Work & Stress
An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations

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Work-related episodic memories can increase or
decrease motivation and psychological health atwork
Frederick L. Philippe, Maxime Lopes, Nathalie Houlfort & Claude Fernet
To cite this article: Frederick L. Philippe, Maxime Lopes, Nathalie Houlfort & Claude Fernet(2019): Work-related episodic memories can increase or decrease motivation and psychologicalhealth at work, Work & Stress, DOI: 10.1080/02678373.2019.1577311
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2019.1577311

Published online: 08 Feb 2019.

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WORK & STRESS
https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2019.1577311

Work-related episodic memories can increase or decrease
motivation and psychological health at work
Frederick L. Philippea, Maxime Lopesa, Nathalie Houlforta and Claude FernetbaDepartment of Psychology, University of Quebec at Montreal, Montreal, Canada; bDepartment ofManagement and Human Resources, Trois-Rivieres, Canada
ABSTRACTARTICLE HISTORY

Research on the psychological mechanisms underlying employee
motivation and psychological health at work has been limited togeneral and chronic workplace factors, such as job strenuousness
or management style. In two studies, we examine how uniqueand time-speciﬁc work life events encoded as episodic memories
can inﬂuence employee motivation and psychological health atwork as a function of how these events are recalled having been
experienced in terms of need satisfaction. In Study 1, participants
described a self-deﬁning work-related memory and rated it forneed satisfaction. They also completed scales of need satisfaction
at work, self-determined motivation, and positive and negative
indicators of psychological health (i.e. work satisfaction andburnout). In Study 2, participants completed the same tasks andscales, but they did it again two years later. Results revealed thatneed satisfaction in self-deﬁning work-related memories was
associated with self-determined motivation and indicators of
psychological health at work, over and above demographics (age,sex, weekly hours worked, education) and general perceptions ofneed satisfaction at work. Moreover, it predicted increases in selfdetermined motivation and in work satisfaction and decreases inburnout over two years. The present ﬁndings underscore theimportance of considering unique work life events encoded inmemory.

Received 12 July 2017
Accepted 27 December 2018
KEYWORDS

Episodic memory; needsatisfaction; work;
psychological health;motivation

Researchers and managers alike have generally recognised that impaired psychologicalhealth at work, such as work dissatisfaction or burnout, can aﬀect both workers and organisations in negative ways. Workers characterised by poor psychological health are often
less productive (Demerouti, Bakker, & Leiter, 2014; Stewart, Ricci, Chee, Hahn, & Morganstein, 2003), show increased absenteeism (Darr & Johns, 2008; Ybema, Smulders, &Bongers, 2010), and make lower overall contributions to the organisation (Taris, 2006).
These economic and health consequences also have high societal cost (Greenberg, Fournier, Sisitsky, Pike, & Kessler, 2015). It is therefore essential to gain a deeper understandingof employee psychological health at work (Schaufeli & Taris, 2014). More speciﬁcally, themechanisms inﬂuencing employee psychological health are still debated and not fully
explored. There is a large and extensive literature on chronic work environmental
CONTACT Frederick L. Philippe

