The findings of this research delineate examples of SDT application from practising leaders to illustrate how SDT is applied and integrated into organizational leadership. Journal of Business and Psychology, 27(4), pp. A theoretical fit score was also derived for each submission. SDT literature in the work domain has focused primarily on The study responds to ongoing calls for research to improve the exchange of knowledge between academics and practitioners and for scholars to shift research attention towards empirical studies of knowledge from practice (Bansal et al., 2012; Schultz and Hatch, 2005; Van De Ven and Johnson, 2006; Zaccaro and Horn, 2003). Positive social interactions and interpersonal relationships between leaders and their followers are responsible for shaping motivation and well-being at work (Deci et al., 2017; Weinstein and De Haan, 2014). Journal of Applied Psychology, 82(6), pp. Pierce, J.L. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 40(5), p. 643. doi: 10.1037/h0059019. Successful task/work experiences, such as completing a project or achieving a milestone, will bolster self-esteem, whereas failure has the opposite effect. A disconnect between theory and practice (Van De Ven and Johnson, 2006; Zaccaro and Horn, 2003) within SDT research is currently limiting leaders from diffusing this valuable knowledge into managerial practice. informational (i.e., as supporting autonomy and proroodng competence) or controlling (i.e., as pressuring one to think, feel, or behave in specified ways). She provides information on the context and desired outcome and seeks suggestions for suitable milestones from the volunteer. Construction Management and Economics, 30(4), pp. . Van den Broeck, A., Vansteenskiste, M., Witte, H.D., Soenens, B. and Lens, W. (2010). (2003). As such, it is expected that both parties are experiencing the satisfaction of their need for competence during mentoring activities. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. 263-283, doi: 10.1111/ijsa.12113. The Oxford Handbook of Work Motivation, Engagement, and Self-Determination Theory aims to give current and future organizational researchers ideas for future research using self-determination theory as a framework, and to give practitioners ideas on how to adjust their programs and practices using self-determination theory principles. (1988). Leaders sustain and enhance motivation, creativity and innovation by listening to workers suggestions and empowering then to action their ideas or at least explore them further (Liu et al., 2011; Sun et al., 2012). (2011). 580-590. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.74.4.580. The American Review of Public Administration, 42(4), pp. Journal of Organisational behaviour, 26. In Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M. Her research focuses on leadership, motivation and workplace contexts that promote human well-being and thriving. Managerial behaviors and subordinates health: an opportunity for reducing employee healthcare costs, Proceedings of the Northeast Business and Economics Association, pp. Quinlan, M.B. ARNOVA Occasional Paper Series. Journal of Sport Behaviour, 30, 307-329. 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. Self-determination theory looks at the ways that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation play a role in our self-determination and the fulfillment of three basic human needs. Gillet, N., Fouquereau, E., Forest, J., Brunault, P. and Colombat, P. (2012). Vansteenkiste, M., Neyrinck, B., Niemiec, C.P., Soenens, B., De Witte, H. and Van den Broeck, A. Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation that evolved from research on intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and expanded to include research on work. (1997). and Deci, E.L. (2000). Dunst, C.J., Bruther, M.B., Hamby, D.W., Howse, R. and Wilkie, H. (2018). The theory also has substantial utility for leaders seeking guidance on how to motivate their followers because the three basic psychological needs delineate dimensions of the environment and provide trigger points, that facilitate positive motivational outcomes (Baard et al., 2004). When workers basic psychological needs are met they are more likely to be autonomously motivated, that is they are personally invested in their work tasks and engage in their work activities willingly (Deci and Ryan, 2014; Van den Broeck et al., 2016). How leaders shape the impact of HRs diversity practices on employee inclusion. 2022 Oct;38(4) :790-803. . Self-esteem refers to workers overall self-evaluation of their own competencies and capabilities. 1-8, doi: 10.1186/1748-5908-4-11. Learning about the interests and circumstances of others provides opportunities to find common ground. The final phase comprising a community of practice (Li et al., 2009) where the leaders came together to share their experiences with each other, identify successful SDT application actions and discuss barriers and challenges they encountered. Copyright 2020, Vivien Weisz Forner, Michael Jones, Yoke Berry and Joakim Eidenfalk. SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY SDT is a macro theory of human motivation that has been successfully applied across domains includingparenting,education,healthcare,sportsandphysicalactivity,psychotherapy,andvirtual worlds, as well as the elds of work motivation and management (Deci & Ryan 1985a, Ryan & Deci 2017). Scenario 1 focuses on building support for relatedness by intentionally creating opportunities for social interactions among team members. Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior, New York, NY: Plenum. The purpose of this second phase was to prompt leaders to practice their new skills and knowledge in the workplace and for them to identify and try various strategies and approaches for supporting followers basic psychological needs during their day to day management activities and reflect on their outcomes. Sun, L.Y., Zhang, Z., Qi, J. and Chen, Z.X. When managers support autonomy, competence and relatedness, employees are more likely to be autonomously motivated (Van den Broeck et al., 2016). De Charms, R. (1968). Chapter four brick by brick: The origins, development, and future of self-determination theory. Human Resource Management Review, 28(3), pp. To provide easily digestible information for practitioners we focus on five examples for each of the basic psychological needs. and Ellemers, N. (2009). Each group submitted a list of SDT-informed leader actions and two case scenarios. (1982). Self-determination theory (SDT) is an empirically based theory of motivation and psychological development that is especially focused on the basic psychological needs that promote high quality motivation and wellness, and how they are supported in social contexts. Five practical examples, proposed by organizational leaders and managers, for how to support workers basic psychological need for autonomy are presented in Table 1. The biggest advantage of Self-Determination Theory is the awareness that it provides. There are two central assumptions of self-determination theory: 1) the need for growth drives behavior; and 2) autonomous motivation is important. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Leaders can adopt and further develop these approaches to motivate workers and improve the quality of peoples experience at work. and Vansteenkiste, M. (2018). Miniotait, A. and Buinien, I. Reconceptualizing mentoring at work: a developmental network perspective. Implementation Science, 4(1), pp. However, the simple dichotomy between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation made the theory difficult to apply to work settings. SDT considers autonomy, competence and relatedness to be essential ingredients for sustained motivation and nutrients for individual growth, well-being and thriving (Ryan and Deci, 2002). reading to earn a grade) motivators (Ryan & Deci, 2000). 468-480, doi: 10.1016/j.emj.2019.01.006. Work leading to the theory began with experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Self-determination theory (SDT) is an empirically derived theory of human motivation and personality in social contexts that differentiates motivation in terms of being autonomous and controlled. Despite a large body of research support for SDT in the workplace, there is currently very little empirical guidance for leaders seeking to translate the theory into practice. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 49(3), pp. 289-303, doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2018.02.005. Following Smith (1993) and Quinlan (2019), the salience statistic was calculated by rating each submission according to its frequency, the number of times similar items occur across multiple lists and its rank, the order in which participants list their items. (2006). A study of job motivation, satisfaction, and performance among bank employees. The importance of inducting or onboarding new members into the team is also emphasized. For example, the more senior worker is provided with an opportunity to demonstrate and be valued for their skills and experience while the junior member benefits by developing new skills and building their knowledge and capabilities. Evolution of wengers concept of community of practice. Thomson, D., Kaka, A., Pronk, L. and Alalouch, C. (2012). Determination is a skill necessary for accomplishing various goals and objectives in your personal and professional life. (2008). Deci and Ryan developed self-determination theory as a way to understand the intrinsic end of the motivational spectrum. 869-889, doi: 10.1177/0899764013485158. Drawing on the lived experience of leaders who have applied SDT in the workplace, the findings illustrate how SDT is operationalized by organizational leaders and delineates practical managerial approaches for supporting employees basic psychological needs in the workplace. The principles of scientific management, New York, NY: Harper and Brothers. The construction and contributions of implications for practice: whats in them and what might they offer? Academy of Management Learning and Education, 9(1), pp. Journal of Sport Behaviour, 31, 108-129. Arshadia, N. (2010). This process was facilitated through a structured SDT-based leadership intervention, comprising of three phases. 421-427, doi: 10.2307/2290320. Third, suggestions are made . 63-75. Joakim has an interest in foreign policy, security policy, political leadership, decision-making and international relations theory. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83(4), p. 981. doi: 10.1348/096317909X481382. (1985). (2016). Propositions are offered as a base to extend and test hypotheses regarding the competitive contributions of research on relational theory within organizational contexts. European Management Journal, 37(4), pp. Playful work design (PWD) represents a self-determination strategy that refers to the use of play during work ( Bakker, Scharp, et al., 2020; Scharp et al., 2019 ). Forner, V.W. While, Part A focuses on examples of what leaders do to support basic psychological needs, Part B scenarios offer a description of how they do it. How colleagues can support each others needs and motivation: an intervention on employee work motivation. Experiencing an input as informational. Homan, A.C., Gndemir, S., Buengeler, C. and van Kleef, G.A. The present research contributes towards addressing this issue. Causality orientations moderate the undermining effect of rewards on intrinsic motivation. Autonomously motivated employees engage in their work with a full sense of willingness, understand the worth and purpose of their job and are self-determined in carrying out work tasks (Ryan and Deci, 2017). Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. Autonomy represents workers basic need to experience a sense of freedom and choice when carrying out an activity and to have some level of control in how they go about their own work (Ryan and Deci, 2000; Van den Broeck et al., 2010). (2017). A review of self-determination theorys basic psychological needs at work. 75-91. doi: 10.1177/030630700903400305. (Ed.) 244-258, doi: 10.1016/j.joep.2017.05.004. In this authoritative work, the codevelopers of the theory comprehensively examine SDT's conceptual underpinnings (including its six mini-theories), empirical evidence base, and practical applications across the lifespan. Self-determination theory as a framework for exploring the impact of the organizational context on volunteer motivation: a study of Romanian volunteers. Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation that evolved from research on intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and expanded to include research on work organizations and other domains of life. The case scenarios extend on the Part A results by offering richer more detailed depictions of need-supportive managerial behaviours and provide insights into how SDT is practised by leaders in organizations. 399-414, doi: 10.1108/01437730610677990. and Reeve, J. 18 No. (2014). Best practice long term incentive based remuneration: The Australian and international experience. They occupied leadership roles across various levels of the organization including, for example, group leaders, deputy local controllers, regional managers and managers of departments. 110-132, doi: 10.5465/256064. Self-Determination Theory indicates that intrinsic motivation (doing something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable), and thus higher quality learning, flourishes in contexts. The hallmark of autonomy is an internal locus of causality (De Charms, 1968) whereby people experience ownership of their behaviours and perceive them as being self-initiated. More. When change-oriented feedback enhances motivation, well-being and performance: a look at autonomy-supportive feedback in sport. Day, J.K. and Fitton, G.D. (2008). (2012). A total of 42 SDT-informed leadership examples were submitted across the free lists. (2008). (Department of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation that evolved from research on intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and expanded to include research on work organizations and other domains of life. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are the far ends of a continuum. Accordingly, research guided by self-determination theory has focused on the social-contextual conditions that facilitate versus forestall the natural processes of self-motivation and healthy psychological development. Onboarding helps introduce and socialize newcomers and includes practices such as communication, making resources available, welcome activities, training and a guide or buddy assigned to help the new coming navigate their new workplace (Klein et al., 2015). Buengeler, C., Leroy, H. and De Stobbeleir, K. (2018). The exercise was constrained to 20min and leaders were asked to draw upon their own experience of applying SDT to list as many SDT-informed actions that come to mind. Article publication date: 14 December 2020. Mentoring at work: Developmental relationships in organizational life, Lanham: University Press of America. Self-determination theory (SDT) 1 explains human motivation, and according to Edward Deci, it is "the energy for action. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80(2), pp. Reducing turnover in volunteer organisations: A leadership intervention based on Self-Determination Theory (PhD Thesis), University of Wollongong. Table 3 presents the five practical examples, proposed by organizational leaders and managers, for how leaders support workers basic psychological need for relatedness. SDT provides an evidence-based framework for how to effectively motivate workers in organizations (Deci et al., 2017). Liu, D., Chen, X.P. Each scenario, submitted by the leaders, describes how a leader supports their followers basic psychological needs while carrying out day to day managerial activities. (2012). She has a PhD in Chemistry and has extensive experience in natural products, organic and protein chemistry. 