The impact of work design, autonomy support, and strategy on employee outcomes: A differentiated perspective on self-determination at work

Abstract

Drawing upon self-determination theory, this study tested different types of behavioral regulation as parallel mediators of the association between the job’s motivating potential, autonomy-supportive leadership, and understanding the organization’s strategy, on the one hand, and job satisfaction, turnover intention, and two types of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), on the other hand. In particular, intrinsic motivation and identified regulation were contrasted as idiosyncratic motivational processes. Analyses were based on data from 201 employees in the Swiss insurance industry. Results supported both types of self-determined motivation as mediators of specific antecedent-outcome relationships. Identified regulation, for example, particularly mediated the impact of contextual antecedents on both civic virtue and altruism OCB. Overall, controlled types of behavioral regulation showed comparatively weak relations to antecedents or consequences. The unique characteristics of motivational processes and potential explanations for the weak associations of controlled motivation are discussed.