philippe.frederick@uqam.ca© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

2

F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

factors (e.g. job stressors) that can aﬀect employee psychological health at work (e.g.
Ganster & Perrewé, 2011; Schaufeli & Taris, 2014). However, less attention has been
paid to how speciﬁc and non-repeated job events may aﬀect employees, beyond thosechronic job factors (Beehr, Jex, Stacy, & Murray, 2000). The present research uses amemory perspective embedded within the framework of self-determination theory toapproach this issue. Episodic memories represent speciﬁc life episodes that have been
encoded with strong motivational properties and which have been found to play a signiﬁcant role in psychological health (Philippe, Koestner, Beaulieu-Pelletier, Lecours, & Lekes,2012). As such, work-related episodic memories may represent an important psychological mechanism, though an overlooked one, accounting for employee motivation andpsychological health at work.
Self-determination theory (SDT)
One inﬂuential theory that accounts for the psychological mechanisms operating on
workers’ psychological health is SDT (Deci, Olafsen, & Ryan, 2017; Gagné & Deci,
2005). This theory speciﬁes that psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness must be satisﬁed at work for workers to be optimally motivated and to thrive.
Autonomy is deﬁned as the need to feel volitional and authentic in one’s actions; Competence reﬂects the need to feel eﬀective and eﬃcacious; Relatedness refers to the need to feel
connected and cared for by others and to care for others in turn (Deci & Ryan, 2000). In
the work context, satisfaction of these needs is posited to facilitate self-determined motivation at work (also called autonomous motivation), which means that employees work
because they enjoy their job, because their job corresponds to their values and identity,
or because they freely choose their job as important for themselves. Conversely, thwartingof those psychological needs at work leads to a non-self-determined motivation (alsocalled controlled motivation), that is, engaging in one’s job out of feelings of guilt,
pressure, or to gain external rewards (e.g. cash bonuses, pleasing the boss) and avoid punishments (e.g. avoid disapprobation, being ﬁred). Satisfaction of these psychological needs
is also expected to sustain workers’ psychological health, as expressed by higher work satisfaction and lower burnout. This theory is also in line with other models seeking to
explain modulations in employee psychological health, such as job strain (i.e. highdemands and low resources, such as autonomy, Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001) and eﬀort-reward imbalance (i.e. low competence and relatedness, Siegrist,
Siegrist, & Weber, 1986).
Empirical support for SDT is large and supportive of its claims (for a recent review see
Ryan & Deci, 2017). From a general standpoint, satisfaction of the needs for autonomy,competence, and relatedness have been found to be strongly associated with well-being
across 128 nations of the world (e.g. Tay & Diener, 2011). In the work context, satisfactionof psychological needs has frequently been shown to be associated with or to lead to selfdetermined motivation at work (e.g. Arshadi, 2010; De Cooman, Stynen, Van den Broeck,
Sels, & De Witte, 2013) and to be associated with or to predict increases in employee
psychological health over time (e.g. Baard, Deci, & Ryan, 2004; Fernet, Austin, Trépanier,& Dussault, 2013; Trépanier, Fernet, & Austin, 2015). In a recent meta-analysis of 99
studies in the organisational domain, Van den Broeck, Ferris, Chang, and Rosen (2016)
have shown that satisfaction of each of the three needs is associated with self-determinedWORK & STRESS

3

motivation at work (explaining more than 42% of its variance) and with various indicatorsof psychological health at work, such as strain, job satisfaction, aﬀective commitment, andburnout (explaining between 15% and 46% of their variance).
SDT has also identiﬁed certain workplace factors that can aﬀect employees’ perceptionsof need satisfaction and motivation at work. The theory proposes that the work environment, work climate, organisational rules, structures and policies, management style, andrelationships with colleagues may sustain or undermine people’s psychological needs(Gagné & Deci, 2005; Gillet, Fouquereau, Forest, Brunault, & Colombat, 2012). One
important factor in this framework is autonomy support. Work contexts that are autonomy supportive provide a good rationale for tasks and requests, provide employees withchoice and opportunities, acknowledge their feelings, and convey conﬁdence in theemployees’ abilities within a climate of relatedness (Williams, Gagné, Ryan, & Deci,
2002). For instance, Baard et al. (2004) have shown that perceived autonomy support provided by the manager facilitated psychological need satisfaction, which in turn led to abetter performance and greater psychological health (less anxiety, somatisation, andmore vitality). Various other studies have shown similar results (Deci et al., 2001;
Gagné, Koestner, & Zuckerman, 2000; Gillet et al., 2012; Ilardi, Leone, Kasser, & Ryan,
1993). Additional related environmental factors have been found to aﬀect people’s psychological needs such as job demands and resources (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti,
Bakker, de Jonge, Janssen, & Schaufeli, 2001). Several studies have shown that job
demands such as role overload and role ambiguity lead to burnout through unmet psychological needs, whereas job resources such as job control and social support facilitate thesatisfaction of psychological needs, which in turn lower burnout (De Cooman et al.,2013; Fernet et al., 2013; Van den Broeck, Vansteenkiste, De Witte, & Lens, 2008).
Memories as time-speciﬁc work events
In sum, most studies on SDT have focused on how work environment factors such as
autonomy support or job demands and resources can alter need satisfaction, motivation,and psychological health at work. These are general, enduring, and chronic environmental
factors related to one’s job, which aﬀect important work outcomes over time. However,certain speciﬁc, non-repeated, life events that occurred at work, at a speciﬁc time andplace, may also impact employee’s motivation and psychological health over time. Consider the following situation: A supervisor acts in a controlling manner with an employee
by heavily criticising this employee’s performance on a certain task. Even if this supervisor
is not perceived as generally displaying a controlling management style or the job to bestrenuous, this experience will lead to the creation of a memory of this life episode in
the employee’s memory system. Many of these memories will be quickly forgotten or
the person will lose access to them (Conway, 2009). However, a certain number of suchmemories can become heavily linked to one’s goals (Conway, Singer, & Tagini, 2004),
thereby becoming chronically accessible and frequently accessed (Higgins, Rholes, &Jones, 1977), and start playing an inﬂuential role in the employee’s life (Philippe et al.,2012). Such memories are called self-deﬁning memories (Singer & Salovey, 1993).
These memories will reach this status if they convey a certain meaning and direction to
one’s personal long-term goals or if they inform of potential obstacles to their attainment(Conway et al., 2004). They then represent the dominant themes and concerns in a

