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Understanding how the satisfaction of basic needs predicts autonomous and controlled motivation to participate in development opportunities

Prof Tony Machin

University of Southern Queensland

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The SDT approach to work motivation

Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

Gagne´ and Deci (2005) showed the distinction between autonomous motivation and controlled motivation. There is a continuum ranging from more controlled motivation to more autonomous motivation (both of which are intentional) with different outcomes resulting from the type of motivation.

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Figure 1 from Gagne´ and Deci (2005)

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What is it like to be autonomously motivated?

Comments from a male employee: I’ve attended [PD] because usually of a

personal need, not because any one has tapped me on the shoulder and said you must go to this. … It’s not planned. It’s not - it’s just purely, as I said, self-driven and out of interest, I suppose.

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A formal definition (from Ratelle, Guay, & Vallerand, 2007)

“Autonomous motivation is observed when behavior is initiated and governed by the self (i.e., when intrinsically motivated or regulated by identification), whereas controlled motivation is observed when behavior is not initiated or governed by the self (i.e., when regulated by introjection or external factors)” (p. 735).

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Importance of autonomous motivation(Figure 2 from Gagne´ and Deci, 2005)

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Satisfaction of basic psychological needs

Gagne´ and Deci (2005) also argue that “work climates that promote satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs will enhance employees’ intrinsic motivation … [yielding] important work outcomes of persistence and maintained behavior

change

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effective performance, particularly on tasks requiring creativity, cognitive flexibility, and conceptual understanding

job satisfaction positive work-related attitudes organizational citizenship behaviors psychological adjustment and well-being”

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How many basic needs?

Deci and Ryan (2000) provide support for the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness as being important for all individuals. Autonomy Belongingness (relatedness) Competence

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Van den Broeck, Vansteenkiste, De Witte, Soenens and Lens (2010) showed that the three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are distinct but related constructs with r’s (averaged across 4 samples) from .28 to .58 between the latent constructs.

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From Van den Broeck, Vansteenkiste, De Witte, Soenens and Lens (2010)

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Links between basic needs and motivational types

The basic needs all relate positively to autonomous motivation and negatively (or are uncorrelated) with controlled motivation

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Research questions

We examined the relationships between measures of satisfaction of the three basic needs, and measures of autonomous and controlled motivation

We also examined the relationships between six components of psychological well-being (PWB) and measures of autonomous and controlled motivation

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We also examined the relationships between measures of the big five personality dimensions and measures of autonomous and controlled motivation

Finally, we examined the relationships between measures of six workplace characteristics and measures of autonomous and controlled motivation

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Measures

54-item version of Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-being (PWB)

21-item Basic Need Satisfaction at Work Scale (BNSW)

50-item IPIP Measure of the Big 5 Personality Factors

6-item version of the Work Climate Questionnaire measuring Autonomy Support

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33 items from FOCUS developed by Community and Organisational Research Unit (CORE) at USQ.

12-item Situational Motivation Scale adapted to focus on attendance at professional development activities.

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Autonomous and controlled motivation

1. I attend professional development activities because I don't have a choice

2. I don't see the benefit of attending professional development activities

3. I believe it is important for me to attend professional development activities

4. I think professional development opportunities are interesting

5. I attend professional development activities for my own good

6. I'm not sure it is a good thing to attend professional development activities

7. I attend professional development activities because I feel that I have to

8. I think professional development opportunities are fun

9. I personally choose to attend professional development activities

10. I attend professional development activities because I am supposed to do so

11. There may be good reasons for attending professional development activities, but personally I don't see any

12. Attending professional development activities makes me feel good

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Methodology

Ethics Approval provided by the USQ Human Research Ethics Committee (H10REA070)

The data were collected from a survey of 351 employed persons (including 85 males)

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Demographic details

Age Groups Number

Less than 20: 54 21-30: 129 31-39: 83 40-49: 56 50-59: 29 Greater than 60: 0

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Summary of the results

BNSW scales explained 11% and 11% of autonomous and controlled motivation

PWB scales explained 26% and 27% of autonomous and controlled motivation

IPIP scales explained 24% and 22% of autonomous and controlled motivation

Workplace factors explained 12% and 6% of autonomous and controlled motivation

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Relationship of basic psychological needs to autonomous and controlled motivation

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Relationship of psychological well-being to autonomous and controlled motivation

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Relationship of personality to autonomous and controlled motivation

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Relationship of work factors to autonomous and controlled motivation

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Further analyses using the best of the best

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Model fit

With the paths from BNSW Competence to both types of motivation constrained to be zero, the model fit was quite good Chi square = 3.66, df = 2, p = .16 (ns), CFI = .99, TLI = .98, RMSEA = .05 (90% CI .00 - .13).

The best predictor of autonomous and controlled motivation is PWB Personal Growth with betas of .38 and -.37 respectively. All other betas were sig.

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Conclusions

The results did not provide any support for the satisfaction of basic needs as being important in understanding employees’ motivation to participate in development opportunities.

Further analysis identified that Personal Growth was the only significant predictor of males’ levels of autonomous and controlled motivation.

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Possible avenues for further research

Examine how the basic needs interact to influence motivation.

Look at the development of satisfaction of the basic needs. It may be that changes over time are important determinants of motivation (or changes in motivation).

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A cautionary note

This study did not focus on motivation in a particular context, that is, with people who were all attending a similar event or performing a similar task. Therefore we do not know whether their understanding of the items was influenced by their particular context.

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Contact me if you have any questions

Professor Tony Machin, Department of Psychology, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, 4350. Australia. Telephone +61 7 46312587. Fax +61 7 46312721. Email: machin@usq.edu.au