The role of supervisor autonomy support, organizational support, and autonomous and controlled motivation in predicting employees' satisfaction and turnover intentions

Abstract Using self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2008) as the guiding theoretical framework, the present study tested a model that incorporates workers' perceptions of organizational support and supervisor autonomy support, global and domain specific (i.e., work) motivation, work satisfaction, and turnover intentions. The hypothesized model was tested using a sample of 735 workers (362 men and 373 women). Results revealed that work motivation was significantly related to both intraindividual (global motivation) and contextual factors (organizational support and supervisor autonomy support). In addition, perceived organizational support and work autonomous motivation were positively related to work satisfaction, whereas turnover intentions were negatively related to perceived organizational support and work autonomous motivation, and positively related to work controlled motivation. The present results underscore the importance of understanding the mechanisms through which higher turnover intentions and lower worker satisfaction take place, eventually leading to appropriate interventions. Keywords: Autonomy supportMotivationPerceived organizational supportSatisfactionSelf-Determination TheoryTurnover intentions Notes 1 An alternative model where autonomy support predicted perceived organizational support (see Rhoades & Eisenberger, Citation2002) was tested, but this model did not offer a better fit to the data than did the proposed model. 2 No interactions between global motivation and the two sources of support were found on work autonomous motivation and work controlled motivation.