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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association of the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness with affective commitment and turnover intentions among retail employees in India while also examining the mediating role of job satisfaction in these associations.

Research hypotheses were tested using a cross-organizational sample of 244 employees. Existing, established scales were used to measure the research constructs.

The results of this study show that the satisfaction of the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness was positively related to affective commitment and negatively related to turnover intentions. Moreover, the results indicate that job satisfaction mediated the association of basic psychological need satisfaction with affective commitment and turnover intentions.

This study highlights the significant role of basic psychological need satisfaction in retaining employees in a rapidly growing economy that is experiencing very high employee turnover. The findings of this study may be helpful for organizational leaders in taking appropriate actions to create working conditions that facilitate the satisfaction of employees’ basic psychological needs. Satisfaction of employees’ basic psychological needs at work may help in retaining them in the current economic scenario, which is witnessing very high employee turnover.

This research tested the applicability of basic psychological need satisfaction to Eastern collectivistic cultures, particularly to India. Recent socio-economic changes, unique workforce demographics and a predominantly collectivistic culture make India distinct from western and European countries, where most of the earlier research on understanding the nature, antecedents, and consequences of basic psychological need satisfaction has been conducted. This research provides an important contribution not only to basic psychological need satisfaction theory, but also to international business literature.

This paper aims to investigate whether and how enterprise social media (ESM) affordances affect employee agility.

Adopting self-determination theory (SDT), this study examines a model in which the four ESM affordances (i.e. visibility, association, editability and persistence) impact employee agility through the three basic psychological needs satisfaction (i.e. perceived autonomy, perceived relatedness and perceived competence) of employees. Mplus 7.4 was used to analyze survey data gathered from 304 employees who used ESM in the workplace.

The authors’ findings show that all four ESM affordances contribute to perceived relatedness and perceived competence; visibility and association affordances also have positive impacts on perceived autonomy; and all three psychological needs satisfaction positively impact employee agility.

First, this study adapted SDT to explore how ESM influences employee agility. Second, this study enriches the relevant research on the antecedents of employee agility and also provides new evidence and theoretical support for employee agility. Third, this study effectively expands the antecedents and outcomes of employee basic psychological needs satisfaction in the domain of ESM and agility.

This paper aims to investigate the relationships between empowering leadership, basic psychological needs satisfaction, work-related well-being, and project citizenship behavior.

Drawing upon the self-determination theory (SDT), a conceptual model was developed and then empirically tested using a cross-sectional survey of 435 project members in Chinese construction projects.

The results fully support the research hypotheses proposed in the study, illustrating the positive impacts of empowering leadership on work-related well-being and project citizenship behavior, the mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction, and the positive association between work-related well-being and project citizenship behavior.

This research determines the utility of empowering leadership in the context of construction projects, especially in enhancing individual outcomes (i.e. work-related well-being and project citizenship behavior). Therefore, construction project managers can apply empowering leadership to meet the basic psychological needs of subordinates to increase project members' work-related well-being and project citizenship behavior.

To our knowledge, the present study first explores the micro-level impacts of empowering leadership in the construction context. Additionally, this study enriches the understanding of the mediating mechanism between empowering leadership and individual outcomes from a self-determination perspective.

The Great Resignation has led to a significant increase in the number of people quitting their jobs due to reasons such as stagnant wages, rising cost of living, job dissatisfaction and safety concerns. Therefore, the aim of this study is that it is important to help people develop better cognitive resources to face adversity.

The Great Resignation has led to a significant increase in the number of people quitting their jobs due to reasons such as stagnant wages, rising cost of living, job dissatisfaction and safety concerns. Therefore, it is important to help people develop better cognitive resources to face adversity. In this study, we administered a questionnaire to 250 employees to determine the variables that could help them build cognitive resources. These variables included the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and affiliation), psychological capital, motivation regulation (within the self-determination theory) and well-being (assessed by self-esteem, positive emotions, positive automatic thoughts and vitality). The results revealed that satisfaction of basic needs is associated with better psychological capital and more self-autonomous behavior, which leads to higher psychological well-being. These findings are discussed in the paper, emphasizing the importance of management and work context that satisfy the basic needs and help to build resources with psychological capital.

The results revealed that satisfaction of basic needs is associated with better psychological capital and more self-autonomous behavior, which leads to higher psychological well-being. These findings are discussed in the paper, emphasizing the importance of management and work context that satisfy the basic needs and help to build resources with psychological capital.

Highlight the importance of consequences of the Great Resignation and the need to internationalize this concept.

Self-determination theory (SDT), offers a theoretical framework for enhancing employee motivation and stimulating positive outcomes such as commitment, well-being and engagement, in organizations. This paper aims to investigate the application of SDT among leaders and delineate practical managerial approaches for supporting basic psychological needs in the workplace.

Participants were 51 leaders who had personally applied SDT with their own followers. Data were collected via free-listing method and analysed to extrapolate examples of SDT-application that are both practically salient and aligned to theoretic tenets of SDT.

The findings reveal how SDT is operationalized by leaders to support basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness in the workplace. The SDT-informed management strategies are discussed in relation to the literature and alongside case scenarios to illustrate approaches for integrating elements of SDT into day-to-day management activities.

