The Daily Motivators: Positive Work Events, Psychological Needs Satisfaction, and Work Engagement

Affect under need satisfaction and need thwarting: A new classification for the prediction of creative performance

Affect plays a pivotal role in fostering creative performance, and there is increasing recognition that different levels and types of affect may exert distinct impacts on creative performance. Drawing upon self-determination theory, this study aims to explore a novel classification of affect-affect under need satisfaction and need thwarting-and examine its relationship with creative performance. Study 1 involved 75 participants to investigate the content of affect under need satisfaction and need thwarting. Study 2 explores the relationship between affect and creative performance using a sample of 115 employees from Beijing. The findings unveiled nine types of affect under need satisfaction (e.g., moderate levels of excited) and eleven types of affect under need thwarting (e.g., low levels of afraid). Positive associations were observed between affect under need satisfaction and creativity, while negative associations were found between affect under need thwarting and creativity. Empirical evidence corroborating the significant role of the new classification of affect in enhancing employee creativity within the context of Chinese academia and researchers is presented.

Taking appreciation to heart: appreciation at work and cardiovascular risk in male employees

Introduction

While perceived appreciation at work has been associated with self-reported health and wellbeing, studies considering biological health markers are lacking. In this study, we investigated whether appreciation at work would relate to coronary heart disease (CHD) risk as well as the specificity of this proposed association.

Methods

Our study comprised a total of 103 male participants, including apparently healthy, medication-free, non-smoking men in the normotensive to hypertensive range (n = 70) as well as medicated hypertensive and CHD patients (n = 33). CHD risk was assessed by blood pressure [mean arterial pressure (MAP)], the diabetes marker glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), blood lipids [total cholesterol (TC)/high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio], coagulation activity (D-dimer and fibrinogen), and inflammation [interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and C-reactive protein (CRP)]. Perceived appreciation at work, as well as potentially confounding psychological factors (social support, self-esteem, and work strain due to a lack of appreciation), were measured by self-report questionnaires.

Results

We found higher appreciation at work to relate to lower overall composite CHD risk (p's ≤ 0.011) and, in particular, to lower MAP (p's ≤ 0.007) and lower blood lipids (p's ≤ 0.031) in medication-free participants as well as all participants. This overall association was independent of confounding factors, including related psychological factors (p's ≤ 0.049).

Discussion

Our findings indicate that appreciation at work might be an independent health-promoting resource in terms of CHD risk. Implications include that encouraging appreciation at work may help reduce the development and progression of CHD.

A cross-cultural comparison of work engagement in the relationships between trust climate - Job performance and turnover intention: Focusing China and Pakistan

While the significance of cross-cultural research has been acknowledged over time, there remains a gap in understanding its relationship with employee outcomes. This study delves into the associations between organizational trust climate (TC) and job performance (JP), as well as turnover intention (TI), seeking to ascertain if work engagement (WE) plays a mediating role. Additionally, the research investigates potential differences in the mediating effect between China and Pakistan. Data gathered from 270 participants in China and 242 in Pakistan were subjected to structural equation modeling (SEM) for analysis. Findings indicated that perceptions of individual WE serve as a bridge between organizational TC and JP, with the effect on JP being notably stronger among the Chinese participants. Moreover, the mediating role of WE in the link between organizational TC and TI was more pronounced for the Pakistani participants. On a practical front, such insights can equip managers with a nuanced understanding of the ripple effect that a trust-infused environment can have on employee engagement, subsequently influencing performance and retention rates.

Gratitude intersects with affect as a boundary condition for daily satisfaction: An affective dynamics perspective

This study is based on the affective events theory to investigate the situational predictors for gratitude-related differences in daily affect and satisfaction. We tested a moderated mediation model in which daily microevents (daily hassles and uplifts) were related to satisfaction through affect, at the within-person level. We also tested the cross-level interaction of gratitude on this indirect relationship. A total of 195 participants participated in a 5-day diary study (195 * 5 = 975 measurement occasions). Multilevel modeling showed that, at the person-level of analysis, daily microevents were significantly related to daily affect and, in turn, to daily satisfaction. At the daily level of analysis, trait-based gratitude moderated the mediation of daily positive affect on the relationship between daily uplifts and daily satisfaction, such that it become stronger for individuals who scored lower on gratitude, but gratitude did not moderate the relationship between daily hassles, negative affect, and satisfaction. These findings make relevant theoretical contributions to understanding the power of gratitude for daily affective dynamics. These results also expand knowledge on within-person processes that explain daily affect and satisfaction, in addition to more traditional between-person factors. In sum, the present research demonstrates that "being grateful" may be associated with being happy and that individuals who are less grateful need to experience more daily uplifts and positive affect to feel satisfied.

