running head: sdt and career attitudes 1 linking job

Running head: SDT AND CAREER ATTITUDES 1

Linking Job Design to Subjective Career Success: A Test of Self-Determination Theory

SDT AND CAREER ATTITUDES 2

Abstract

We tested a predictive model based in self-determination theory (SDT) to demonstrate how job

design choices contribute to subjective career success. Data collected at time 1 demonstrated that

the job characteristics of autonomy support and competence support had direct and interactive

effects on employees’ need satisfaction. Need satisfaction at time 1 mediated the relationship

between autonomy support and self-determined work motivation at time 2. Work motivation, in

turn, mediated the relationships between need fulfillment and career attitudes that characterize

subjective career success. These findings are theoretically important because they demonstrate

that SDT can bridge job design theory and career theory, pointing to new ways that job and

career experiences are interrelated. From a practical standpoint, the results are valuable because

they show that job enrichment efforts guided by SDT have important implications for promoting

career success perceptions and vocational retention among experienced workers.

Keywords

Work motivation; Job design; Job characteristics; Psychological needs; Career success; Career

theory


Linking Job Design to Subjective Career Success: A Test of Self-Determination Theory

Why do some people feel that their careers have been successful but others do not? This

question has motivated an enormous body of research in organizational and vocational

psychology (Ng, Eby, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2005). Feelings of subjective career success are

important to the well-being of individual people, but they have serious implications for

organizations as well. For example, employees with positive career beliefs are better able to

maintain work-life balance (Sturges, 2008) and are more likely to remain with their employers

and persist when confronted with vocational challenges (Armstrong-Stassen & Ursel, 2009;

Donohue, 2007; Eddleston, 2009; Nauta, van Vianen, van der Heijden, van Dam, & Willemsen,

2009). Conversely, workers with negative career attitudes are more likely to withdraw from jobs

and even change vocations, which presents ongoing retention problems in many demanding

fields like teaching and nursing (e.g., Simon, Müller, & Hasselhorn, 2010). Identifying the

experiences that result in positive beliefs about career success is therefore important to both

individual people and the organizations that employ them.

Much recent research has focused on describing the antecedents of subjective career

success, including personality traits (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, & Barrick, 1999; Ng et al., 2005)

and employee demographic characteristics (i.e. job tenure, education, work experience; Ng et al.,

2005). However, a significant omission in this literature is the role that job design plays in

enhancing perceptions of career success. Job design theory has enjoyed a renaissance in the last

10 years (e.g., Grant, Fried, & Juillerat, 2011; Parker, 2014), but job design theory and career

theory remain largely disconnected. As Hall and Las Heras (2010) observed, this disconnect is

unfortunate because effective job design may yield important career-related benefits that are not

yet recognized. However, little empirical research has explored these relationships.


In this study, we use self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000; Gagné & Deci,

2005; Ryan & Deci, 2000) to bridge the literatures on job design and careers. SDT proposes that

certain job characteristics that satisfy employees’ fundamental psychological needs will generate

self-determined motivation for work. This contextual motivation for work, in turn, encourages

people to persist with their work behavior (Vallerand, 1997). We propose that self-determined

motivation also has implications for subjective career success: when people experience strong

work motivation, they should feel ownership over their careers, choose to remain on their career

track, and feel that they are making successful career progress. This proposition aligns with

recent developments in career theory that emphasize the importance of self-directed career

orientations (Sullivan & Baruch, 2009).

We focus on two specific job characteristics in this study that are drawn from SDT:

autonomy support and competence support (Ryan & Deci, 2012). Autonomy support refers to

work experiences that bolster employees’ feelings of choice and agency over their jobs.

Competence support refers to job experiences that allow employees to feel capable when

working. We expect that these job characteristics will be positively associated with need

satisfaction, self-determined motivation, and, ultimately, subjective career success. Consistent

with past research, we operationalize subjective career success in this study as positive attitudes

about one’s career experiences (Judge, Cable, Boudreau, & Bretz, 1995; Seibert, Crant, &

Kraimer, 2001; Seibert, Kraimer, & Crant, 2001). Subjective career success is typically defined

in terms of career satisfaction, which involves positive attitudes that a person holds about the

progress and future trajectory of his or her career (Greenhaus, Parasuraman, & Wormley, 1990).

We take a broader perspective and additionally include career commitment, which involves an

attachment to a vocation or profession and a desire to continue practicing it (Blau, 1985), and


perceived person-vocation (P-V) fit, which involves beliefs that one’s interests and abilities are a

good match to the requirements of a vocation (Vogel & Feldman, 2009). We tested our model

linking autonomy and competence support to these career attitudes with a predictive design and a

sample of experienced workers in a wide variety of jobs and industries.

Our study makes several contributions to research and practice. First, we advance

research on both job design theory and career theory by explaining how job characteristics shape

subjective career success. Our model answers calls in the literature to study the ways that job

design choices relate to more distal career criteria, offering new directions for both areas of

research that have developed in isolation from one another (Grant, Fried, Parker, & Frese, 2010;

Hall & Las Heras, 2010). Second, we offer an important test and extension of SDT in this study.