264-288, doi: 10.5465/amr.2001.4378023. Intrinsic need satisfaction: a motivational basis of performance and well-being in two work settings. Hughes, D.J., Lee, A., Tian, A.W., Newman, A. and Legood, A. The support of autonomy and the control of behavior. Individual behaviour is motivated by the dominant role of intrinsic motives. The language leaders use in communicating their decisions and assigning tasks is also critical for supporting autonomy (Deci and Ryan, 1987). This paper aims to investigate the application of SDT among leaders and delineate practical managerial approaches for supporting basic psychological needs in the workplace. 485-489. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.10.010. The small portion of submissions focusing on autonomy may suggest it is more challenging for leaders to implement this element of the theory as they must find a way to balance autonomy with organizational requirements. Leaders were facilitated through three cycles of experiential learning (Kolb, 2014) where they implemented their action plan for supporting basic psychological needs, completed post-implementation reflection activities, received mentoring, revised their action plan and completed further theoretical readings. Only a few SDT-based field experiments or quasi-experiments have been undertaken in the work domain (Deci et al., 1989; Forner, 2019; Hardr and Reeve, 2009; Jungert et al., 2018), revealing that researchers have, thus far, done very little to integrate the theory into practically useful organizational interventions or actions. Extending on previous predominantly theoretic SDT research, this study is the first to draw upon the lived experience of leaders and managers who have implemented SDT in their workplace. To investigate the phenomenon of SDT-based leadership the research asks: how do leaders apply SDT, when carrying out their day-to-day managerial functions, to support workers needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness? (Eds), Handbook of Self-Determination research, Rochester: University of Rochester Press. (2005). The outcome will be a training package developed by volunteers themselves which could be shared with neighbouring units. 373-400. doi: 10.1177/1534484305281769. Springer, G.J. Responding to calls (Bansal et al., 2012; Gregory and Anderson, 2006; Van de Ven, 2007) for research studies to shift from a logic of building practice from theory to one of building theory from practice (Schultz and Hatch, 2005, p. 337), this study taps into the valuable knowledge and experiences of practitioners to extend and develop SDT to have enhanced validity and relevance in an applied setting. The Self-Determination Theory, developed by psychologists Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, is a broad framework on the study of human motivation. The validity of the SDT application examples provided in this study is also noted as a limitation. Positive feedback or praise, relative to no feedback or negative feedback, is especially motivating and has been linked to higher levels of well-being, task interest and ongoing participation in the activity (Deci et al., 1999; Mouratidis, 2008). Schultz, M. and Hatch, M.J. (2005). Paying for performance: Incentive pay schemes and employees financial participation. Human motivation and interpersonal relationships: Theory, research, and application, London: Springer. Table 2 presents the five practical examples, proposed by organizational leaders and managers, for how to support workers basic psychological need for competence. Specific onboarding practices for the socialization of new employees. Support for competence is also evident in this scenario. Researchers examining the interplay between leadership and team diversity stress the critical importance of matching leadership behaviours to the specific needs arising from diversity-related team processes and have proposed specific competencies, such as social perceptiveness, that allow leaders to shape the influence of diversity within the team (Homan et al., 2020). Providing full freedom for workers to pursue their own ideas and interests is not always realistic or desirable in the workplace. Gagn, M., Forest, J., Gilbert, M.H., Aub, C., Morin, E. and Malorni, A. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development, 2nd ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson FT Press. Retrieved from www.worldatwork.org/docs/surveys/Survey%20Brief%20-%202017%20Incentive%20Pay%20Practices-%20Privately%20Held%20Compaies.pdf?language_id=1 (accessed June 2020). A total of 76% had also gained managerial experience in corporate and public sector organizations, with an average of 8.4years (SD = 10.2) managerial experience. Acts or decisions based on self determination or self determined behavior have a larger element of control. Carpentier, J. and Mageau, G.A. Second, the conflicting factors encountered in building the network of expertise to support students' workplace learning in the cooperation of polytechnics and working life are investigated. Weinstein, N. and De Haan, C.R. Ryan, R.M. Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. 2020, Vivien Weisz Forner, Michael Jones, Yoke Berry and Joakim Eidenfalk. Capturing autonomy, competence, and relatedness at work: Construction and initial validation of the work-related basic need satisfaction scale. Self-esteem within the work and organizational context: a review of the organization-based self-esteem literature. 423-435, doi: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.01.003. 165-184. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2419.2009.00325.x. Baard, P. P. and Baard, S.K. The main focus is how an individual's behaviour is self-motivated and also how well it is determined.