This research answers recent calls in the work motivation literature to measure a needs-based antecedent to team motivation (Park et al., 2013) and test multilevel relationships between need support, need thwarting, motivation quality, and team processes (Grenier et al., 2024). Two studies were conducted to test the psychometric properties of the Team Need Support and Need Thwarting Scale (TNSNT-S), which measures a team’s support and thwarting of the three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2017), and to evaluate several multilevel propositions. The new scale, along with motivation and team process measures, was administered to a heterogeneous sample of employees doing team-based work and students in engineering design teams. Study 1 served to develop and evaluate items, establish model fit and structural validity, test internal reliability and investigate individual-level validity. Study 2 served to confirm the scale structure, establish multilevel construct validity, and provide a more extensive test of convergent and discriminant validity using multilevel structural equation modeling (SEM). Results across both studies replicated support for a 2-factor TNSNT-S that integrates self-determination theory with the study of team processes, such as coordination and conflict, to enable research on how different types of team motivation may affect team processes and outcomes. Further research is needed to replicate the multilevel findings across time and different types of intact teams.
