Development of the autonomous and controlled motivation at work scale for older Japanese bridge employees and its relationships with organizational factors

Abstract

The autonomous and controlled motivation at work scale for older Japanese bridge workers was developed, and its relationships with organizational factors were investigated in this study. The data for a sample of 1,130 older bridge employees (M_age: 62.02 years, SD: 1.97, range: 60–77; males: 95.0% (n=1,074), females: 4.2% (n=48), unknown: 0.7% (n=8)) were analyzed. First, in an exploratory factor analysis two autonomous motivation factors (i.e., “intrinsic, contribution, and self-fulfillment” and “acquisition and growth”) and two controlled motivation factors (i.e., “security and salary” and “maintenance of activity levels”) were extracted. Second, multiple regression analysis indicated that “communicating with their subordinates” and “objective management interviews with their supervisor” predicted the subjects’ autonomous motivation at work, whereas no such relationships were seen for controlled motivation. These results suggest that organizational factors play an important role in the promotion of autonomous motivation among bridge workers in Japan.