What matters more for daily well- and ill-being? The dual pathways of daily need satisfaction and frustration

The self-determination theory denotes that employees’ basic psychological needs should be fulfilled for them to experience optimal functioning (‘bright’ pathway). However, these needs may also be thwarted, often resulting in less favorable outcomes (‘dark’ pathway). Although need satisfaction has been widely researched, need frustration has been explored less. The needs are context-responsive and vary daily but are more often investigated at the between-person level rather than the within-person level. This study aimed to understand the dual pathways (to well- and ill-being) of daily need satisfaction and frustration through the different motivational regulations. We also compared whether daily need satisfaction related more strongly to positive outcomes than need frustration and whether need frustration was more strongly associated with adverse outcomes. An intensive longitudinal quantitative research design with a multilevel approach was used. Employees in small and medium enterprises were asked to complete daily surveys for 10 working days ( N = 68/ n = 557). Data were analyzed using multilevel structural equation modeling. The results revealed that both daily need satisfaction and frustration had an indirect influence on work engagement and exhaustion via intrinsic motivation. The indirect effect of daily need satisfaction on work engagement was more substantial than need frustration, while daily need frustration was more strongly related to exhaustion via intrinsic motivation. The implications are that management can actively make efforts to support employees’ daily needs and reduce their daily need frustration. Theoretically, researchers should include both need satisfaction and frustration to account for the dual pathways to employee outcomes.