Career attitudes are generally under-studied criteria (Goulet & Singh, 2002), and more empirical

research is needed to understand how they develop (Sullivan & Baruch, 2009). Only a single

study to date has demonstrated that SDT predicts career attitudes (Fernet, Austin, & Vallerand,

2012), which focused only on career commitment among school principals. Our study offers new

directions for SDT by showing that the theory predicts broader judgments of career success in a

variety of industries. We also explicitly test and show support for the key mediating mechanisms

of need fulfillment and self-determination in SDT; these mediators have been frequently omitted

in past research, which is a common criticism of SDT scholarship (Latham, 2013). Third, our

study makes a practical contribution by demonstrating that actionable job design choices can

translate into feelings of subjective career success. Employees who feel positively about their

careers are more likely to want to remain with their organizations (e.g., Armstrong-Stassen &

Ursel, 2009; Nauta et al., 2009). Consequently, promoting feelings of subjective career success

may benefit organizations by reducing the costs associated with turnover.


Overview of Self-Determination Theory

SDT is a motivational theory that focuses on the regulatory processes by which

individuals pursue goals in order to satisfy their innate psychological needs (Deci & Ryan, 2000,

2012; Ryan & Deci, 2000). SDT is considered a “meta-theory” of motivation because its

propositions were developed over the last 40 years through several narrower sub-theories that

reside within SDT (Deci & Ryan, 2012). At its most basic level, SDT proposes that people have

fundamental needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and that they experience self-

determined motivation for activities that satisfy those needs. In this study, we focus on one sub-

theory within SDT, cognitive evaluation theory (CET), which is primarily concerned with needs

for autonomy and competence. We chose CET because needs for autonomy and competence can

be satisfied in any job. In contrast, the third need introduced in later sub-theories, relatedness,

may not be as readily addressed in jobs that are performed individually or from home.

CET identifies the situational conditions that satisfy people’s fundamental needs for

autonomy and competence (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Autonomy describes the need to have personal

agency and to act in a way that is authentic and agrees with one’s sense of self. Competence

refers to the need to feel capable of being able to achieve specific outcomes and gain mastery

over a performance domain. CET posits that people will experience self-determined motivation

in situations that promote the satisfaction of autonomy and competence.

CET has received robust support when tested in the workplace (Gagné & Deci, 2005).

The theory articulates two contextual mechanisms, autonomy support and competence support,

which have direct and interactive effects on the psychological perception of satisfied needs (Deci

& Ryan, 2012). Need satisfaction, in turn, subsequently promotes self-determined motivation

(Vallerand, 1997). Thus, job contexts that enhance feelings of autonomy and competence should


be associated with the perception of need satisfaction, and need satisfaction should mediate the

relationships between the job context and self-determined motivation.

Critically, need satisfaction and self-determined motivation will be stymied if one support

or the other is absent. For example, people may feel confident, but when given an external

reward or punishment that reduces autonomy support, self-determined motivation will be

undermined (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Ultimately, CET suggests that employees will experience

need satisfaction and self-determined motivation when the work environment is structured in

ways that give people both a sense of agency and confidence over their responsibilities (e.g.,

Baard, Deci, & Ryan, 2004). Thus, the theory proposes that these contextual variables have

important direct and interactive effects on need satisfaction (Vallerand, 1997).

Using Self-Determination Theory to Connect Job Design and Career Theories

Modern job design theory is broadly concerned with the way that jobs are structured and

experienced by employees (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2008), moving beyond a specific focus on

tasks and responsibilities that characterized early job design scholarship (Grant et al., 2011;

Hackman & Oldham, 1976). Contemporary approaches recognize that jobs can be designed in

ways that promote a bevy of desirable outcomes for workers and organizations, including

learning, well-being, and work-family balance (Parker, 2014). Motivation theories, including

SDT, also play a prominent role in this literature. Job design research based in SDT tends to

emphasize the benefits of providing employees with autonomous choice (e.g., Baard et al., 2004;

Deci et al., 2001; Fernet, Austin, Trépanier, & Dussault, 2013; Sheldon, Turban, Brown, Baron,

& Judge, 2003), and the effects of self-determined motivation on job outcomes such as job

satisfaction, burnout, organizational identification, and turnover intentions (Gillet, Gagné,

Sauvagère, Fouquereau, 2013; Lam & Gurland, 2008; Vansteenkiste, Neyrinck, Niemiec,


Soenens, De Witte, & Van den Broeck, 2007). In aggregate, structuring jobs to fulfill

fundamental needs leads to many positive job outcomes for both employees and organizations.

Although career theory has developed separately from job design theory, contemporary

career theory invokes similar ideas from SDT. In response to both environmental challenges

(e.g., globalization, advances in technology) and personal factors (e.g., an emphasis on work-life

balance, dual-career families), many employees are no longer following the traditional, linear

career path. Rather, employees are striving to pursue careers that are meaningful, self-directed,

and fulfill personal needs. Much modern research on careers focuses on several career

orientations that people adopt to be successful in response to these changes (Sullivan & Baruch,

2009). Protean career orientation, for example, refers to career development that is self-directed

and driven by personal values. Protean careerists do not define success in the traditional way (i.e.

status), but instead derive it from personal goal achievement, pride, and psychological success

(Briscoe & Hall, 2006; Hall, 1996). A related stream of career theory focuses on boundaryless

career orientation, which emphasizes both psychological and physical mobility that defies the

traditional, linear career trajectory. For example, boundaryless careerists may switch to a new

employer or an entirely new industry to pursue their interests (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Briscoe

& Hall, 2006; Forrier, Sels, & Stynen, 2009). Although there is less emphasis on personal values,

the behaviors of boundaryless careerists are self-determined (Briscoe & Hall, 2006).

