Senior Executives’ Basic Psychological Need, Satisfaction and Psychological Well-being: Is It Different at the Top?

Abstract

Senior executives’ decisions can have a substantial impact on their own lives, their families, their organizations’ workers and employees, and society. This quantitative study (1) investigated the relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS) at work and psychological well-being (PWB) in 142 senior executives as antecedent of their decision making and (2) compared the results to two other managerial level samples of 260 managers and 445 employees. The results have implications for theory and practice. Our findings contribute the new theoretical perspectives of differences in the relationship between BPNS at work and PWB by managerial level and senior executives’ gender (‘complementarity effect’). In turn, our research provides evidence for practical organizational applications such as the design and implementation of effective human resource development programs based on BPNS. Our findings further underscore the importance of senior executive psychology as a field of academic inquiry and provide directions for future research focused on further improving senior executives’ optimal functioning.

Unraveling the effects of occupational identity verification, self-esteem and identity salience on managers’ mental health: examining psychological distress and depression in the workplace

“…Compared to non-managers, the manager’s role is recognized as a more prestigious and economically advantageous one with attractive compensation packages, career opportunities and job security (Debus et al , 2019). However, some authors suggested that managers often suffer from a lack of recognition at work (St-Hilaire and Gilbert, 2019; Fernet et al , 2016; Mueller and Lovell, 2018). Based on identity theory, these changes suggest an inconsistency between the conventional standards related to their role and the situation they experience in their workplace, which might result in negative psychological outcomes.…”

Linking work, occupational identity and burnout: the case of managers

“…However, the literature showed that recent organizational changes have significatively altered these advantages (St-Hilaire and Gilbert, 2018;Sveningsson and Alvesson, 2016). In this context, some authors suggest that managers suffer from a lack of recognition at work (St-Hilaire and Gilbert, 2018;Cousin, 2008;Monneuse, 2014;Fernet et al, 2016;Mueller and Lovell, 2018). Based on the theory of identity's postulate, these changes suggest a gap between the conventional standards related to their role and the situation they experience in their workplace, which might exhaust them emotionally.…”

“…Nowadays, managers have less work control and less job security due to the new work organization and structures (Monneuse, 2014;St-Onge and Provost, 2014;St-Hilaire and Gilbert, 2018;Sahu and Yadav, 2013;Prins et al, 2015;Sveningsson and Alvesson, 2016). They also suffer from a lack of recognition at work and loneliness (St-Hilaire and Gilbert, 2018;Cousin, 2008;Monneuse, 2014;Fernet et al, 2016;Mueller and Lovell, 2018). These changes suggest a gap between managers' role identity's standards that we have previously mentioned, and the workplace's input related to this identity.…”

Gender and satisfaction of basic psychological needs: an exploratory study of pottery crafts in Latin America

“…In a study conducted by Zayed et al, (2021) across five Arab countries, it was found that factor loadings were equivalent for women and men in relation to the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, offering support for factorial invariance of the basic psychological necessities across gender. In a study conducted with executives, managers, and employees of firms, Mueller and Lovell (2018) found that men were significantly driven by autonomy and competence. In managers and employees, their results showed that the satisfaction of the need for competence is the strongest predictor of behavior for both men and women.…”

“…This type of research has mainly focused on athletes, students, and employees (Hu et al, 2019;Rahmadani et al, 2019;Rodrigues et al, 2019;Ümmet, 2015;Zayed et al, 2021) or on how managers affect their employees' capacity to meet their basic psychological needs (Rothmann et al, 2013). Likewise, research focused on the basic psychological characteristics of managers has been developed more widely in large companies (Marescaux et al, 2013;Mueller and Lovell, 2018) with very little attention to small family businesses.…”