The main aim of the study is to compare the extent to which the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence of baby boomers, generation X, Y and Z employees of Denel Dynamics is being satisfied and how this influences motivational strategies. The issue of generation is becoming more important due to different ways and methods required to manage different generations. A quantitative study was done by means of a structured questionnaire which was used in to determine the motivational preferences of the participants. This questionnaire was developed by Van den Broeck, Vansteenkiste, De Witte, Soenens and Lens (2010) and is based on the self-determination theory developed by Deci and Ryan. Results indicate that baby boomers have a stronger need for autonomy as compared to the other generations. Similar needs for relatedness were shown by all the generations. In view of the findings, recommendations are made to management to optimize motivational strategies and these recommendations show how each generational needs relating to self-determination theory should be addressed. / MBA (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Vid rehabilitering efter en idrottsskada kan man se dålig följsamhet av rehabiliteringsträningen och en av de främsta orsakerna som påverkar hur rehabiliteringen efterföljs och utgången av den är idrottarens motivation. Här kan man se hur det framförallt är en autonom motivation som resulterar i att rehabiliteringsträningen utförs. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka upplevda motivationsfaktorer hos damfotbollsspelare i samband med rehabilitering efter en idrottsskada och i vilken utsträckning som dessa motivationsfaktorer sågs som autonoma. Metod: Kvalitativa intervjuer utifrån en semi-strukturerad intervjuguide med damfotbollsspelare som genomgår en rehabilitering efter en idrottsskada analyserade med innehållsanalys och utifrån självbestämmande teorin. Resultat: Motivationsfaktorerna som upplevdes var motiven till varför de utförde rehabiliteringsträningen, sina målsättningar, ett socialt stöd samt av en extern och intern press. Den upplevda autonomin varierade något men överlag var det en yttre motivation som drev dem varpå beteendet därmed inte var helt självbestämt. Resultat är tänkt att ge en ökad förståelse för damfotbollsspelarnas motivation i samband med deras rehabilitering så att sjukgymnaster, tränare m.fl. som är en del i rehabiliteringsprocessen kan bidra till att öka den autonoma motivationen och på så sätt förbättra följsamheten och utgången av rehabiliteringen. / When rehabilitating after a sports injury poor adherence of the rehabilitation program can be seen and one of the main causes that affects if the rehabilitation is followed and the outcome of it is the athlete’s motivation. Here you can see how it is primarily an autonomous motivation that results in a rehabilitation training that is performed. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the perceived motivations of female football players during rehabilitation after a sports injury and the extent to which these motivators were seen as autonomous. Method: Qualitative interviews based on a semi-structured interview guide with female football players undergoing rehabilitation after a sports injury analyzed with content analysis and the basis of the self-determination theory. Results: The players were motivated by the reasons to why they performed the rehabilitation, their goals, social support and an external and internal pressure. The perceived autonomy varied somewhat but overall it was an external motivation that drove them whereupon behavior therefore was not entirely self-determined. Results are supposed to provide a better understanding of women's football players' motivation in relation to their rehabilitation so physical therapists, coaches, etc. which is part of the rehabilitation process can contribute to increasing the autonomous motivation and thus improve compliance and outcome of rehabilitation.

Through a qualitative investigation, this study explored what motivated Indian faculty to seek academic positions at universities in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. instead of returning to India after completing their doctorates in one of these countries. Twenty-four in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted over a two-year period with STEM Indian faculty who received their undergraduate degrees in India but their doctorates abroad and who were currently teaching at universities in one of the three aforementioned countries. While there have been several studies investigating trends in international student mobility, few studies have investigated mobility trends amongst faculty, especially those faculty who leave developing nations, such as India, for jobs in first world countries. Theories on globalization, internationalization and brain drain/migration studies guided this study and several theoretical lenses, such as Self Determination Theory, Transnationalism and Social Network Theory, were used to analyze the data. While push-pull literature argues that individuals might be pushed from their home countries because of poor salaries, lacking infrastructure, and lack of access to resources, this study revealed that it was poor communication on behalf of the Indian universities, departmental politics and rigid academic systems that demotivated these participants from returning. This study provides a framework for future research on the complicated process involved in faculty decision-making with regards to career trajectory and possibly how to approach future studies on the complicated job process for international faculty seeking employment outside their native countries.