To summarize, we chose to explain the effects of job design on subjective career success

with SDT in this study because concepts from SDT are deeply entrenched in both the job design

and career theory literatures. Research situated in job design theory demonstrates that need-

fulfilling job characteristics yield powerful, self-determined motivation. Similarly, research

situated in career theory shows that people who adopt orientations that capitalize on self-


determined motivation to guide their own career development tend to experience better

subjective outcomes. What is missing is an integrative test of these literatures that shows how

they relate to one another (Hall & Las Heras, 2010).

The Present Study

Globally, the objective of this study is to demonstrate how job design (i.e., autonomy and

competence support) is predictive of subjective career success (i.e., career satisfaction, career

commitment, and perceived P-V fit) via need satisfaction and self-determined motivation (see

Figure 1). We collected our data at two points in time, focusing on CET-related predictor

variables at time 1, and motivation and career criteria at time 2, to allow for a more rigorous test.

We first hypothesize that autonomy- and competence-supportive job characteristics will

have positive effects on need satisfaction at work. According to CET, jobs that promote feelings

of agency and capability will satisfy employees’ fundamental needs for autonomy and

competence (Deci & Ryan, 2012). However, CET also emphasizes that these job experiences

interact, such that the positive effect of autonomy or competence support on overall need

satisfaction is weaker if the other support is not provided. Thus, we hypothesize that:

Hypothesis 1a: At time 1, autonomy support and competence support are both positively

related to work need satisfaction.

Hypothesis 1b: At time 1, autonomy support and competence support interact to

influence work need satisfaction. Specifically, the positive effect of autonomy support is

strengthened when competence support is also high.

CET further posits that need satisfaction will mediate the relationships between job

characteristics and self-determined motivation for work. However, as stated in Hypothesis 1b,

need satisfaction is a function of the interaction of autonomy support and competence support.


Therefore, in line with CET, we anticipate a pattern of moderated mediation wherein the indirect

effect of autonomy support on self-determined motivation via need satisfaction is moderated by

competence support.

Hypothesis 2: Need satisfaction at work (time 1) will mediate the relationship between

autonomy support (time 1) and self-determined work motivation (time 2), but this

indirect effect will be conditional on the first-stage moderation of competence support

(time 1). The indirect effect on self-determined motivation will be strongest when both

autonomy support and competence support are high.

Lastly, SDT posits that the effects of need satisfaction on career attitudes should occur

via self-determined motivation. As noted previously, people experience self-determined

motivation for work behaviors when work fulfills their fundamental needs (Deci & Ryan, 2012).

Self-determined motivation should subsequently have positive effects on career attitudes (i.e.,

career satisfaction, career commitment, and P-V fit). These relationships should be positive

because people derive satisfaction from autonomously-performed behaviors (Deci & Ryan,

2000), are likely to become committed to entities that fulfill their needs (Meyer & Maltin, 2010),

and report feelings of fit and engagement when autonomously motivated (Greguras &

Diefendorff, 2009; Meyer & Gagné, 2008).

Hypothesis 3: Self-determined motivation (time 2) will mediate the relationships

between need satisfaction (time 1) and all three career attitudes (time 2).

Method

Participants and Procedure

Participants were employed, adult citizens of the United States who were recruited from

Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). MTurk is a large, online community of people who perform


compensated tasks for business or scholarly purposes (Buhrmester, Kwang, & Gosling, 2011).

The principal advantage of MTurk is that it allows for the collection of data from experienced

adults working in a diversity of industries and job levels; at present, over 500,000 people are

active workers on MTurk. Several critical studies of MTurk data quality indicate that these

samples produce measurements that display good test-retest reliability, internal consistency,

factorial stability, and relationships that are highly similar to those found among data recruited in

person (Casler, Bickel, & Hackett, 2013; Mason & Suri, 2012; Paolicci, Chandler, & Ipeirotis,

2010). We followed past practice (e.g., Dahling, Melloy, & Thompson, 2013; Mason & Suri,

2012) to carefully screen data collected through MTurk, restricting responses to employed adults

over 25 who resided in the United States and were experienced workers on MTurk (i.e., an

approval rate of at least 95% on a minimum of 50 previously-completed tasks). We also screened

for duplicate IP addresses and MTurk worker ID numbers, evaluated respondents’ comfort with

the English language, and randomly embedded a number of simple attention-check items in the

questionnaires (e.g., “Please answer this question ‘strongly disagree’”) to identify fraudulent or

inattentive responses (Paolicci et al., 2010).

