Linking autonomy support and health at work: The self-determination theory perspective

Based on self-determination theory, this paper formulated and confirmed a theoretical model linking autonomy support and employee health at work via several intervening variables. In total, 828 randomly selected professional employees were surveyed from six total companies in China: three from the manufacturing industry and three from the service industry. The questionnaire responses of these employees were collected and checked through structural equation model analyses. The results demonstrated that, as anticipated, autonomy support positively influenced basic psychological needs satisfaction, which, in turn, had a positive influence on the autonomous motivation of employees and negatively impacted controlled motivation. Correspondingly, autonomous motivation had a significantly positive effect and controlled motivation had a significantly negative effect on employee health at work. We also evaluated the impact of trait affect, i.e., the positive affect and negative affect experienced by employees at work, on the linkage between autonomy support and basic psychological needs satisfaction. Positive affect strengthened this relationship, while negative affected weakened it. This paper enables the progression of future theoretical research on understanding how autonomy support can influence employee health, which will add knowledge to the occupational health psychology literature. To conclude, theoretical contributions and managerial implications are highlighted.