4

F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

person’s life and consequently are thought to anchor identity aspects (Blagov & Singer,
2004; Conway et al., 2004). Going back to the example used above, if the employee had
the goal of obtaining a promotion, the speciﬁc memory of being harshly criticised byhis supervisor will now inform of a substantial obstacle toward the attainment of this goal.
Because of their central role in a certain life area, these memories are repeatedly activated or accessed, either by the context, action, or goal to which they relate (Conway &Pleydell-Pearce, 2000). For example, thinking of the promotion or ﬁnding himself inthe same room in which the discussion with the supervisor occurred, could reactivate
the supervisor-memory of this employee. Over time, these frequent reactivations
inﬂuence motivational orientations and psychological health outcomes (Philippe et al.,2012). Moreover, they are likely to operate independently of chronic job factors. The
memory of being criticised by one’s supervisor may reorient motivation toward nonself-determined actions such as trying to please the supervisor, feeling ashamed of notworking hard enough, or – if one perceives that his actions are ineﬀective – a loss of motivation for work, regardless of how the supervisor is generally perceived or of how strenuousis the job. In addition, frequent reactivations of a need thwarting work-related memory is
likely to lead to a subjective sense of ill-being, thereby reducing work satisfaction andpotentially increase burnout over time. As such, these memories, through their frequent
reactivations, start having directive and cumulative eﬀects of their own on workers’ motivation and psychological health at work. Research has also shown that these eﬀects ofmemory reactivations can occur through both conscious retrieval (e.g. Kuwabara & Pillemer, 2010) and unconscious activation (e.g. Philippe & Bernard-Desrosiers, 2017; Philippe
et al., 2012).
These memories do not remain active forever. In fact, once the goal to which they are
related is achieved or is changed or once the concern is resolved, these memories are either
forgotten (access is lost) or their vividness and signiﬁcance are considerably decreased andnew self-deﬁning memories, more in line with the person’s new goals and concerns areelected from the person’s memory system (Conway, 2009; Conway & Pleydell-Pearce,
2000). However, during the time self-deﬁning memories are active, they can inﬂuence awide range of outcomes in the person’s life.
In line with SDT (Ryan & Deci, 2017), research has shown that one fundamental component of self-deﬁning memories is the level to which people experienced need satisfaction
during the event of the memory (Philippe, Koestner, Beaulieu-Pelletier, & Lecours, 2011).
Research has shown that the level of need satisfaction attached to a memory can inﬂuenceimportant life outcomes, situationally and longitudinally. Philippe and colleagues (Philippe & Bernard-Desrosiers, 2017; Philippe et al., 2012) have shown that when a need satisfying memory was primed outside of people’s awareness it led to an immediate increase insituational well-being, whereas when a need thwarting memory was primed, a decrease insituational well-being was observed. Longitudinally, need satisfaction in self-deﬁning
memories was found to increase well-being over periods of two months (Houle & Philippe,
2017; Milyavskaya, Philippe, & Koestner, 2013) to almost two years (Philippe et al., 2012)
and need satisfaction in self-deﬁning couple-related memories was found to predict
increases in relationship quality and to decrease the likelihood of breakup over two
years (Philippe, Koestner, & Lekes, 2013). Those results were obtained even after controlling for self-perceptions of need satisfaction in general or in a speciﬁc domain. This isbecause the eﬀect of self-deﬁning memories is transient (lasting months or years) andWORK & STRESS

