Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2022-2
A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction at Work in an Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australian Sample Across Occupation Types
Self-determination theory (SDT) posits universality without cross-cultural uniformity of the three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) which have been associated with desirable job outcomes. Yet these promising directions in theory and research have not been extended to Indigenous samples and different occupational types. This is unfortunate as Indigenous peoples globally remain the most disadvantaged on all socio-economic indicators, including employment. This study adopted a strengths-based approach to investigating associations between SDT’s need satisfaction and job outcomes in Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous professionals and non-professionals. Participants included 1,146 Indigenous (48.8%) and non-Indigenous Australians (39.1% men), aged 18 to 81 years (Mage = 43.54). Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that autonomy and competence need satisfaction were associated with multiple positive work outcomes and less job ambiguity, whereas satisfaction of the need for relatedness was associated with increased job satisfaction and greater resilience in the workplace. Moderation by Indigenous status and occupation type revealed few differences in the direction and strength of the associations between need satisfaction and job outcomes. However, non-professionals reported significantly lower satisfaction of all three needs, and Indigenous participants reported significantly lower levels of autonomy need satisfaction. As need satisfaction was shown to be equally beneficial for all workers regardless of culture or occupation type, these findings highlight the need for employers to invest more in cultivating the need satisfaction of their Indigenous and non-professional staff. Overall, the results extend upon previous research by demonstrating that SDT is generalizable to an Australian Indigenous population and that workplace need satisfaction is important for Indigenous and non-professional employee outcomes.
AbualkibashS. K.LeraM. J. (2017). Resilience and basic psychological needs among Palestinian school students. Bioscience Biotechnology Research Communications, 10(3), 346–353.
2.
AlbrechtS. L. (2015). Challenge demands, hindrance demands, and psychological need satisfaction. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 14, 70–79.
3.
AldrupK.KlusmannU.LüdtkeO. (2017). Does basic need satisfaction mediate the link between stress exposure and well-being? A diary study among beginning teachers. Learning and Instruction, 50, 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2016.11.005
BenjaminiY.HochbergY. (1995). Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B (Statistical Methodological), 57(1), 289–300.
8.
ChenF.CurranP. J.BollenK. A.KirbyJ.PaxtonP. (2008). An Empirical Evaluation of the Use of Fixed Cutoff Points in RMSEA Test Statistic in Structural Equation Models. Sociological Methods & Research, 36(4), 462–494. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124108314720
9.
ChenB.VansteenkisteM.BeyersW.BooneL.DeciE. L.Van der Kaap-DeederJ.DuriezB.LensW.MatosL.MouratidisA.RyanR. M.SheldonK. M.SoenensB.Van PetegemS.VerstuyfJ. (2015). Basic psychological need satisfaction, need frustration, and need strength across four cultures. Motivation and Emotion, 39(2), 216–236.
10.
CheungG. W.RensvoldR. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233–255.
11.
Commonwealth of Australia. (2018). Closing the gap: Prime Minister’s report 2018, 1925363120. Australian Government.
12.
CowinL. S.JohnsonM.CravenR. G.MarshH. W. (2008). Causal modeling of self-concept, job satisfaction, and retention of nurses. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45(10), 1449–1459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2007.10.009
13.
CravenR. G.DillonA.ParburyN. (Eds.). (2013). In black and white: Australians all at the crossroads. Connor Court Publishing.
14.
CravenR. G.RyanR. M.MooneyJ.VallerandR. J.DillonA.BlacklockF.MagsonN. (2016). Toward a positive psychology of indigenous thriving and reciprocal research partnership model. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 47, 32–43.
15.
CrawfordE. R.LepineJ. A.RichB. L. (2010). Linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout: A theoretical extension and meta-analytic test. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(5), 834–848.
16.
DeciE. L.OlafsenA. H.RyanR. M. (2017). Self-determination theory in work organizations: The state of a science. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 4, 19–43.
17.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.
DiamantopoulosA.SiguawJ. (2000). Introducing LISREL: A guide for structural equation modeling. SAGE Publications Inc.
20.
DillonA.CravenR. G.KaurG.YeungA. S. (2020). Support for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian students’ wellbeing at school. International Journal of Educational Research, 99, 101520.
21.
DubreuilP.LaughreaM.MorinA. J.CourcyF.LoiselleO. (2009). Role stressors and burnout: Effects of social relationships. International Journal of Business and Management, 4(9), 3–16.
22.
DurmushG.CravenR. G.BrockmanR.YeungA. S.MooneyJ.TurnerK.GuentherJ. (2021). Empowering the voices and agency of indigenous Australian youth and their wellbeing in higher education. International Journal of Educational Research, 109, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2021.101798
23.
