Autonomy Matters: Satisfaction and Thwarting of Basic Needs Predict Faculty Job Satisfaction

• In Event: Emotional Well-Being in Faculty: Construct Assessment and Motivational Antecedents

Abstract

Job satisfaction is associated with the health and personal success of employees, which makes it highly important to identify potential antecedents of job satisfaction in higher education settings. Pioneer research on that matter has found that satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness predicts job satisfaction of faculty members (Larson et al., 2019). However, existing research has addressed neither the multifaceted nature of job satisfaction (Edwards et al., 2008) nor the (potential) difference in the impact of need satisfaction compared to need thwarting (Costa et al., 2015). To close this research gap, we investigated whether need satisfaction and thwarting predicted job satisfaction in general as well as facets of job satisfaction (i.e., satisfaction with work tasks, payment, opportunities for personal development, supervisors and colleagues). We also investigated associations with work strain. Finally, we were particularly interested in the relative importance of the three basic psychological needs.

We questioned 369 German early career faculty members via an online survey. Due to the high correlation between need thwarting and need satisfaction (and possible problems with multi-collinearity) in our sample, we estimated two separate structural equation models for need satisfaction and need thwarting respectively. Within these models, we included all three basic psychological needs simultaneously as correlated latent predictors for the criteria (job satisfaction and work strain in general as well as facets of job satisfaction). Both conducted models showed a good model fit (CFI > .96; RMSEA < .06) and a similar results pattern (full set of path coefficients is depicted in tables 1 and 2).

We did not find substantial indication supporting the notion that need thwarting differed in its association pattern with well-being compared to need dissatisfaction (i.e., inverse of need satisfaction). However, we found that the predictor sets differed in the predictive strength between models (e.g., work strain stronger predicted by need thwarting). Perceived autonomy at work was the strongest predictor for most aspects of job satisfaction, while perceived relatedness was particularly predictive for social aspects of job satisfaction (satisfaction with colleagues/supervisors). Both perceived autonomy and relatedness were positively associated with job satisfaction and negatively with work strain in general. Additionally, we found rather weak and inconclusive effects for perceived competence (partly positive and partly negative associations with aspects of faculty well-being).

When comparing the different facets of job satisfaction, we found that the predictor set was best suited to explain variance of satisfaction with work tasks and with colleagues, while being least suited to explain variance of satisfaction with payment. In sum, our findings highlight the importance of perceived need satisfaction as potential antecedent of job satisfaction and its facets within higher education faculty. Perceived autonomy was the strongest predictor, while perceived competence was less (if at all) important. This partly contradicts prior research that hinted on the potential of feelings of competence for the development of job satisfaction. Potential reasons for this deviation from prior empirical findings and implications for the development of work conditions in higher education will be discussed.

Authors

• Stefan Janke, University of Mannheim

• Henrike Helmer, Institute of German Language Mannheim