Despite extensive literature support for SDT, very little empirical attention has been paid to examining how the theory is applied, interpreted and/or used by practitioners in real world settings. This research is the first to draw on the lived-experience of practitioners who have applied SDT, contributes previously unexplored strategies for supporting workers’ basic psychological needs and responds to calls for SDT research to identify a broader range of managerial behaviours that support employee motivation.

Cognitive evaluation theory (CET; Deci, 1975), SDT's first mini-theory, was built from research on the dynamic interplay between external events (e.g., rewards, choice) and people's task interest or enjoyment – that is, intrinsic motivation (IM). At the time, this research was quite controversial, as operant theory (Skinner, 1971) had dominated the psychological landscape. The central assumption of operant theory was that reinforcement contingencies in the environment control behavior, which precluded the existence of inherently satisfying activities performed for non-separable outcomes. During this time, Deci proposed that people – by nature – possess intrinsic motivation (IM), which can manifest as engagement in curiosity-based behaviors, discovery of new perspectives, and seeking out optimal challenges (see also Harlow, 1953; White, 1959). IM thus represents a manifestation of the organismic growth tendency and is readily observed in infants' and toddlers' exploratory behavior and play. Operationally, an intrinsically motivated activity is performed for its own sake – that is, the behavior is experienced as inherently satisfying. From an attributional perspective (deCharms, 1968), such behaviors have an internal perceived locus of causality, as people perceive their behavior as emanating from their sense of self, rather than from experiences of control or coercion.

The purpose of this paper is to test two hypotheses. First, an indirect relationship between qualitative job insecurity and turnover intention through basic psychological need satisfaction was investigated. Second, a moderated mediation analysis was conducted to explore potential sectoral differences in this indirect relationship.

A cross-sectional design was used to collect and analyze the data. In total, 358 employees participated in the study (private sector n=178, public sector n=180). The data were collected through an online survey platform.

Qualitative job insecurity was indirectly related to turnover intention through the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. The indirect relationships were more salient in the private sector.

Basic psychological needs may explain the relationship between qualitative job insecurity and turnover intention. Furthermore, sector differences may exist in the way job insecurity is responded to. However, a longitudinal study is necessary to confirm the sequential effects.

The study provides a constructive replication of the findings on basic psychological need satisfaction as a mediator between job insecurity and employee outcomes. A novel aspect is the authors’ focus on sector differences, which draws attention to contextual factors that may shape the way employees respond to job-insecure situations.

The purpose of this paper was to test a model that differentiated between two types of job demands in relation to basic psychological need satisfaction, work motivation, and, in turn, employee well-being. In particular, job challenges and job hindrances were hypothesized to relate to this motivational process in different ways.

Survey data from a sample of 160 entrepreneurs were used in path analyses to test the hypothesized relations.

The results showed that job challenges related positively to autonomy- and competence need satisfaction as well as to autonomous work motivation, while job hindrances related negatively to satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. Further, satisfaction of the need for autonomy, competence and relatedness related positively to autonomous work motivation. Finally, all of the three basic psychological needs as well as autonomous work motivation related directly and positively to vitality.

These results support a view on job challenges and job hindrances as distinct within the job demands-resources model by showing how they are differently related to basic psychological needs, autonomous work motivation and, subsequently, worker well-being.

First, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the public service motivation (PSM) literature by increasing the limited knowledge of organizational antecedents of PSM. Second, by combining PSM with insights from self-determination theory (SDT), the paper aims to elucidate the link through which high-performance work systems (HPWS) relate to PSM.

Using a survey, the authors investigated nurses’ perceptions of HPWS, PSM, and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs in four different German hospitals.

The results of this study provide empirical evidence that PSM is influenced by several HR practices and the three basic psychological needs autonomy, relatedness, and competence, which in turn are influenced by certain HR practices as well. Basic psychological needs do not fully mediate the relationship between HPWS and PSM.

Four dimensions of HPWS are measured by a single item and the results are based on a German sample. They therefore might not apply to other countries. Future research will benefit from using a more corroborated measurement instrument of HPWS in different countries.

This study offers useful insights for HR managers in the nursing sector on the question how PSM can be fostered effectively.

This study adds to the limited knowledge of organizational antecedents of PSM by including ideas from HRM into the study of PSM. Second, by combining PSM with insights from psychology (SDT), this study sheds light on the mediating mechanisms which help to explain how HPWS relate to PSM; a conceptual model explaining the HPWS-PSM relationship is developed and tested.

Integrating the social exchange perspective of helping behavior with self-determination theory (SDT), this study seeks to examine the impact of employees' psychological needs on perceived organizational justice and the impact of perceived organizational justice on employees' helping behavior.

Cross-sectional and cross-organizational data were obtained from 177 full-time employees employed in 12 small- and medium-sized oil and gas service companies. A partial least squares approach using SmartPLS was employed to test the hypotheses.

Results illustrate that the psychological need for competence and need for autonomy are positively related to perceived distributive and procedural justice, respectively. Moreover, perceived distributive and procedural justice are related to helping behavior. Furthermore, perceived distributive justice fully mediates the relationship between the psychological need for competence and helping behavior, whereas perceived procedural justice partially mediates the relationship between the psychological need for autonomy and helping behavior.

From a theoretical standpoint, this study offers some theoretical explanations for how the basic psychological needs identified by SDT activate employees' perceived organizational justice. Practically, this study offers several managerial recommendations that help managers manage helping behavior in the organization effectively.