Sammanfattning Ideella ledare är en stor del av idrotten i Sverige och dessa ledare är i sin tur väldigt viktiga för idrottsrörelsen då de kan anses vara de största bidragsgivarna idrottsrörelsen har. Ett ideellt engagemang är något man gör på sin fritid och är således oavlönat. Undersökningen riktar sig mot mindre föreningar och i synnerhet cykelföreningar. I mindre föreningar tenderar det ofta att vara samma personer som är aktivitets- och organisationsledare vilket skiljer sig ifrån större föreningar där man ofta är det ena eller det andra. Syftet med studien är att undersöka ideella ledare i mindre cykelföreningar. Detta för att förstå hur man ska behålla dessa ledare med en god motivation då de även ofta sitter på flera poster när det gäller mindre föreningar. För att svara på syftet och frågeställningarna så har jag använt mig av motivationsteorin Self-Determination Theory. Detta är en kvalitativ undersökning som omfattar sex respondentintervjuer inom mindre cykelföreningar. Jag har använt mig av halvstrukturerade intervjuer och därefter gjort en kvalitativ innehållsanalys för att tolka data. Huvudresultatet visar på att ideella ledare i föreningarna beskriver en inre motivation och att man tenderar att bemöta deltagarna med en öppenhet. I diskussionen visar jag studiens resultat med tidigare forskning och teorier. Resultaten visar även konkreta tips för att stärka den inre motivationen hos ideella ledare vilket kan vara till nytta för ideella föreningar och organisationer. / Abstract Sports in Sweden has its foundation among voluntary coaches. Those coaches are very important for Swedish sports as they are often seen to be very important to the sport. A voluntary engagement is something done in your spare time and it is unpaid. This study is aimed at smaller sports clubs, especially in the sport of cycling. Often it is the same person that is a coach for training and also are involved in organization, this differs from larger sport clubs. The aim of this study is to examine voluntary coaches in smaller cycling clubs. Understanding how to keep these coaches with great motivation is important also in other places within the organization because of the smaller club. To do this I have used a motivational theory named Self-Determination Theory. In this study I have used qualitative approach as well as I have done six interviews among coaches in cycle clubs. I have used semi-structured interview method and then I have analyzed my data with a qualitative content analysis. The main finding of this study shows that voluntary coaches often are inspired by an intrinsic motivation, and that the coaches often meet their followers with openness. In the discussion, the results of this study get related to earlier research and theories. There I also show a concrete tip for how to strengthen intrinsic motivation in voluntary coaches. This can be useful by voluntary clubs and organizations.

Student engagement in academic work is critical for learning and scholastic achievement. Fortunately, an abundance of empirical evidence and engagement theories recommend what educational contexts are most likely to engage students in learning. Yet the epidemic of adolescent disengagement in schools suggests there is a gap, even a chasm, between student engagement research and practice. This study addresses this critical void in the literature; to understand how education theory can inform practice to improve the quality of student engagement in learning. I approached my research question, “How do secondary social studies teachers promote and sustain student engagement in academic work?” through the lens of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002). Self-determination theory suggests that teachers’ support of students’ psychological needs for autonomy (e.g. by minimizing coercion, maximizing student voices and choices, providing meaningful rationales for learning), competence (e.g. by providing challenging work along with structures and feedback to promote self-efficacy), and relatedness (e.g. by developing warm and caring relationships in the classroom) facilitates and promotes student engagement. Using a multiple case study design, rich and varied data collection processes, and directed qualitative content analysis, I explored how social studies teachers may support (or thwart) their students’ needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. The students in this study confirmed their needs for autonomy, to engage in “real discussions” with their peers and make decisions about important problems. They shared that they engage in learning when activities are meaningful, real world and worth their effort. I found that social studies teachers support autonomy by developing students’ emotional, personal, social, conceptual and authentic connections to the content. In addition, I confirmed that warm and trusting classroom relationships, coupled with challenging, organized and structured learning experiences that promote student efficacy, support students’ needs for relatedness and competency in the classroom. Accordingly, engaging students in academic work necessitates that teachers meet all three of these basic needs. By exploring engagement through the experiences of teachers and students in real classroom settings, I provide social studies educators with a rich and user-friendly understanding of how student engagement can be developed and sustained.

