Need Satisfaction, Motivation, and Well-Being in the Work Organizations of a Former Eastern Bloc Country: A Cross-Cultural Study of Self-Determination

Past studies in U.S. work organizations have supported a model derived from self-determination theory in which autonomy-supportive work climates predict satisfaction of the intrinsic needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, which in turn predict task motivation and psychological adjustment on the job. To test this model cross-culturally, the authors studied employees of state-owned companies in Bulgaria, a country that has traditionally had a central-planning economy, a totalitarian political system, and collectivist values. A sample from a privately owned American corporation was used for comparison purposes. Results using structural equation modeling suggested that the model fit the data from each country, that the constructs were equivalent across countries, and that some paths of the structural model fit equivalently for the two countries but that county moderated the other paths.