Satisfied employees, stronger teams: linking need satisfaction to team-boosting behaviours via work engagement.

Authors

Vallenice Van Blerk, Leon T De Beer

Published in

Frontiers in psychology. Volume 17. Pages 1917631. Epub Sep 23, 2026.

Abstract

Modern work teams are increasingly diverse, dynamic, and dispersed. For organisations to thrive in this context, they must prioritise team functioning. Individual team members play a central role in shaping team climate, dynamics, and performance. This study investigates relationships between basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS), work engagement, and team-boosting behaviours (TBB). Drawing on self-determination theory, it examines whether employees' need satisfaction relates to discretionary behaviours that enhance team climate through work engagement, linking individual motivation to team-strengthening outcomes.
A cross-sectional survey design was employed with employees (n = 332). Participants completed validated self-report measures of BPNS, work engagement, and TBB. Structural equation modelling using a bifactor exploratory structural equation modelling framework tested relationships, isolating global and specific need satisfaction factors.
Global BPNS positively predicted work engagement and all team-boosting behaviours (mood-enhancing, energising, unifying). Work engagement mediated between global need satisfaction and each team-boosting dimension. Specific competence satisfaction predicted all TBB, while relatedness satisfaction predicted only mood-enhancing behaviours. Effects were primarily driven by global BPNS.
Organisations should prioritise need-supportive environments that foster overall psychological need satisfaction, which may in turn relate to greater engagement and more frequent team-directed discretionary behaviours. Interventions should focus on autonomy-supportive leadership, competence development through feedback and mastery experiences, and relatedness support through psychological safety and connection-building practices.
This study uniquely integrates BPNS, work engagement, and team-boosting behaviours within a single model and suggests how individual motivational experiences may relate to team-directed behaviours, consistent with a bottom-up pathway to team climate enhancement.

PMID:
42845897
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.