The Black Unicorn Effect: Micro-daily Events and Satisfaction Decrease the COVID-19 Xenophobia, but Only for Those With Low Levels of Neuroticism

Drawing on the behavioral concordance model and the trait activation theory, this study examined how and when daily micro-events influence COVID-19 xenophobic attitudes. First, we examined the mediating role of satisfaction, and then, tested the moderating role of neuroticism in the mediated relationship. Overall, 340 working adults volunteered to participate in this study. The findings revealed that (1) satisfaction mediated the negative relationship between daily micro-events and xenophobic attitudes and (2) neuroticism moderated this relationship such that xenophobic attitudes increased for neurotic individuals, even when their satisfaction increased. Our findings contribute to understanding the relationship between daily micro-events and COVID-19 xenophobia and provide empirical evidence for the combined effects of personality factors and affective factors on xenophobic attitudes. Furthermore, we evidence the existence of the black unicorn effect, that is, neurotic individuals tend to transpose their neurotic cognitions and emotions to xenophobic attitudes despite the uplifting and satisfying nature of positive events.

The relationship between work practice environment and work engagement among nurses: The multiple mediation of basic psychological needs and organizational commitment a cross-sectional survey

Background

Previous researchers have demonstrated that the work practice environment influences nurses' engagement; however, few studies have explored the mechanisms that explain the links between them.

Objectives

To examine whether basic psychological needs and organizational commitment mediate the relationship between the work practice environment and work engagement.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a sample of 893 nurses from 14 cities in Sichuan Province of China between November 2021 and December 2021. Data were collected online using the Chinese version of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale, Organizational Commitment Scale, and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. The Pearson correlation analysis and multiple mediation model were used to analyze the data.

Results

The Pearson correlation analysis showed that work practice environment, basic psychological needs, and organizational commitment were positively associated with work engagement. The positive relationship between work practice environment and work engagement was mediated by basic psychological needs and organizational commitment [B = 0.505, SE = 0.032, 95% CI (0.442, 0.566)].

Conclusions

The study substantially contributes to the existing knowledge by revealing the mechanisms of fostering work engagement among nurses and explaining why the work practice environment influences work engagement.

Investigating the effects of high-involvement climate and public service motivation on engagement, performance, and meaningfulness in the public sector

Purpose

Despite much research, too many employees are disengaged in their work. As such, the present research uses a public sector setting to investigate variables (e.g. public service motivation and high-involvement climate) most likely associated with engagement and demonstrates a conceptual and empirical link to relevant outcomes (e.g. job performance and perceived meaningfulness).

Design/methodology/approach

Across a work week, the authors analyze the drivers and outcomes of public service employees’ engagement levels and the mediating effect of employee engagement.

Findings

Employee engagement mediated the positive relationship between the authors’ independent variables of public service motivation and high-involvement climate and our outcomes of supervisor-rated employee performance and meaningfulness. All direct and indirect effects were statistically significant and positive.

Research limitations/implications

The authors’ sample is a nonprofit government agency, so the results may lack generalizability. Although self-determination theory (SDT) guided their choice of variables and hypotheses, they did not measure the specific needs satisfaction (competence, relatedness, and autonomy) associated with the SDT.

Practical implications

Managers in public-service organizations may want to recruit those high in public service motivation and institute a high-involvement climate via manager skill training.

Originality/value

This article follows a meta-analysis call on SDT to test the impact of variables that fall under the identified form of autonomous motivation, and investigate their impact on engagement and other positive organizational outcomes (e.g. job performance and perceived meaningfulness). Additionally, the author followed calls to extend engagement research to focus on specific industry sectors, such as the public sector.

How does workplace event criticality spur employees' proactivity? The roles of work engagement and mindfulness

This paper aims to generate insights about whether, how, and when workplace event criticality spurs employee proactivity. We conducted multilevel analyses with a three-wave time-lagged survey of 179 employees and their 55 direct leaders in China to test our proposed model. The findings indicate that workplace event criticality is conducive to stimulating proactive work behavior through improving employee engagement. Further, employee mindfulness amplifies the positive relationship between workplace event criticality and work engagement. Despite the increasingly unavoidable influence of events in the workplace on employee proactivity, empirical research around the relationship and its underlying mechanism has been rather sparse. Our event-oriented research advances this knowledge by unpacking the salient motivating role of workplace events' criticality in employee work engagement and proactivity. It also increases our understanding by illustrating that employee mindfulness will amplify and intensify the motivational potential of workplace event criticality for work engagement.

The mediating role of psychological needs on the relationship between perceived organizational support and work engagement

AIM

To examine the mediating effect of basic psychological needs on the relationship between perceived organizational support and work engagement among nurses.