GagnéM.DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (2018). Self-determination theory applied to work motivation and organizational behavior. In OnesD. S.AndersonN.ViswesvaranC.SinangilH. K. (Eds.), Handbook of industrial, work, and organizational psychology (Vol. 2, 2nd ed., pp. 97–121). SAGE.
24.
GeisingerK. F.McCormickC. (2013). Testing and assessment in cross-cultural psychology. In GrahamJ. R.NaglieriJ. A.WeinerI. B. (Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Assessment psychology (pp. 114–139). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
25.
GilletN.ForestJ.BenabouC.BenteinK. (2015). The effects of organizational factors, psychological need satisfaction and thwarting, and affective commitment on workers’ well-being and turnover intentions. Le Travail Humain, 78(2), 119–140.
26.
GilletN.FouquereauE.LafrenièreM. A.HuyghebaertT. (2016). Examining the roles of work autonomous and controlled motivations on satisfaction and anxiety as a function of role ambiguity. The Journal of Psychology, 150(5), 644–665.
27.
GravetterF.WallnauL. (2014). Essentials of statistics for the behavioral sciences (Vol. 8). Cengage Learning: Boston, MA.
28.
HaarJ. M.RocheM. (2010). Self-determination theory approach to indigenous workers and working with family [Paper presentation]. Proceedings of the 24th Annual Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management Conference, Adelaide, Australia.
29.
HairJ. F.AndersonR. E.TathamR. L.BlackW. C. (1995). Multivariate data analysis. Macmillan.
30.
HaynesC. E.WallT. D.BoldenR. I.StrideC.RickJ. E. (1999). Measures of perceived work characteristics for health services research: Test of a measurement model and normative data. British Journal of Health Psychology, 4(3), 257–275.
31.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55.
32.
HunterB.GrayM. (2018). Occupational mobility of Indigenous and other Australians. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 20(2), 149.
33.
HussainS. T.LeiS.AbideenZ.HussainS. H. (2015). Motivation in the perspective of self determination theory (SDT) between work environment and job satisfaction in banking sector. International Business Research, 8(11), 39.
34.
IBM Corp. (2017). SPSS statistics for windows, version 25.0. IBM Corp.
35.
JaramilloF.MulkiJ. P.SolomonP. (2006). The role of ethical climate on salesperson’s role stress, job attitudes, turnover intention, and job performance. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 26(3), 271–282. https://doi.org/10.2753/PSS0885-3134260302
36.
JongJ. (2016). The Role of Performance Feedback and Job Autonomy in Mitigating the Negative Effect of Role Ambiguity on Employee Satisfaction. Public Performance & Management Review, 39(4), 814–834. https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2015.1137771
37.
KawaiN.MohrA. (2015). The contingent effects of role ambiguity and role novelty on expatriates’ work-related outcomes. British Journal of Management, 26(2), 163–181. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12089
38.
KingD. D.NewmanA.LuthansF. (2016). Not if, but when we need resilience in the workplace. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(5), 782–786.
39.
KirmayerL. J.BrassG. (2016). Addressing global health disparities among Indigenous peoples. Lancet, 388(10040), 105–106.
40.
KraemerH. C.KiernanM.EssexM.KupferD. J. (2008). How and why criteria defining moderators and mediators differ between the Baron & Kenny and MacArthur approaches. Health Psychology, 27(2S), S101–S108.
41.
LahnJ. (2018). Aboriginal professionals: Work, class and culture. The Australian National University.
42.
LangtonM. (2013). Boyer lectures 2012: The quiet revolution: Indigenous people and the resources boom. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Books.
43.
LittleR. J. A. (1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83(404), 1198–1202.
44.
LiuY.RazaJ.ZhangJ.ZhuN.GulH. (2020). Linking autonomy support and health at work: The self-determination theory perspective. Current Psychology, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00884-0
45.
MarmotM. (2006). Health in an unequal world: Social circumstances, biology and disease. Clinical Medicine, 6(6), 559–572.
46.
MartinA. J.MarshH. W. (2008). Workplace and academic buoyancy: Psychometric assessment and construct validity amongst school personnel and students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 26(2), 168–184.
47.
MaxwellS. E.ColeD. A. (2007). Bias in cross-sectional analyses of longitudinal mediation. Psychological Methods, 12(1), 23–44.
48.
MaxwellS. E.ColeD. A.MitchellM. A. (2011). Bias in cross-sectional analyses of longitudinal mediation: Partial and complete mediation under an autoregressive model. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 46(5), 816–841.
49.
Maydeu-OlivaresA. (2017). Maximum likelihood estimation of structural equation models for continuous data: Standard errors and goodness of fit. Structural Equation Modeling A Multidisciplinary Journal, 24(3), 383–394.
50.
