자기결정성의 정도에 따라 행동을 위한 동기가 형성된다고 주장하는 자기결정이론에 대한 학계와 실무계의 관심이 지속적으로 증대되고 있다. 그러나 자기결정이론의 이론적 중요성과 실무적 유용성에도 불구하고, 자기결정이론을 실제 경영조직에 적용하여 전반적인 프로세스를 고찰한 연구는 많지 않은 실정이다. 이에 본 연구에서는 업무의 영역에서 조직 구성원이 갖고 있는 업무 자기결정동기의 선행요인과 결과요인을 탐색한다. 구체적으로, 어떠한 업무맥락이 개인의 자율성, 유능성, 관계성 니즈를 충족시킴으로써 그 사람의 업무 자기결정동기의 수준을 결정하는지를 살펴보고, 해당 조직 구성원의 업무 자기결정동기가 자신이 속한 조직의 변화에 대한 몰입적 태도에는 어떠한 영향을 미치는지를 조사한다. 본 연구에서 제시한 연구모형을 검증하기 위해 변화를 추진하고 있는 2개 조직의 구성원들을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였다. A사의 종업원 96명과 B사의 종업원 85명에게 설문지를 배포한 후, A사에서 96명(회수율 100%), B사에서 74명(회수율 87%)을 포함한 총 170명의 응답을 수거하여 본 연구의 가설 검증에 활용하였다. 수집된 자료를 바탕으로 구조방정식 모형을 적용하여 분석한 결과, 선행요인으로 고려된 직무 자율성, 대인관계 피드백, 감정적 지원은 각각 개인의 업무 자기결정동기와 긍정적인 관계를 가지며, 이러한 업무 자기결정동기는 정서적 변화몰입에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 즉, 특정 조직 구성원이 직무 자율성을 많이 경험할수록, 대인관계 피드백을 많이 받을수록, 감정적 지원을 많이 받을수록 그 사람의 업무 자기결정동기의 수준은 높아지는 것으로 확인되었다. 또한, 업무 자기결정동기의 수준이 높은 조직 구성원은 자신이 속한 조직이 추구하는 변화에 대해 정서적으로 강하게 몰입하는 태도를 갖게 되는 것으로 파악되었다. 본 연구를 통해 검증된 결과는 조직 구성원의 업무 자기결정동기 수준을 향상시키기 위한 맥락적 조건이 무엇인지를 구체적으로 제시하며, 나아가 업무 자기결정동기를 통하여 조직의 변화에 대한 몰입적 태도를 제고할 수 있다는 점을 시사한다. 이를 통하여 자기결정이론의 연구범위를 확장하는 동시에 실무적 시사점을 제공한다는 점에서 본 연구의 의의를 찾아볼 수 있다.

Scholars and practitioners have been increasingly interested in self-determination theory which posits that one’s behavioral motivation is determined by the degree of his or her self-determination. In spite of its theoretical importance and practical usefulness, researchers have tended to neglect the comprehensive processes of work self-determined motivation based on self-determination theory in business circumstances. Drawing on self-determination theory, this study explores antecedents and consequences of the work self-determined motivation of organizational members. We first approached to work self-determined motivation on the ground of work self-determination index so as to identify overall levels of individual self-determined motivation in the work setting. In terms of antecedents of work self-determined motivation, this study hypothesized that work contexts to satisfy one’s basic needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) would increase his or her level of work self-determined motivation. More specifically, we expected that job autonomy, interpersonal feedback, and social support would be positively related to work self-determined motivation. With regard to consequences of work self-determined motivation, this study attempted to investigate whether organizational members’ work self-determined motivation would influence their committed attitudes toward the change of the organization to which they belong. In order to analyze the research model of this study, we paid our attention to two domestic organizations which had been actively driving internal change and innovation. We distributed questionnaires to 96 employees at A company and 85 employees at B company, and collected reponses from 170 employees including 96 (response rate 100%) and 74 employees (response rate of 87%) at each company. Before testing the hypotheses, we confirmed the validity and reliability of the collected data, and checked the possibility of common method bias. By utilizing the structural equation modeling with the data, we found that job autonomy, interpersonal feedback, and emotional support which were considered the antecedents were positively associated with individual work self-determined motivation. That is, organizational members who experienced high levels of job autonomy, interpersonal feedback, and social support tended to have high levels of work self-determined motivation. It was also shown that individual work self-determined motivation positively influenced his or her affective commitment to organizational change. In other words, organizational members who had high levels of work self-determined motivation tended to exhibit high levels of affective commitment to the change being promoted by their organization. The findings of this study suggest the specific contextual conditions to facilitate the level of employees’ work self-determined motivation, and further imply that the motivation is able to enhance organizational members’ committed attitudes toward organizational change. The current study contributes to extending the research scope regarding self-determination theory by identifying the work contexts satisfying individual basic needs as the antecedents of work self-determined motivation and by verifying the effect of work self-determined motivation on the affective commitment to change. This study also offers practical implications available for current organizations. That is, it is desirable that supervisors and leaders in organizations should manage the job structure so that their members have enough discretion and freedom in working for their own tasks and that those should develop the plan to build intra-organizational relationships in the formal and informal aspects so that their members are free to communicate and interact with the others in the organizations.

Work Self-Determined Motivation, Job Autonomy, Interpersonal Feedback, Emotional Support, Affective Commitment to Change