Employees’ competence need satisfaction and loyalty: Intrinsic work motivation as a mediator, moderated by belief in reciprocal filial piety

Competition for talent is becoming increasingly fierce in China’s rapidly developing economy, so that cultivating loyalty among employees is important for the competitiveness and sustainable development of enterprises. From an individual perspective, in this study we explored the internal mechanism of employees’ competence need satisfaction on their loyalty. We constructed a moderated mediation model with intrinsic work motivation as the mediator and reciprocal filial piety belief as the moderator. In a study conducted with Master of Business Administration students in Henan Province, along with employees in Xuchang, we received 438 valid survey responses for analysis. The results indicated that employee loyalty was positively affected by competence need satisfaction, with intrinsic work motivation playing a partial mediating role. Reciprocal filial piety belief positively moderated the mediating process. Therefore, managers should pay attention to employees’ need for competence satisfaction, and should take measures to improve employees’ motivation.