Table 6 Convergent/discriminant validation constructs and hypotheses (based on SDT and previous research [15, 18, 43, 44])

Organizational support: extent to which respondents feel supported by their supervisor and coworkers, both technically and emotionally.

Hypotheses:

(a) Autonomous (intrinsic) types of motivation are closely and positively related to organizational support.

(b) Controlled (extrinsic) types of motivation are unrelated to organizational support.

Organizational support was measured with six items partly adapted from [45, 46] (Cronbach’s α = .90)

Item examples: “The people I work with are there to help me when I need support.”; “I can absolutely rely on the people I work with.”

Response scale: 0 (do not agree at all)–10 (completely agree) with visual aid (analogous to the motivation measure)

Organizational commitment: extent to which respondent are emotionally attached to their workplace

Hypotheses:

(a) Autonomous types of motivation are closely and positively related to organizational commitment.

(b) Controlled types of motivation are unrelated to organizational commitment.

Organizational commitment was measured with three items partly adopted from [13, 47] (α = .74)

Item examples: “I would not want to work for a different health facility.”; “I am proud to be working for this health facility.”

Response scale: 0 (do not agree at all)–10 (completely agree) with visual aid (analogous to the motivation measure)

Intentions to quit: extent to which respondents would like to leave their current position

Hypotheses:

(a) Autonomous types of motivation are negatively related to turnover intentions.

(b) Controlled types of motivation are positively related to turnover intentions.

Intentions to quit were measured with three items partly adopted from [11] (α = .72)

Item examples: “I often feel like leaving my job.”; “Accepting to work for this facility was a mistake.”

Response scale: 0 (do not agree at all)–10 (completely agree) with visual aid (analogous to the motivation measure)