The relationship of self-determined motivation with psychological, life, and workplace well-being: A canonical correlation study

Today, work as a social identity plays an important role in success, health, and well-being. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of self-determined motivation with psychological, life, and workplace well-being.

The participants of this study consisted of 246 employees of Marun Oil and Gas Producing Company in Khuzestan in 2020, who were selected by stratified random sampling method. The instruments used in the study were Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale (Gagné et al., 2015), and Employee Well-being Scale (Zheng et al., 2015). Canonical correlation and multiple regression analysis through SPSS-24 were used for data analysis.

Findings showed that among the three dimensions of self-determined motivation, autonomous motivation with a structural coefficient of 0.94 and among the components of employee well-being, workplace well-being with a structural coefficient of 0.99, had the maximum relationship with the first canonical variable resulting from independent and dependent variables. According to the results of simultaneous regression analysis, autonomous motivation was the most important predictor for psychological well-being (β=0.45, p=0.000), life well-being (β=0.30, p=0.001), and workplace well-being (β=0.45, p=0.000). Amotivation could predict workplace well-being (β= -0.34, p=0.000). However, controlled motivation could not predict any component of employee well-being.

Based on the findings, autonomous motivation was the most important predictor of psychological, life, and workplace well-being. Therefore, it is recommended that organizations provide opportunity for development of this type of motivation.