and adaptive ways.
Maintaining an ownership perspective and sense of agency at work is not always easy. This is especially true when work-related progress seems stalled, problems or difficulties linger among coworkers, or it feels like very little of your daily work is within your control. While it is natural to feel stuck and frustrated about these types of situations, sometimes it can help to think and act like an owner, recognizing that we all share responsibility for and power to influence our workplace conditions and experiences.
What Does it Mean to “Show Ownership” at Work?
We can all show or demonstrate our ownership at work in various ways. Often this starts with a shift in mindset – For example, instead of focusing on who to blame when something goes wrong (or who else to applaud when things go right), we can focus on identifying whether (a) we are playing any role in contributing to the current situation and (b) what we might be able to do to make things better or keep things moving in a positive direction. Maintaining this type of adaptive, flexible, and action-oriented mindset (when it is realistic to do so), can help us protect our mental and psychological health by facilitating action-oriented forms of coping or response in even the most difficult situations (Allevato, 2020).
A generalizable example of ownership in action is when an employee does not feel they are getting enough feedback about their performance, so they directly seek such feedback from their supervisor(s) and other coworkers. When we have an ownership perspective, we can more proactively respond to work-related challenges and opportunities as if we ourselves have at least some responsibility and authority to do so; it is not always someone else’s responsibility. In the following subsections of this post, we explore what an ownership perspective might look like for administrative, staff, and faculty employees here at UTC.
Ownership for Administrative Employees
Exhibiting ownership as an administrative employee may involve taking the initiative to identify and address certain processes that create bottlenecks or recurring inefficiencies. Along these lines, your leadership role may also grant you a preview or heads up that enables you to communicate upcoming challenges to those who work under your supervision. The goal of this type of communication might be to foster a spirit of ownership within your division or unit, with the goal of proactively and collaboratively problem-solving before an upcoming situation escalates or goes sideways. Ensuring smooth operations in this manner can set an example for the rest of your division or unit, which helps to prevent interpersonal issues and reduce stress for all. Another ownership tool or resource available to administrative employees is to engage in job crafting discussions with your employees (see our TOH@UTC resource on this topic by clicking here).
Ownership for Staff Employees
As a staff employee, demonstrating ownership might involve paying attention to recurring daily job tasks and offering ideas to your colleagues and supervisors regarding how to possibly build on what is going well and respond to what needs improvement. An ownership perspective can also be focused a bit more internally, with you taking charge of your own professional and personal development. For example, if you feel that your department could benefit from more cross-departmental collaboration, take the initiative to start the conversation with individuals in those other departments. Similarly, if you feel that students may benefit from a particular service related to your department that is not currently being offered, consider spearheading its implementation. Another way to take ownership includes engaging in actions that promote positive and constructive workplace relationships, like offering praise and recognition, feedback, and generally kind words to coworkers and administrators.
Ownership for Faculty Employees
As a faculty employee, ownership can be shown through proactive efforts to strengthen and improve personal and departmental efforts in teaching, research, and service. These can be focused within the campus community, but also beyond to impact the broader community and world. At a student level, when you notice learning gaps among students in your courses, you could take an ownership approach and offer additional review sessions or supplemental materials to those who would benefit. You might also engage with students beyond the classroom, in research labs or campus clubs, to help them navigate their broader educational journeys. In terms of research, you could encourage your colleagues within your department to strive for advancement in their own lines of study. You might also identify and pursue opportunities to build cross-departmental collaboration with researchers who have complementary areas of expertise and with whom you could cultivate new or underdeveloped lines of inquiry. Finally, your ownership can also be shown through applications of your expertise within the broader community and region; engaging with community partners enables you to be an ambassador of UTC and can provide tremendously meaningful experiences.
Why Ownership is important to TOH@UTC
Considering the examples just presented, maintaining an ownership perspective contributes to the TOH@UTC initiative by strengthening our ability to internally support a workplace culture that recognizes and proactively protects employee health, safety, and well-being. Building and sustaining this type of culture within UTC requires more than policies and procedures; On a day-to-day basis, each of us needs to do what we can as employees working with and supporting each other. In this way, ownership is also about accepting our shared responsibility and power to create and sustain the type of work environment and culture we seek. All employees have a role in building and sustaining a culture that supports TOH@UTC. Demonstrating the initiative to identify and work to resolve health, safety, and well-being related challenges that are within our reach is an essential element to all of this. Assuming responsibility for the solutions that we can control helps to encourage productivity, motivation, job satisfaction, and empowerment, which are all positive states and outcomes linked to the TOH@UTC initiative. If you are interested in discussing ownership at work or any other aspect of the TOH@UTC initiative within your department or area, please connect with Dr. Chris Cunningham and the TOH@UTC team by emailing toh@utc.edu or calling 423-425-4264.
Recommended Readings and Additional Resources about Ownership
- Allevato, E. (2020). Organizational culture change: Growth mindset, positive psychology, and empowerment. In Marques, J. & Dhiman, S. (eds.), Social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility: Management for professionals (pp. 439-454). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39676-3_28
- This chapter focuses on the importance of mindset in driving organizational change, emphasizing how a positive and action-oriented mindset can improve employee mental health and well-being.
- Baldoni, J. (2009, June 4). Exert ownership in your workplace. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2009/06/exert-ownership-in-your-workpl.
- This article explores the benefits of taking ownership in the workplace and provides some examples of how to apply ownership this in everyday life.
- Bandura, A. (2006). Toward a psychology of human agency. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1(2), 164-180. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.utc.edu/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00011.x.
- As the leading researcher on the idea of human agency, Bandura’s work offers a theoretical perspective (which has been successfully applied in multiple interventions since the early 2000s) on what agency truly means and how it can be cultivated in a person.
- Coleman, J. (2012, August 30). Take ownership of your actions by taking responsibility. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2012/08/take-ownership-of-your-actions
- The article also emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility for workplace challenges, fostering individual initiative and driving positive change.
- Shah, A., Harken, J., & Nelson, Z. (2021). Quality improvement in practice—part two: Applying the joy in work framework to healthcare. British Journal of Healthcare Management, 27(9), 234-240. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjhc.2021.0022
- This article provides a real-life example of how being proactive at work can lead to enhanced employee well-being, engagement, and productivity.
- Rimm, A. (2013, February 11). Joy at work: It’s your right. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2013/02/joy-at-work-its-your-right.
- This article argues for the significance of experiencing joy at work, which can be cultivated by taking ownership over workplace issues.
- Woods, M. (2023, August). Ownership is the key to freedom [Video]. Ted Conferences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCpllwV3H3I.
- This TED Talk discusses how taking ownership of one’s actions and responsibilities is the key to personal freedom and success.