5

has not yet translated into general and stable self-perceptions. Therefore, the eﬀect ofmemories has constantly been found to predict outcomes over and above general levelmeasures such as traits, attitudes, or general self-perceptions (e.g. Adler, Lodi-Smith, Philippe, & Houle, 2016; Kuwabara & Pillemer, 2010; Philippe et al., 2012, 2013).
The present research
In the present research, we sought to examine self-deﬁning work memories and investigate
whether need satisfaction in these memories could predict changes in motivation andpsychological health at work. Given that we did not have speciﬁc hypotheses about one
need in particular, we assessed all needs together as per past memory research (e.g. Philippe et al., 2012). Work satisfaction and burnout were chosen as positive and negative
indicators of employee psychological health because satisfaction with one’s job andmental strain have traditionally been part of the deﬁnition of employee psychologicalhealth (Danna & Griﬃn, 1999) or of related concepts (e.g. working life quality:
Hoppock, 1935; Lawler, 1982). Work satisfaction and burnout have also been consistently
related to employees’ motivational resources (Van den Broeck et al., 2016) as well as tosubstantial individual and organisational costs (Demerouti et al., 2014; Halbesleben &Bowler, 2007; Riketta, 2008). Work satisfaction refers to the employees’ attitudes
toward the job, the relevant environment, and their overall emotional response to theirjob roles (Diener, 2000). Burnout reﬂects an aﬀective strain reaction to ongoing stress(Maslach, 1982) whose core content is emotional exhaustion (Halbesleben & Bowler,2007). Study 1 examined cross-sectionally whether need satisfaction in work-related memories was associated with self-determined motivation, work satisfaction, and burnout.
Study 2 examined longitudinally whether need satisfaction in work-related memories
could predict increases in work motivation and satisfaction and decreases in burnout
over two years.

STUDY 1The purpose of Study 1 was to investigate the cross-sectional associations existing between
need satisfaction in work-related memories and work self-determined motivation andpsychological health. Signiﬁcant work-related memories that people can remember spontaneously are expected to be chronically accessible and therefore to be frequently activatedby one’s work environment or context (Philippe et al., 2013; Singer & Salovey, 1993). Following their frequent activations, need satisfying memories are expected to sustain selfdetermined motivation and psychological health at work, whereas need thwarting memories are likely to decrease self-determined motivation and psychological health. Given the
cross-sectional nature of Study 1, only a snapshot of this process is taken within time. It
was hypothesised that need satisfaction in work-related memories would be positively
associated with self-determined motivation and work satisfaction and negatively associated with burnout. To ensure that need satisfaction in work-related memories was not
redundant with a general measure of need satisfaction at work, we controlled for such ameasure in the analyses. Research has shown that the eﬀect of distinct memories is not
redundant, but additive (see Philippe et al., 2012). Therefore, the eﬀect size in thepresent study was expected to be small given that only one work-related memory was6

F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

assessed. The purpose of the present research was to show that work-related memories signiﬁcantly impact motivation and psychological health and therefore only one memory wasassessed to keep the questionnaire short. Philippe et al. (2012) reported R 2 increase
between .027 and .054 for need satisfaction in self-deﬁning memories on self- andpeers-rated well-being, respectively, after accounting for demographics, traits, generalneed satisfaction, and psychological symptoms. Power analysis based on the average ofthese eﬀect sizes (R 2 = .041) revealed that, for a power of .80 at an alpha of .05, 196 participants were needed to detect a signiﬁcant eﬀect of need satisfaction in work-related
memories on motivation and psychological health markers within multiple regressions.