We originally collected responses from 272 participants at time 1. From this initial

sample, we discarded responses from 1 participant who reported low comfort with English and

14 participants who missed one or more attention-check questions. This process yielded a total of

257 participants who were eligible to continue the study at time 2, which occurred one month

later. We implemented a gap between the two surveys to reduce the likelihood of common

method variance (CMV) due to our use of self-report measurements (Conway & Lance, 2010;

Podsakoff, MacKenzie, & Podsakoff, 2012). However, we limited the gap to one month to

maintain a high response rate and reduce the likelihood that job-specific perceptions about


autonomy and competence support would change in the interval between the first and second

measurements, introducing substantial error to the analysis (Podsakoff et al., 2012).

Ultimately, we received time 2 data from 222 participants. We then discarded responses

from 4 participants who had changed jobs in the previous month and 13 participants who failed

one or more attention-check questions in the second survey. The final sample therefore consisted

of 205 matched responses (i.e., 79.8% of the eligible time 1 respondents).

This final sample was 51.7% male and reported a mean age of 34.46 years (SD = 9.54).

The sample was 2% Hispanic or Latino/a and 84.9% Caucasian, 8.8% Asian American, 4.9%

African American, 1% Native American, and 0.5% members of other racial groups. With respect

to education, 32.2% had a high school education or less, 54.6% had an undergraduate degree,

and 13.2% had a graduate degree. Most of the sample was salaried and working full-time

(83.4%). The most frequent work industries reported included scientific and technical services

(12.7%), finance and insurance (11.7%), education (11.2%), and retail trade (9.8%). Participants

reported a mean job tenure of 5.31 years (SD = 4.99) and 41% had supervisory responsibilities.

Measures

All measures that follow were presented in a fully-randomized order within their

respective survey to minimize the likelihood of order effect biases.

Autonomy support (time 1). We measured autonomy-supportive work conditions with

the 6-item Work Climate Questionnaire (WCQ; Baard et al., 2004; α = .94). The WCQ evaluates

perceptions of the extent to which managers in the workplace promote autonomy; a sample item

read, “I feel that my manager provides me choices and options.” Responses were made on a 7-

point scale where 1 = “strongly disagree” and 7 = “strongly agree.”


Competence support (time 1). Competence support was measured with the four-item (α

= .92) Perceived Competence Scale (PCS; Williams & Deci, 1996). Because the PCS items are

intended to be domain-specific, we followed past practice to modify the target of the questions to

pertain to work (c.f. Williams, Freedman, & Deci, 1998, who modified the questions to concern

perceived competence at managing diabetes). A sample item reads, “I am capable of meeting my

bosses’ expectations of me at work”; responses were on a 7-point scale where 1 = “not at all

true” and 7 = “very true”. Different forms of the PCS have been shown to be predictive of

learning outcomes (Williams & Deci, 1996) and behavioral outcomes (Williams et al., 1998).

Work satisfaction of needs (time 1). We used the Basic Need Satisfaction at Work

Scale (Deci et al., 2001) to measure satisfaction of fundamental needs. We used only the 13

items from this scale pertaining to satisfied autonomy and competence needs (α = .88). Sample

items read, “I have been able to learn interesting new skills on my job” (competence fulfillment),

and “I feel like I can pretty much be myself at work” (autonomy fulfillment). Responses were

made on a 7-point scale where 1 = “not at all true” and 7 = “very true”.

Work motivation (time 2). We measured work motivations described by SDT with the

18-item Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS; Tremblay et al., 2009). The

WEIMS was developed by translating the short version of the Blais Work Motivation Inventory

(Blais, Lachance, Brière, Riddle, & Vallerand, 1993), a validated French-language instrument, to

English and making slight adjustments to some items for semantic clarity. At the time that we

conducted this study, the WEIMS was the only validated, English-language measure of all six

work motivations described by OIT: intrinsic (α = .92), integrated (α = .88), identified (α = .84),

introjected (α = .80), external (α = .70), and amotivated (α = .79). Each motivation type is

measured with three items presented in a randomized order. Participants indicated the extent to


which each item corresponds with the reasons why they work; sample items read, “For the

income it provides me” (external), “For the satisfaction I experience from taking on interesting

challenges” (intrinsic), and “Because I want to succeed at this job, if not I would be very

ashamed of myself” (introjected). Responses were made on a 7-point scale where 1 = “does not

correspond at all” and 7 = “corresponds exactly” such that higher scores indicate greater

endorsement of a particular type of motivation.

Following established practice in the SDT literature (e.g., Ryan & Connell, 1989),

Tremblay et al. (2009) converted the motivation scale scores into an overall self-determination

index (SDI), where SDI = (3 x intrinsic) + (2 x integrated) + (1 x identified) + (-1 introjected) +

(-2 x external) + (-3 x amotivation). We use the SDI in the analyses that follow to give an overall

evaluation of self-determination; positive scores indicate relatively self-determined motivation,

and negative scores indicate relatively non-self-determined motivation. Possible scores range

from +36 to – 36.

