Mediation role of work motivation and job satisfaction between work-related basic need satisfaction and work engagement among doctors in China: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to examine the association of work-related basic need satisfaction (W-BNS) with doctors’ work engagement and explore the mediating role of work motivation and job satisfaction between the two variables. DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study. SETTING: The study was conducted in four public grade A tertiary hospitals in China. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1000 doctors were invited to participate; 849 doctors completed questionnaires validly. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Questionnaires were administered online and offline to collect data, consisting of six parts: social demographic characteristics, work-related characteristics, and scales related to W-BNS, work motivation, job satisfaction and work engagement. One-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis were performed using SPSS, and mediation analysis was carried out via PROCESS macro. RESULTS: Our research showed that W-BNS, work motivation, job satisfaction and work engagement were positively correlated. Work engagement was significantly predicted by W-BNS (β＝0.15, p<0.001) through motivation at work (β＝0.23, p<0.001) and job satisfaction (β＝0.44, p<0.001), respectively. Compared with work motivation, the mediating effect of job satisfaction was stronger (95% CI −0.22 to −0.06). CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that job satisfaction and work motivation may be important pathways through which doctors’ W-BNS may influence their work engagement. In order to maintain and promote doctors’ work engagement, hospital administrators should consider strengthening the internal motivation of doctors and improving their job satisfaction.