Aspirations and the role of autonomy support towards New Zealand leaders wellbeing

Abstract or Summary

Self Determination Theory (SDT) emphasizes that the nature of the aspiration that a person pursues will support or detract from wellbeing. Intrinsic aspirations (growth, affiliation, community contribution), and extrinsic aspirations (wealth, image and fame) differ in the likely wellbeing consequences of goal pursuit. Testing aspirations towards subjective wellbeing of 386 leaders from over 200 organizations with data split in two waves (1) aspirations and (2) wellbeing outcomes, found that intrinsic aspirations were positively related, and extrinsic were negative related, to wellbeing (life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, and subjective wellbeing). Furthermore, perceived autonomy support (PAS) was tested as SDT suggests attaining wellbeing can also be influenced by the context of sought opportunities (e.g. organizations). Findings show that PAS was directly beneficial towards all wellbeing outcomes, as well as moderating the effects of various aspirations towards all outcomes. Overall, moderating effects supported the positive influence of PAS, where it enhanced the positive influence of intrinsic aspirations and buffering the detrimental influence of extrinsic aspirations, towards wellbeing.