Career satisfaction (time 2). We measured career satisfaction with Greenhaus et al.’s

(1990) 5-item measure (α = .96). Sample items read, “I am satisfied with the success I have

achieved in my career” and “I am satisfied with the progress I have made toward meeting my

overall career goals”. Responses were made on a 7-point scale where 1 = “strongly disagree” and

7 = “strongly agree”. This measure is correlated with job attitudes such as job fit perceptions and

job turnover intentions (Dahling & Thompson, 2013).

Perceived person-vocation fit (time 2). Perceived P-V fit was measured using the 3-

item measure (α = .81) developed by Vogel and Feldman (2009). A sample items reads, “There

is a good fit between my personal interests and the kind of work I perform in my occupation.”

Responses were made on a 7-point scale where 1 = “strongly disagree” and 7 = “strongly agree”.


Career commitment (time 2). Career commitment was measured with Blau’s (1985) 7-

item measure (α = .93). A sample item reads, “If I could go into a different profession which paid

the same, I would probably take it” (reverse-scored). Responses were made on a 7-point scale

where 1 = “strongly disagree” and 7 = “strongly agree”.

Results

Analysis Strategy

We tested our hypotheses using MPlus 7 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2012) to estimate a

fully-latent structural model. Because the model includes an interaction term, we used the latent

moderated structural equation method (LMS; Klein & Moosbrugger, 2000) that is incorporated

in MPlus to evaluate the moderated relationship. Recent research suggests that the LMS

approach yields more precise estimates of model parameters than the unconstrained approach

(Marsh, Wen, & Hau, 2006) under normal conditions, and especially when sample sizes are

small or moderate (Wen et al., 2014). Testing this model involved three steps. First, we

conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA; Brown, 2015) to test the fit of the hypothesized

measurement model to the data. Second, we tested the hypothesized structural model without the

interaction term, which is a necessary prerequisite step to evaluate the model fit indices, like the

comparative fit index (CFI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and

standardized root mean square residual (SRMR; Kline, 2011), which are not computed when the

LMS method is used (Maslowsky, Jager, & Hemken, 2015; Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2012).

Third, we tested the hypothesized structure model with the interaction using the LMS method,

which evaluates the significance of the interaction term.

Measurement Model


Table 1 reports correlations and descriptive statistics for the observed variables. We first

conducted confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) on the items. Individual items served as indicators

for the perceived competence, autonomy support, career commitment, career satisfaction, and

perceived P-V fit factors. The need satisfaction factor had two indicators, the first consisting of a

parcel formed by averaging the seven autonomy-related items (α = .81), and the second

consisting of a parcel formed by averaging the six competence-related items (α = .81; Williams

& O’Boyle, 2008). The motivation factor was indicated by the single-item self-determination

index; we estimated its reliability to be α = .80 and fixed its error variance term accordingly

using the process recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). (The results were not

appreciably changed when testing the measurement model with other reliability values ranging

from .70-.1.0; Kline, 2011). Overall, we found that the hypothesized measurement model

exhibited acceptable fit to the data without freeing any error terms to co-vary (Kline, 2011; χ2

(330) = 817.54, p < .001; CFI = .92; RMSEA = .08 [90% CI = .07 to .09]; SRMR = .06). As

shown in Table 2, all items loaded on their intended factors (p < .001).

Based on the strong correlations among career satisfaction, career commitment, and

perceived P-V fit, we also tested an alternative measurement model wherein all of the items from

these three measures were fixed as indicators of a single “subjective career success” latent

variable. Results indicated that this alternative did not fit the data as well as the hypothesized

measurement model (∆χ2 (11) = 654.16, p < .001; ∆CFI = .12). Thus, although all three attitudes

reflect judgments about career success, they are conceptually- and empirically- distinct variables

that should be modeled separately.

Structural Model with Main Effects Only


To evaluate the overall model fit, we regressed need satisfaction on autonomy support

and perceived competence in the absence of the interaction term (Maslowsky et al., 2015). The

main-effects only model, which is shown in Figure 1, had acceptable fit to the data (χ2 (341) =

854.25, p < .001; CFI = .91; RMSEA = .08 [90% CI = .08 to .09]; SRMR = .06). The structural

model also exhibited only marginally-worse fit to the data than the measurement model (∆χ2 (11)

= 36.71, p < .001; ∆CFI = .005). We then tested an alternative structural model of partial

mediation wherein autonomy support and perceived work competence had direct effects on work

motivation in addition to the indirect effect through need satisfaction, which is consistent with

some past research (e.g., Tremblay et al., 2009). The results indicated that this alternative model

exhibited slightly worse to the data when compared to the hypothesized model (∆χ2 (2) = 15.87, p

< .001; ∆CFI = .003). Because this alternative model is less parsimonious (i.e., it includes

additional paths without an attendant improvement in model fit), we retained and interpreted the

hypothesized model.

Structural Model with Interaction

The final step of model specification was to test the model, including the interaction term,

with the LMS approach. The results indicated that the interaction term had a significant effect on

need satisfaction (unstandardized b = 0.11, SE = 0.04, t = 2.46, p < .05). In the absence of

traditional fit indices, we evaluated whether or not the interaction term improved model fit by

using the log-likelihood ratio test (Gerhard et al., 2015; Maslowsky et al., 2015; Satorra &

Bentler, 2010). The test statistic, D, is distributed as χ2; in this case, we found that χ2 (1) = 4.81, p

< .05. Consistent with our Hypothesis 1, a significant D statistic indicates that the model

containing the interaction term fits the data better than the main-effects only model. To

corroborate this result, we compared the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) values from these


two models. We found that AIC = 17130.51 for the main effects only model and that AIC =

17127.70 for the interaction model. The smaller AIC value for the interaction model suggests

that this is the preferable model that is more likely to replicate (Kline, 2011).