MethodParticipants and procedure
A total of 220 employees (69% female) with at least one year of experience at their current
job were recruited from various cegeps (similar to American colleges) in the Province ofQuebec (Canada). Types of employee included administrative support staﬀ (35.9%), professionals (20%), teachers (36.8%), and executives (7.3%). They were aged 42.26 years on
average (SD = 11.11), worked on average 36.32 hours per week (SD = 7.06), and had 13.52
years of experience in their current job (SD = 9.28). They were contacted by email by their
institution and invited to take part in an online study on quality of work life. They completed measures of work satisfaction, burnout, self-determined motivation, and need satisfaction at work and then reported a work-related memory and rated it for needsatisfaction.1
Work-related memory. Participants were asked to describe in detail a memory related
to their choice, orientation, or reorientation of career or a signiﬁcant memory related totheir work. Memories related to the choice or orientation of career were suggested
because, in line with research on self-deﬁning memories, such ﬁrst-time events often
make good candidates of self-deﬁning memories (Conway et al., 2004; see also Pillemer,
2001). The chosen memory had to be at least three months old to ensure that the
memory was not recalled because of a recency eﬀect, thereby increasing the likelihoodthat the memory was signiﬁcant and important for the participants. The following instructions derived from past research (Philippe et al., 2011; Singer & Salovey, 1993; Sutin &Robins, 2005) were used:
Please describe a personal memory of a speciﬁc event related to your choice, orientation, or
reorientation of career and which was signiﬁcant for you. If you do not have an important
memory related to your career choice, describe a signiﬁcant memory related to your work.
Select a memory that is at least three months old and that often comes to your mind. This
memory can be either positive, negative, or both. Do not take too much time to ﬁnd theperfect memory. Just choose the one that spontaneously comes to your mind. Describe ina general fashion what happened, where it happened, who you were with (if anyone), andhow you and other people reacted. Describe your role and what have been the consequencesof your reaction or of your actions during this event, if it applies. Please provide enoughdetails so that we can fully understand what happened, as if you were telling a story tosomeone.

Next, participants were asked to rate the level of need satisfaction they experienced during
the event of this memory. Three items were used to assess each of the three needs: “I felt

WORK & STRESS

7

free to do things and to think how I wanted” (autonomy), “I felt competent or capable”(competence), and “I felt connected to one or more people” (relatedness). An index representing need satisfaction in the work-related memory was computed by averaging all item
scores. Cronbach’s alpha coefﬁcient for this index was .77. Past research (Philippe et al.,2011, Study 1) has shown a large correlation (r = .70) between need satisfaction inmemory descriptions as rated by the participants themselves and as coded by independentjudges.
Here is an excerpt of a need satisfying memory description from a 35-year-old professional of an event that occurred one year ago:
At the time of my ﬁrst evaluation, the executive of the service has highlighted my strengths
and my value for the organization. I felt valued and it has increased my feeling of relatedness
and of being important for the organization, something that I really appreciate. This has provided me with an increase motivation to continue to do my work eﬃciently while being more
and more involved in the work processes of the organization.

This memory underscores how one speciﬁc event which meets the needs of autonomy,competence, and relatedness can have a large and inﬂuential role on workers’ motivationand psychological health. If this memory is chronically accessible and is therefore frequently activated, such a memory can serve as a motivational resource, which will continue to build further motivation and facilitate psychological health at work. Memories
can also have the opposite effect, as exempliﬁed by the following excerpt of a need thwarting memory from a 44-year-old manager of an event that occurred seven years ago:
I have been falsely accused of psychological harassment by an employee that I was supervising. The complaint has been rejected and the employee has been transferred to anotherservice. Nevertheless, following this event and following how it had been managed by my previous employer, I have lost conﬁdence and I have changed job and chosen a totally diﬀerent
work environment. Since this complaint, even if I work in a radically diﬀerent context, I still
have doubts about the choice that I made more than 10 years ago to become a manager.

