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Satisfied employees, stronger teams: linking need satisfaction to team-boosting behaviours via work engagement
Vallenice Van Blerk1, Leon T De Beer1,2
1WorkWell Research Unit, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Purpose:
Modern work teams are increasingly diverse, dynamic, and dispersed. For organisations to thrive in this context, they must prioritise team functioning. Individual team members play a central role in shaping team climate, dynamics, and performance. This study investigates relationships between basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS), work engagement, and team-boosting behaviours (TBB). Drawing on self-determination theory, it examines whether employees' need satisfaction relates to discretionary behaviours that enhance team climate through work engagement, linking individual motivation to team-strengthening outcomes.
Design/Methodology/Approach:
A cross-sectional survey design was employed with employees (n = 332). Participants completed validated self-report measures of BPNS, work engagement, and TBB. Structural equation modelling using a bifactor exploratory structural equation modelling framework tested relationships, isolating global and specific need satisfaction factors.
Findings:
Global BPNS positively predicted work engagement and all team-boosting behaviours (mood-enhancing, energising, unifying). Work engagement mediated between global need satisfaction and each team-boosting dimension. Specific competence satisfaction predicted all TBB, while relatedness satisfaction predicted only mood-enhancing behaviours. Effects were primarily driven by global BPNS.
Practical Implications:
Organisations should prioritise need-supportive environments that foster overall psychological need satisfaction, which may in turn relate to greater engagement and more frequent team-directed discretionary behaviours. Interventions should focus on autonomy-supportive leadership, competence development through feedback and mastery experiences, and relatedness support through psychological safety and connection-building practices.
Originality/Value:
This study uniquely integrates BPNS, work engagement, and team-boosting behaviours within a single model and suggests how individual motivational experiences may relate to team-directed behaviours, consistent with a bottom-up pathway to team climate enhancement.
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