Tests of Hypotheses

Our hypotheses were tested using the results of the two structural models. Hypotheses 1a

and 1b stated that autonomy support, perceived work competence, and their interaction would be

positively related to need satisfaction at work in the time 1 data. As shown in Figure 1, the direct

effects of both predictors were positive and significant in the main-effects only model, which

supports Hypothesis 1. Concerning the interaction, as noted previously, the interaction term had

a significant effect on need satisfaction as well. Following procedures outlined by Aiken and

West (1991), we plotted the form of the interaction, shown in Figure 2, at high and low levels of

the latent antecedent and moderator variables (+1 and -1 SD around the mean of zero,

respectively). As expected and consistent with CET, Figure 2 shows that the positive relationship

between work autonomy support and need satisfaction is stronger when perceived competence is

also high, although the relationship is significant at both high (t = 10.17, p < .001) and low (t =

6.11, p < .001) levels of competence support.. Thus, Hypotheses 1a and 1b were fully supported.

Hypothesis 2 predicted that need satisfaction at work (time 1) would mediate the

relationship between autonomy support (time 1) and self-determined work motivation (time 2),

but that this indirect effect would be moderated by perceived competence (time 1). We tested

this hypothesis by constructing a 95% confidence interval around the estimated indirect effect at

high (+1 SD) and low (-1 SD) levels of the moderator variable, perceived work competence

(Preacher, Rucker, & Hayes, 2007). Results indicated that the indirect effect from autonomy

support to self-determined motivation was significant, but it was weaker when perceived


competence was low (ab = 2.15, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.22 to 3.08) than when

perceived competence was high (ab = 3.28, 95% CI = 2.17 to 4.40). Thus, Hypothesis 2 was

supported. Autonomy support has an indirect, positive effect on self-determined motivation via

need satisfaction, but that indirect is marginally stronger when competence support is also high.

Lastly, Hypothesis 3 stated that self-determined motivation (time 2) would, in turn,

mediate the relationships between need satisfaction (time 1) and the career attitudes (satisfaction,

commitment, and perceived P-V fit; time 2). We again used bootstrapped standard errors to test

this hypothesis (N = 5,000 draws). Results indicated that Hypothesis 3 was fully supported with

significant, positive indirect effects from need satisfaction to career satisfaction (αβ = 0.55, SE =

.06, 99% CI = 0.40 to 0.67), career commitment (αβ = 0.68, SE = .05, 99% CI = 0.56 to 0.81)

and perceived P-V fit (αβ = 0.70, SE = .06, 99% CI = 0.53 to 0.86) via self-determined

motivation. Thus, satisfied psychological needs result in subjective career success through the

development of self-determined motivation for one’s work.

Discussion

Promoting subjective career success has important benefits for employees, organizations,

and professions, but researchers have generally neglected the ways that job design can translate

into broader career outcomes (Hall & Las Heras, 2010). The present study tested how SDT, and

especially the sub-theory of CET, explains this process. Our results supported all three

hypotheses. Autonomy support and competence support had direct and interactive effects on the

satisfaction of needs at time 1. The effect of autonomy support at time 1 on self-determined work

motivation at time 2 was fully mediated by need satisfaction, and this indirect effect was

moderated by competence support as expected. Further, self-determined work motivation

mediated the relationships between need satisfaction and the three career attitudes.


These findings help confirm that the literatures on job design and career development are

closely related. Although these connections have been recognized in previous theoretical work

(e.g., Grant et al., 2010; Hall & Las Heras, 2010), ours is the first study to empirically connect

job design to subjective career success. Previous research has focused predominately on

personality traits and relationship-based variables, such as supervisor support, as antecedents of

subjective career success (Ng et al., 2005). Our study expands the nomological network around

career success to include job characteristics that organizations can control.

Our results also contribute to the literature regarding the importance of SDT in the

workplace (Gagné & Deci, 2005; Sheldon et al., 2003). We found that SDT processes explain

novel career criteria (i.e., career satisfaction and perceived P-V fit) that have never been studied

in the context of this theory in the past. Although some authors have criticized the relevance of

SDT (Fay & Frese, 2000; Latham, 2013), our results demonstrate that autonomy and competence

supports contribute to self-determined motivation and valuable career-related outcomes (Gagné

& Deci, 2005). More generally, our findings also illustrate the importance of considering how

broader theories of human motivation can shape specific vocational processes and outcomes of

interest to career counselors (e.g., Dahling & Librizzi, 2015).