BACKGROUND

The satisfaction of basic psychological needs is crucial for breeding and sustaining individuals' intrinsic motivation. Little is known about the underlying motivational mechanisms that explain the relationship among perceived organizational support, basic psychological needs, and work engagement in a nursing context.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional online survey. A sample of 858 nurses from 12 hospitals was surveyed on their perceived organizational support, basic psychological needs, and work engagement. Structural equation models and bootstrapping methods were used to examine the hypotheses. STROBE reporting guidelines were utilized.

RESULTS

Perceived organizational support was positively associated with basic psychological needs and work engagement. Basic psychological needs were positively associated with work engagement. Basic psychological needs mediated the relationship between perceived organizational and work engagement.

CONCLUSION

Perceived organizational support may enhance work engagement by fulfilling the basic psychological needs of nurses.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND NURSING POLICY

Basic psychological needs deserve more attention in nursing organizations. Managers should seek optimal strategies to fulfill nurses' needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness to stimulate their intrinsic motivation to enhance work engagement.

Basic Psychological Needs in the Work Context: A Systematic Literature Review of Diary Studies

According to the self-determination theory, individuals' basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness should be satisfied for optimal psychological growth. The satisfaction of these needs seems to vary due to changes in a person's social context, and the outcomes of the satisfaction of these needs also vary along with the needs. Despite several studies investigating daily and weekly variations in need satisfaction and its correlates, no systematic investigation exists. This study aimed to conduct a narrative synthesis of existing quantitative diary studies of basic psychological needs in the work context. We specifically aimed to evaluate if psychological need satisfaction varies daily and weekly and judge whether they vary more daily or weekly. Additionally, we also aimed to review the literature regarding the relations between daily or weekly variations in need satisfaction and its assumed antecedents and outcomes. We included peer-reviewed articles in English that measured work-related basic psychological needs using a quantitative diary study design. Database searching (Web of Science, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, and Scopus) led to the extraction of 2 251 records by February 2020. Duplicates were removed, the remaining records were screened (n = 820), and 30 articles were assessed using eligibility criteria. Two authors individually conducted the screening and eligibility processes to manage selection bias. In total, 21 articles were included in the final review. The review indicated that basic psychological need satisfaction showed considerable within-person variation and was more dynamic daily (compared to weekly). Job demands, job resources, organisational resources, and individual characteristics appeared to associate with these variations. The organisational context seemed to matter the most for need satisfaction. Variations in need satisfaction were also related to employee well-being, performance, and motivation. Despite the small number of published studies (particularly for weekly studies), our results indicate that researchers should pay attention to within-person variations in need satisfaction. Measuring daily need satisfaction could be prioritised. Different antecedents and outcomes seem to be associated with different needs. Thus, when needs are viewed as distinct constructs instead of unidimensional ones, one can derive greater insights. The study is funded by the National Research Foundation.

Praise and recognition from supervisors buffers employee psychological strain: A two-sample investigation with tourism workers

BACKGROUND

Focusing on employees with psychological strain, this research draws on Fredrickson's 'undoing hypothesis' to examine praise and recognition from one's supervisor as an organizational resource.

OBJECTIVE

A model is tested in which psychological strain is a mediator in the positive relationship between role demands and employees' intentions to take sick leave and seek medical advice, and positions supervisor praise and recognition as a buffer of psychological strain on such intentions.

METHODS

The model was tested using two Australian samples in the tourism sector, consisting of motel workers (n = 104) and museum workers (n = 168).

RESULTS

For museum workers, but not motel workers, there was a positive indirect effect of each role demand on sick leave intentions through psychological strain that weakened as a function of supervisor praise and recognition. The proposed moderated mediated model was supported for both samples in regards to intentions to seek medical advice.

CONCLUSIONS

This research contributes new evidence regarding the antecedents of employees' intentions to take sick leave and seek medical advice for work stress-related problems. It also contributes to the limited evidence regarding supervisor praise and recognition as a protective factor for employees exhibiting the symptoms of psychological strain.

Exploring the Engaged Worker over Time-A Week-Level Study of How Positive and Negative Work Events Affect Work Engagement

Although work events can be regarded as pivotal elements of organizational life, only a few studies have examined how positive and negative events relate to and combine to affect work engagement over time. Theory suggests that, to better understand how current events affect work engagement (WE), we have to account for recent events that have preceded these current events. We present competing theoretical views on how recent and current work events may affect employees (e.g., getting used to a high frequency of negative events or becoming more sensitive to negative events). Although the occurrence of events implies discrete changes in the experience of work, prior research has not considered whether work events actually accumulate to sustained mid-term changes in WE. To address these gaps in the literature, we conducted a week-level longitudinal study across a period of 15 consecutive weeks among 135 employees, which yielded 849 weekly observations. While positive events were associated with higher levels of WE within the same week, negative events were not. Our results support neither satiation nor sensitization processes. However, a high frequency of negative events in the preceding week amplified the beneficial effects of positive events on WE in the current week. Growth curve analyses show that the benefits of positive events accumulate to sustain high levels of WE. WE dissipates in the absence of a continuous experience of positive events. Our study adds a temporal component by highlighting that positive events affect work engagement, particularly in light of recent negative events. Our study informs research that has taken a feature-oriented perspective on the dynamic interplay of job demands and resources.

Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction, Autonomous Motivation, and Meaningful Work: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective

The present study investigated relations between basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, relatedness, and competence), autonomous motivation, and work meaning. With a sample of 462 working adults, we used structural equation modeling to test the incremental validity of including autonomous motivation in a model predicting meaningful work from basic psychological need satisfaction. The satisfaction of autonomy and relatedness needs directly predicted autonomous motivation, while competence need satisfaction directly predicted meaningful work. Mediation analyses supported the incremental contribution of autonomous motivation in the links from autonomy and relatedness to work meaning, but not from competence to work meaning. Our findings provide novel connections between the bodies of literature on Self-Determination Theory and meaningful work. We discuss practical implications for career counselors, organizational leaders, and policymakers, as well as future research directions.

All's well that ends well!? Moderating effects of goal progress on the relation between challenge and hindrance appraisal and well-being

Purpose

Drawing from both the transactional theory of stress and the conservation of resources theory, this paper sets out to investigate the role of demand-specific challenge and hindrance appraisal of emotional demands, as well as time pressure and perceived goal progress within the challenge–hindrance framework.

Design/methodology/approach

For this research, 91 employees provided daily diary data for one working week. Focusing on within-persons effects, multilevel moderated mediation models using multilevel path analyses were applied.

Findings

Both emotional demands and time pressure exert positive effects on work engagement when people expect resource gain (challenge appraisal), independent of actual resource gain (achievement). Furthermore, results show that goal progress buffers negative effects of perceived blocked resource gain (hindrance appraisal) on both emotional and motivational well-being.

Originality/value

This research proposes an extension and refinement of the challenge–hindrance stressor framework to explain health-impairing and motivational processes of emotional demands and time pressure, combining reasoning from both appraisal and resource theory perspectives. The study identifies demand-specific challenge and hindrance appraisals as mediators linking demands to emotional and motivational well-being, emphasizing the influence of goal progress as a resource on these relations.

Tenets of self-determination theory as a mechanism behind challenge demands: a within-person study

Purpose

This study investigated a mechanism by which challenge stressors may affect employee well-being outcomes. This study tested a within-person longitudinal model in which the effects of challenge demands relate to basic psychological need satisfaction/thwarting and worker well-being outcomes. In particular, basic psychological need satisfaction and thwarting were hypothesized to mediate challenge demands and outcomes at the intraindividual level.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 84 employees from a weekly survey across four weeks (308 observations) were used in Bayesian multilevel path analyses to test hypotheses.

Findings

Although significant indirect effects showed that basic psychological needs mediate between demands and worker outcomes, only a few specific indirect effects (e.g. the path from time pressure via thwarting the need for autonomy to emotional exhaustion) operated as hypothesized. Interestingly, in this study, time pressure was only mediated via thwarting the need for autonomy when considering undesirable worker outcomes (i.e. increased emotional exhaustion, decreased job satisfaction). Job complexity, however, led to decreased emotional exhaustion via the need for competence satisfaction. Implications for need satisfaction and thwarting as mechanisms in the challenge–hindrance framework are discussed.

Originality/value

This study (1) extends the challenge–hindrance framework to include basic psychological needs as a mechanism, (2) expands basic psychological needs to include need thwarting and (3) may enhance our understanding of stressor categories.

Stress as Offense to Self: a Promising Approach Comes of Age

Stress is related to goals being thwarted. Arguably, protecting one’s self, both in terms of personal self-esteem and in terms of social self-esteem, is among the most prominent goals people pursue. Although this line of thought is hardly disputed, it does not play the prominent role in occupational health psychology that we think it deserves. Stress-as-Offense-to-Self theory focuses on threats and boosts to the self as important aspects of stressful, and resourceful, experiences at work. Within this framework we have developed the new concepts of illegitimate tasks and illegitimate stressors; we have investigated appreciation as a construct in its own right, rather than as part of larger constructs such as social support; and we propose that the threshold for noticing implications for the self in one’s surroundings typically is low, implying that even subtle negative cues are likely to be appraised as offending, as exemplified by the concept of subtly offending feedback. Updating the first publication of the SOS concept, the current paper presents its theoretical rationale as well as research conducted so far. Research has covered a variety of phenomena, but the emphasis has been (a) on illegitimate tasks, which now can be considered as an established stressor, and (b) on appreciation, showing its importance in general and as a core element of social support. Furthermore, we discuss implications for further research as well as practical implications of an approach that is organized around threats and boosts to the self, thus complementing approaches that are organized around specific conditions or behaviors.