Engagement is an increasingly important construct in organizational and educational settings. Research indicates that engagement is positively related to satisfaction, commitment, and performance in the workplace. This study investigated the relationship of Total Engagement to complete a thesis with Self-Determination Theory individual motivational constructs, the personality constructs of Psychological Capital and Core Self-Evaluations, and the experiential construct of Flow Propensity. The results indicated significant relationships between all constructs and engagement. Further, Psychological Capital and Flow Propensity explained 55% of the variance in Total Engagement to complete a thesis.

Föreliggande studie syftade till att undersöka sambandet/effekten mellan målsättning, behovstillfredsställelse, behovsfrustration, motivation och träningsfrekvens bland gymaktiva vuxna. Utifrån två arbetsmodeller utformades två hypoteser som testades via medieringsanalyser. En kvantitativ forskningsansats genomfördes där respondenterna fick besvara ett enkätformulär med frågor från mätinstrumenten: Godin Leisure- Time Exercise Questionnaire, Task and Ego Goal Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, The Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs, samt Behavorial Regulations in Exercise Questionnaire. Utifrån ett bekvämlighetsurval rekryterades 128 respondenter (70 kvinnor och 58 män) i åldern 19-36 (M = 22.3, SD = 2.5) som deltog i studien. Medelvärdet på antal träningspass/vecka (lätt, måttlig och hård träning) uppkom till cirka nio stycken bland deltagare. Studiens huvudsakliga fynd var att prestationsmål korrelerade positivt med identifierad reglering, inre motivation, tillfredställelse av de tre grundbehoven samt självbestämmande motivation. Det fanns även ett positivt samband mellan inre motivation och träningsfrekvens. Vidare visade resultatet ett positivt samband mellan resultatmål, amotivation och behovsfrustration. De två hypoteserna förkastades då resultatet inte genererade några direkta medierande effekter. För framtida forskning föreslås bland annat studier som syftar till att undersöka hur effekten på träningsfrekvens kan påverkas beroende på målorientering, samt föreslås ytterligare studier som undersöker behovsfrustration i samband med gymkontexter. / The present study aimed to investigate the relationship/effect between goal orientation, needs satisfaction, needs frustration, motivation and training frequency among gym active adults. Based on two working models two hypotheses were designed and tested through mediation analyzes. A quantitative research approach was conducted in which respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire with questions from the following measuring instruments: Godin Leisure- Time Exercise Questionnaire, Task and Ego Goal Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, The Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs and Behavioral Regulations in Exercise Questionnaire". From a convenience sample, 128 respondents (70 women and 58 men) in the age 19-36 (M = 22.3, SD = 2.5) were recruited who participated in the study. The average number of training sessions/week was about nine for the participants. The study's main finding suggest that task goals positively correlated with identified regulation, intrinsic motivation, satisfaction of the three basic needs and self-determination motivation. There was also a positive correlation between exercise frequency and intrinsic motivation and exercise frequency. The results also showed a positive correlation between ego goals, amotivation and thwarting. The two hypotheses were rejected because the result did not generate any direct media effects. For future research, it is suggested to design studies that aim to investigate how the effect of exercise frequency may be affected depending on the goal orientation, and further suggested studies that investigate thwarting in relation to gym contexts.

Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) has reached epidemic levels worldwide during the past two decades. It affects nearly 26 million adults in the U.S. Advances in both the treatments for T2DM and guidelines for its optimal management are extensive. Despite these advances, barely half of type 2 diabetics achieve recommended glycemic targets. Specific Aims: The specific aims were to: Describe the available research on clinical inertia and interventions that have been implemented to reduce it. Analyze various behavioral theories that explain and predict self-care practices in diabetes in order to develop a conceptual model on which to base an investigation of predictors of readiness to initiate insulin therapy in type 2 diabetics. Determine predictors of readiness to initiate insulin therapy in patients with T2DM when oral medications fail to control hyperglycemia using the conceptual model based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a framework. Results: A review of research articles published from 1990 to 2010 concluded that clinical inertia of primary care providers treating T2DM resulted in a majority of patients experiencing unnecessary chronic uncontrolled hyperglycemia. Behavioral theories were analyzed for their ability to predict self-care behaviors in type 2 diabetics. A conceptual model was developed based on the major constructs of SDT in order to guide the design of study to investigate predictors of readiness to begin insulin therapy in T2DM. Finally, a descriptive, correlational study was performed to determine readiness to initiate insulin therapy in patients with T2DM when oral medications fail to control hyperglycemia. Results of the study revealed that participants who had a friend or family using insulin were 5.5 times more likely to rate their readiness to initiate insulin as high than those who had neither (p=.020). In addition, those with greater negative beliefs and attitudes toward insulin therapy were more likely to rate their readiness to initiate insulin as low (p=.012). A majority (58%) of participants rated their readiness to begin insulin therapy as immediate if it would give them better control over their hyperglycemia. The study also confirmed findings from previous studies that clinical inertia was present in this setting.

En kvantitativ undersökning med 248 enkätsvar har genomförts. Syfte var att jämföra och analysera motivationen hos elever med olika betyg i matematik och elever som läser eller inte läser matematikinriktning samt beskriva hur skolan kan hjälpa elever till ökad motivation i matematik. Ett särskilt fokus riktades på SUM-elever. Motivationsteorierna Achievement goal theory, Self-determination theory och Attribution theory studerades för att se vilka karakteristiska drag som leder till ökad motivation. Resultatet pekade på samband mellan elevers betyg och motivation i matematik. Elever med högre betyg hade högre motivation än elever med lägre betyg. Det framkom vad elever tycker är viktigt för att de ska lära sig matematik, vilket till stor del sammanfaller med vad motivationsteorierna beskriver att skolan ska arbeta med för att öka motivationen. Sammanfattningsvis pekade resultatet på att skolan bör ange tydliga mål, ge valmöjligheter samt utmanande men anpassade uppgifter för att hjälpa elever till ökad motivation. Dessutom bör skolan hjälpa elever att notera sina framsteg, att inse att misstag bidrar till lärande samt att ansträngning leder till känsla av kompetens.

Sport dropout during adolescence is a common phenomenon which is connected to motivation. Therefore this thesis investigated the relationship between coaches’ (N = 61, Mage = 40.39) transformational leadership and athletes’ (N = 132, Mage = 20.61) type of motivation in Swedish sport clubs. In addition, the moderating role of personality and self-other agreement ratings were examined. A cross sectional research design was used and data was collected through self-ratings and other ratings. Data was analysed using SPSS and the add-on program Process macro. To investigate the moderating role of personality and level of agreement, coach-athletes dyads were created (N = 38). The result showed that transformational leadership is positively associated with more self-determined types of motivation. Four of the coach’s personality traits (i.e., honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion and conscientiousness) moderated the relationship between transformational leadership and motivation. For the athletes agreeableness moderated this relationship. A majority of the coaches and athletes disagreed in rating the coaches’ transformational behaviours; however the result only showed significant correlation between coaches who underestimated and athletes’ lack of motivation. In conclusion, transformational leadership is suitable in a sport context. Future research could use a longitudinal design to further explore personality’s role in leadership. Practical implications of transformational leadership in connection to education are discussed.