Name: Yuhua Li

Master’s Thesis Defense Meeting

Date: Monday, April 29th, 2024

Time: 11:00 am

Location: Microsoft Teams Meeting

Thesis Chair/Advisor:

Christopher Wiese, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Thesis Committee Members:

Lindsay Dhanani, Ph.D. (Rutgers University)

Kimberly French, Ph.D. (Colorado State University)

Title: The Mediating Role of Work Ruminations in the Relationship Between Daily Work Demand Appraisals and Basic Psychological Need Fulfillment

Abstract: Fulfillment of the three basic psychological needs (BPN) has consistently shown positive effects in the workplace (Van den Broeck et al., 2016). Existing studies that examined job demands as antecedents to BPN fulfillment typically confined the relationship to the work domain; however, work-related BPN fulfillment may continue to fluctuate based on at-home work-related cognitive processes (e.g., work ruminations) in reaction to daily job demand experiences. Therefore, the current study examines the effect of daily job demands on work ruminations and the resulting change in BPN fulfillment. Further, this study is among the first to examine the full-fledged job demand – BPN fulfillment model containing challenge, hindrance and threat job demands and BPN satisfaction and frustration facets. A 10-day daily ESM study (N = 110, n = 1830) found support for daily threatening job demands to trigger at-home intrusive negative rumination, which in turn negatively affecting BPN fulfillment. The three facets of job demands and two types of work ruminations (i.e., problem-solving pondering and intrusive negative rumination) all showed distinct impacts on BPN satisfaction and frustration. These findings provide valuable theoretical and practical implications as they extend our understanding of contributors to daily work-related BPN fulfillment.