McFarlaneB.KennedyJ. (2006). The implications of cultural values in workplace cultures: Australian indigenous employees within mainstream Australian organisations. Journal of Management and Organization, 1–17. Retrieved June 10, 2021, from https://www.anzam.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf-manager/2195_MCFARLANE_PAPER.PDF
MorinA. J.MadoreI.MorizotJ.BoudriasJ.-S.TremblayM. (2009). Multiple targets of workplace affective commitment: Factor structure and measurement invariance of the workplace affective commitment multidimensional questionnaire. Advances in Psychology Research, 59(1), 45–75.
54.
MorrisP. S.LeachA. J.SilberbergP.MellonG.WilsonC.HamiltonE.BeissbarthJ. (2005). Otitis media in young Aboriginal children from remote communities in Northern and Central Australia: A cross-sectional survey. BMC Pediatrics, 5(1), 27.
55.
MuthénL.MuthénB. (2015). Mplus: The comprehensive modelling program for applied researchers: user’s guide, 5.
56.
NaemiA. M. (2018). Relationship between basic psychological needs satisfaction with resilience and marital satisfaction in teachers. International Journal of Educational and Psychological Researches, 4(2), 78.
57.
ReeveJ.RyanR. M.DeciE. L. (2018). Sociocultural influences on student motivation as viewed through the lens of self-determination theory. In LiemG. A. D.McInerneyD. M. (Eds.), Big theories revisited 2 (pp. 31–60). Information Age Press.
58.
RicherS. F.BlanchardC.VallerandR. J. (2002). A motivational model of work turnover. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32(10), 2089–2113.
59.
RigbyC. S.RyanR. M. (2018). Self-determination theory in human resource development: New directions and practical considerations. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 20(2), 133–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422318756954
60.
RyanR. M.DeciE. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.
61.
RyanR. M.DeciE. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. Guilford Publications.
62.
RyanR. M.DeciE. L. (2019). Research on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is alive, well, and reshaping 21st-century management approaches: Brief reply to Locke and Schattke (2019). Motivation Science, 5(4), 291–294. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000128
63.
SchultzL.BlanpiedG.BorozdinK.FraserA.KlimenkoA.HengartnerN.MorrisC.OrumC.SossongM. (2006). ML/EM reconstruction algorithm for cosmic ray muon tomography [Paper presentation]. 2006 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record. San Diego, CA.
64.
SchumackerR. E.LomaxR. G. (1996). A beginner’s guide to structural equation modeling. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
65.
SlempG. R.KernM. L.PatrickK. J.RyanR. M. (2018). Leader autonomy support in the workplace: A meta-analytic review. Motivation and Emotion, 42(5), 706–724.
66.
SlempG. R.KernM. L.Vella-BrodrickD. A. (2015). Workplace well-being: The role of job crafting and autonomy support. Psychology of Well-being, 5(1), 7.
67.
SoenensB.VansteenkisteM.Van PetegemS. (2015). Let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater: Applying the principle of universalism without uniformity to autonomy-supportive and controlling parenting. Child Development Perspectives, 9(1), 44–49.
68.
SpreitzerG. M.PorathC. (2014). Self-determination as nutriment for thriving: Building an integrative model of human growth at work. The Oxford handbook of work engagement, motivation, and self-determination theory, 90, 245–258.
69.
TabachnickB. G.FidellL. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics. Allyn and Bacon.
The National Health and Medical Research Council. The Australian Research Council, & Universities Australia. (2018). National statement on ethical conduct in human research 2007. Commonwealth of Australia.
72.
Van Den BroeckA.FerrisD. L.ChangC.-H.RosenC. C. (2016). A review of self-determination theory’s basic psychological needs at work. Journal of Management, 42(5), 1195–1229. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316632058
73.
Van Den BroeckA.HowardJ. L.Van VaerenberghY.LeroyH.GagnéM. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation. Organizational Psychology Review, 11, 240–273.
74.
van HooffM. L.GeurtsS. A. (2015). Need satisfaction and employees’ recovery state at work: A daily diary study. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(3), 377–387.
75.
VanishreeP. (2014). Impact of role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload on job stress in small and medium scale industries. Research Journal of Management Sciences, 3(1), 10–13.
76.
WengQ.McElroyJ. C.MorrowP. C.LiuR. (2010). The relationship between career growth and organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77(3), 391–400.
77.
WinwoodP. C.ColonR.McEwenK. (2013). A practical measure of workplace resilience: Developing the resilience at work scale. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 55(10), 1205–1212.
78.
ZhouQ.MartinezL. F.FerreiraA. I.RodriguesP. (2016). Supervisor support, role ambiguity and productivity associated with presenteeism: A longitudinal study. Journal of Business Research, 69(9), 3380–3387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.006
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
