The Relationship between Self-Determined Motivation and Psychological Well-being, Life Well-being, and Workplace Well-being: A Canonical Correlational Study

Objective: Today, work as a social identity plays an important role in success, health, and well-being. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-determined motivation and psychological well-being, and well-being in life and workplace. Method: The participants of this study consisted of 246 employees of Marun Oil and Gas Producing Company in Khuzestan in 2020, who were selected through stratified random sampling method. The instruments used in the study were Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale (Gagné et al., 2015), and Employee Well-being Scale (Zheng et al., 2015). Canonical correlation and multiple regression analysis were used for data analysis through SPSS-24. Result: The results showed that among the three dimensions of job motivation, autonomous motivation with a structural coefficient of 0.94, and among the components of employee well-being, workplace well-being with a structural coefficient of 0.99, have the most relationship with the first fundamental variable from independent and dependent variables. According to the results of simultaneous regression analysis, autonomous motivation was the most important predictor for psychological well-being (β=0.45, p=0.000), life well-being (β=0.30, p=0.001), and workplace well-being (β=0.45, p=0.000). Amotivation could predict workplace well-being (β= -0.34, p=0.000). However, controlled motivation could not predict any component of employee well-being. Conclusion: Based on the findings, autonomous motivation was the most important predictor of psychological, life, and workplace well-being. Therefore, it is recommended that organizations provide opportunity for development of this type of motivation.