The model also offers a strong test of the propositions of CET and reinforces the validity

of this theory. As Latham (2013) observed, many studies have not explicitly measured the

mediating states theorized to operate in SDT, especially need satisfaction. In contrast, we

included each variable implicated in CET in our model. Moreover, most other tests of SDT in

organizational settings rely on cross-sectional data (e.g., Deci, Ryan, Gagné, Leone, Usunov, &

Kornazheva, 2001), whereas we adopted a predictive design for a stronger test of the model.

Directions for Future Research and Practice


Future research could elaborate on our results in several respects to further connect job

characteristics with career success via SDT. For example, SDT includes many other sub-theories

that we did not examine in this study. We excluded two of these sub-theories, basic

psychological needs theory and goal content theory (Deci & Ryan, 2012), because they are

concerned with predicting wellbeing rather than career attitudes. Another sub-theory, causality

orientations theory, focuses on individual differences in terms of how people generally construe

their motivations as autonomous, controlled, or impersonal (Deci & Ryan, 1985); these

orientations also predict work motivation in some research (e.g., Baard et al., 2004; Lam &

Gurland, 2008). Future research could extend our model by examining causality orientations as

additional predictors or moderators of need satisfaction and motivation.

The results also suggest that career counselors should carefully assess and consider the

work conditions reported by clients. Many occupations, such as nursing, struggle with retaining

people in the profession due to occupational stressors (Simon et al., 2010). However, according

to SDT and the results of our study, any type of work may be structured in ways that fulfill

innate psychological needs and promote high levels of subjective career success. For example,

giving employees some personal agency in their everyday tasks may help to promote a feeling of

work autonomy (e.g., Fernet et al., 2013). Providing competence-enhancing feedback, as well as

assigning challenging tasks, may similarly allow employees to feel confident that they can

successfully complete their work (Deci et al., 1991). These efforts may yield self-determined job

motivation and better employee attitudes.

Even if clients do not report work conditions that satisfy innate needs, career counselors

can work with clients to encourage independent job crafting that proactively fulfills their own

needs (Berg, Wrzesniewski, & Dutton, 2010; Petrou, Demertouti, Peeters, Schaufeli, & Hetland,


2012; Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). Job crafting refers to self-initiated, rather than

organization-initiated, actions to improve and enrich jobs to attain personal, work-related goals

(Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). Research on the measurement of job crafting indicates that

crafting involves behaviors such as increasing social job resources and increasing challenging

job demands (Tims, Bakker, & Derks, 2012). These behaviors should be particularly important

for improving self-determined motivation and career attitudes because these dimensions

contribute to fulfilling innate needs described by SDT. For example, taking on and

accomplishing challenging job demands should result in greater feelings of competence and

autonomy satisfaction among workers.

Career counselors can also facilitate workers’ need fulfillment and self-determined

motivation by encouraging clients to pursue flexible work programs, which provide employees

with a high degree of autonomy over how, where, and when they perform their jobs (Kauffeld,

Jonas, & Frey, 2004). For example, Kauffeld et al. found that flexible work designs helped to

compensate for high work demands by giving workers enhanced autonomy, which resulted in

greater employee learning and development. Flexible work programs should be particularly

valuable to help employees fulfill needs for autonomy.

Limitations

Future research should also address some limitations of the current study. One potential

limitation is our use of self-report measures to assess our variables. We took steps to minimize

the occurrence of CMV by taking measurements at two points in time (Podsakoff et al., 2012).

However, self-report biases remain a cause for concern. Future SDT scholarship might consider

drawing on the ratings of coworkers with the same job title or on close others (e.g., spouses) who

know the focal respondent well.


Second, our study would be improved with additional measurement points to separate the

work support predictors, the mediators, and the career attitude outcomes in the model (Cole &

Maxwell, 2003). We measured the need satisfaction mediator concurrently with the antecedent

variables, and the self-determined motivation mediator concurrently with the career outcome

variables. Although the sequencing of our variables has strong theoretical support in SDT, our

results would be stronger with multiple measurement points; in general, SDT scholarship would

benefit if researchers adopted more longitudinal and repeated-measures designs.

Third, some issues concerning our sample are also worth noting. Although our sample

was diverse with respect to age, gender, work experience, tenure, and industry, some racial and

ethnic minority groups were underrepresented in the sample, and only U.S. citizens were

included in the sample. Additional research with diverse and cross-cultural samples is, therefore,

needed to replicate and confirm our results. We also recruited all of our participants from

MTurk. Recent research shows that test results obtained from samples collected in person, via

social media (e.g., Facebook), and MTurk do not differ (Casler et al., 2013). Nevertheless,

MTurk users may differ in some respects from the general population, such as with respect to

technological comfort or access to computer technology. We do not anticipate that these

differences would threaten the generalizability of our results about motivating work conditions,

but additional replication on samples recruited from different sources is desirable.

Fourth, we measured self-determined motivation in this study using the WEIMS, which

has not been as widely adopted in recent SDT scholarship as alternative measures of work

motivation, such as the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale (MWMS, Gagné et al., 2015).

At the time that we conducted our study, the WEIMS was the only published, English-language

option available to measure the motivation spectrum described by SDT. However, the growing


body of cross-cultural validity and reliability evidence in support of the MWMS instrument

(Gagné et al., 2014) suggests that replication of our findings with this alternative measure is

desirable.

