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Does organizational reciprocity improve employees’ motivation? The mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction

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Abstract

While the effect of organizational reciprocity on employees’ attitudes and behaviors has received much attention, the relationships between different forms of reciprocity and the quality of motivation remain largely unexplored. Building on social exchange theory and self-determination theory, we test a theoretical model integrating reciprocity and motivation based on survey data from 753 professional employees across China. We find that generalized and balanced reciprocity positively affect autonomous motivation and controlled motivation respectively, whereas negative reciprocity adversely influences both forms of motivation. Additionally, basic psychological need satisfaction mediates the associations between generalized reciprocity and autonomous motivation, and between negative reciprocity and autonomous motivation. Further, autonomy support is found to moderate the relationship between generalized reciprocity and basic psychological need satisfaction, and between negative reciprocity and basic psychological need satisfaction. Our findings thus suggest that different forms of reciprocity are integrally associated with two types of motivation.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the editor Dr. Richard Ferraro and two anonymous reviewers for their honest, helpful, and constructive comments. We also thank Professor John Shields of the University of Sydney Business School for his constructive comments.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project codes: 72041002 and 71271055) and the Beijing Municipal Key Programs of Education Sciences during the 13th Five-Year Plan Period (BAEA18043), postgraduate research and innovation fund of the University of International Business and Economics (Grant no. 201832), and joint doctor training program of the University of International Business and Economics (Grant no. JS20190202).

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  1. Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Huixin Dongjie, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100029, China

    Yuxin Liu, Nan Zhu & Jamshed Raza

  2. School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 South Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100081, China

    Jianwei Zhang

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  1. Yuxin Liu
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Liu, Y., Zhu, N., Zhang, J. et al. Does organizational reciprocity improve employees’ motivation? The mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction. Curr Psychol 40, 3136–3150 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00984-x

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