The virtuous cycle of daily motivation: Effects of daily strivings on work behaviors, need satisfaction, and next-day strivings.

We extend the theory of purposeful work behavior (TPWB, Barrick, Mount, & Li, 2013) by conceptualizing three key motivational strivings (communion striving, accomplishment striving, and status striving) as dynamic constructs that have implications for how employees act and feel each day at work. Building on TPWB, we propose that morning communion striving, accomplishment striving, and status striving will motivate unique behaviors at work that day-specifically helping, task-performance, and enacted power, respectively. Considering the implications of these striving-induced behaviors on basic psychological needs, we expect that helping, task-performance, and enacted power will, in turn, enhance employees' daily need satisfaction in ways that enhance corresponding next-morning strivings, thus generating a virtuous motivational cycle. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the relationship between daily striving-induced work behaviors and daily need satisfaction will be stronger for employees who are higher (vs. lower) in power. We find support for a virtuous cycle of daily motivation, whereby striving-induced behaviors and enhanced need satisfaction mediate the relationship between previous-morning and next-morning strivings. As expected, we found that employees high (vs. low) in power were more sensitive to the outcomes of their status striving. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).