A final limitation concerns our exclusion of relatedness supports in this study, a common

trend in organizational scholarship on SDT (Gagné & Deci, 2005). We focused only on

autonomy and competence support because of our focus on testing propositions drawn from the

CET sub-theory. Autonomy and competence support can be improved in virtually any type of

work, which offers an actionable means to improve career attitudes for anyone. In contrast, it

may be difficult to enhance relatedness support for jobs that are conducted remotely or

performed largely alone with independent tasks. Given that our sample included employees in a

wide cross-section of jobs, many of which may have been performed without much social

contact, we chose to exclude relatedness supports or relatedness need fulfillment from our

model. However, future research should expand on our results to include these variables, in

particular by focusing on samples of workers that are known in advance to have collaborative or

team-based responsibilities where relatedness needs are likely to be met.

Conclusion

In sum, we linked the literatures on job design theory and career theory to demonstrate

that SDT is a useful framework for predicting subjective career success in the form of career

satisfaction, career commitment, and perceived P-V fit. Our model was fully supportive of all

tested propositions and demonstrates that SDT has previously-unexplored value for predicting

career outcomes. Our findings have considerable practical importance as well; our results

suggest that designing jobs in ways that satisfy innate psychological needs will boost work

motivation and encourage workers to “stay the course” in their current careers.


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Table 1

Scale Score Correlations and Descriptive Statistics

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. Tenure

(years) --

2. Gender

(1=male, 2 =

female)

.01 --

3. Age

(years) .53** .14* --

4. Autonomy

support .04 .08 -.01 (.94)

5.Competence

support .15* .13 .05 .39** (.92)

6. Need

satisfaction .10 .11 .05 .70** .56** (.88)

7. Self-

determination

index

.09 .12 .09 .47** .31** .67** --

8. Career

satisfaction .11 -.01 .05 .38** .22** .51** .62** (.96)

9. Career

commitment .01 .10 .03 .45** .27** .59** .80** .69** (.93)

10. Perceived

P-V fit .05 .08 .09 .42** .37** .65** .78** .66** .85** (.81)

M 5.31 -- 34.46 5.05 6.06 4.88 4.27 4.51 4.26 4.81

SD 4.99 -- 9.54 1.42 0.88 1.01 9.11 1.61 1.61 1.58

Note: P-V fit = person-vocation fit. *p < .05; ** p < .01


Table 2

Item Loadings in Hypothesized Measurement Model

Factor/

Construct Item

Standardized

Loading

Competence

Support I feel confident in my ability to perform well at work. .86

I am capable of meeting my bosses' expectations of me at work. .81

I am able to achieve my goals at work. .85

I feel able to meet the challenge of performing well at work. .94

Autonomy

Support I feel that my manager provides me choices and options. .85

I feel understood by my manager. .90

My manager conveys confidence in my ability to do well at my job. .78

My manager encourages me to ask questions. .83

My manager listens to how I would like to do things. .87

My manager tries to understand how I see things before suggesting a

new way to do things. .85

Need

Satisfaction Parcel of autonomy need items .79

Parcel of competence need items

.86

Career

Satisfaction I am satisfied with the success I have achieved in my career. .95

I am satisfied with the progress I have made toward meeting my overall

career goals. .96

I am satisfied with the progress I have made toward meeting my goals

for advancement. .95


for income. .80


for the development of new skills. .87

Career

Commitment I like my career too well to give it up. .88

If I could go into a different profession which paid the same, I would

probably take it. (R) .68

If I could do it all over again, I would NOT choose to work in this

profession. (R) .80

I definitely want to have a life-long career for myself in this profession. .91

If I had all the money I needed without working, I would probably still

continue to work in this profession. .72

I am disappointed that I ever entered this profession. (R) .75

This is the ideal profession for a life’s work. .90

P-V Fit

Perceptions

There is a good fit between my personal interests and the kind of work I

perform in my occupation. .81

My skills and abilities are well suited for the profession that I am

currently in. .75

When I think about my interests, I sometimes wonder whether I chose

the right occupation after all. (R) .72

Note: Intrinsic motivation was indicated by a single item with a fixed factor loading (Anderson

& Gerbing, 1988) and is consequently not included in the table. Items flagged with (R) are

reverse-scored. For all standardized loadings, p < .001.


Need

Satisfaction

(R2 = .68)

Career

Commitment

(R2 = .82)

Perceived

P-V Fit

(R2 = .85)

Work

Autonomy

Support

Work

Competence

Support

.37***

Self-

Determined

Motivation

(R2 = .57)

Career

Satisfaction

(R2 = .52)

.61***

.76*** .72***

.90***

.92***

.39*** .50*

.31*

.30*

Figure 1. Results of the main-effects only model of Self-Determination Theory to predict career commitment, career satisfaction, and

perceived person-vocation fit.


Figure 2. Latent variable interaction of work autonomy support and perceived work competence

predicting satisfaction of innate needs in the workplace.

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

Low Autonomy Support High Autonomy

Support

Nee

d S

atis

fact

ion b

y W

ork

High Perceived

Competence

Low Perceived

Competence

running head: sdt and career attitudes 1 linking job

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