Motivation in the Remote Workplace: Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to their essential role in the promotion of employee and organizational effectiveness, internal processes regulating work motivation have been a topic of interest for decades. Influenced by a need-supportive environment, work motivation is at least partially controlled by the organization. However, employee needs and need satisfaction have been largely addressed in research in traditional work settings, leaving a vastly different work arrangement insufficiently explored: remote work. This holds especially true for involuntary remote work - a viable solution for organizations during a crisis. To address this gap in knowledge, a qualitative descriptive study was conducted to examine basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration within the remote work context during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of the study was to generate a comprehensive, data-near description inspiring future research studies and informing organizations regarding employee experiences when facing a mandatory shift from a traditional workplace to a remote work arrangement. The study’s findings highlighted that (1) a balance between independence and collaboration was essential to the satisfaction of the need for autonomy, (2) a balance between job-specific skills, context-specific skills, and self-management skills was essential to the satisfaction of the need for competence, and (3) a variety of social and collaborative aspects were essential to the satisfaction of the need for relatedness when working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Supporting existing theory, these findings suggested the development of proactive steps and response strategies promoting a need-supportive remote work environment during a crisis.