This need thwarting memory illustrates well how a particular work event, even if it
occurred several years ago, can have a dramatic effect over an employee’s motivation,
psychological health, and even professional identity over time and that such effects arepervasive even across working areas. For this person, it is as if the fear of being perceived
as a harasser again has become associated with the action of managing other employees.
Any similar action is likely to reactivate this memory (probably mostly unconsciously),
which further hinders this person’s motivation and psychological functioning at workover time.
A thematic analysis of the reported memories revealed that 29% focused on achievement or accomplishment of something personally important (e.g. promotion, acknowledgment of one’s competence), 21% related events of career reorientation or of ﬁnding
one’s way, 14% described episodes of getting ﬁred, demoted, or losing one’s motivation,
12% related interpersonal conﬂict (e.g. harassment, unfair treatment), 11% were about
being hired from a job, 8% conveyed events during which the protagonist had a clear
insight about his/her work, and 5% were classiﬁed as other (e.g. refusing another job).
Overall, 26% of the memories were rated as need thwarting as opposed to 74% whichwere need satisfying. Similar proportions were found in other studies using selfdeﬁning memories (e.g. Philippe et al., 2011).2

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F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

Work need satisfaction. The 18-item Work-Related Basic Need Satisfaction Scale (Vanden Broeck, Vansteenkiste, De Witte, Soenens, & Lens, 2010) was used to measure thethree psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness as experienced atwork in general. A sample item assessing relatedness is “At work, I feel part of agroup.” An item measuring competence is “I really master my tasks at my job,” and an
item tapping into autonomy is “The tasks I have to do at work are in line with what I
really want to do.” These items measure perception of need satisfaction at work ingeneral and are distinct from the assessment of need satisfaction in a speciﬁc work
episode as explained in the work-related memory measure presented above. Replicating
past research (Van den Broeck et al., 2010), a conﬁrmatory factor analysis with Robust
Maximum Likelihood on the present study data revealed adequate ﬁt indices for athree-factor structure χ 2(132) = 246.27, RMSEA = .044 [.036; .053], CFI = .946. TLI= .936, SRMR = .054 and factor loadings ranging from .42 to .87. Fit indices were also adequate for a second-order combining all three ﬁrst-order factors, χ 2(133) = 254.35, RMSEA= .045 [.037; .054], CFI = .942. TLI = .933, SRMR = .054. An index averaging all threeneeds at work was therefore computed, as it is commonly done by self-determination
theory researchers (e.g. Taylor, Lekes, Gagnon, Kwan, & Koestner, 2012). Cronbach’s
alpha coeﬃcient for this index was .85.
Self-determined motivation at work. The Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation
Scale (WEIMS: Tremblay, Blanchard, Taylor, Pelletier, & Villeneuve, 2009) was used
to measure self-determined motivation at work. This scale assesses six forms of motivation with three items each, along a continuum of self-determination: intrinsic motivation (e.g. “I do this work … because I derive much pleasure from learning newthings”), integrated motivation (e.g. “ … because it has become a fundamental part of
who I am”), identiﬁed regulation (e.g. “ … because I chose this type of work to attainmy career goals”), introjected regulation (e.g. “ … because I want to be a winner inlife”), external regulation (e.g. “ … for the income it provides me”), and amotivation(e.g. “I don’t know, too much is expected of us”). Cronbach’s alpha coeﬃcients ofeach subscale were all > .70. In line with the theoretical continuum of self-determination(Howard, Gagné, & Bureau, 2017) and what has been commonly done by self-determination researchers (Ryan & Deci, 2017; Sheldon, Osin, Gordeeva, Suchkov, & Sychev,
2017), a weighting procedure was applied to the scale as followed: (intrinsic × 3) + (integrated × 2) + (identiﬁed × 1)−(introjected × 1)−(external × 2)−(amotivation × 3). Results
were exactly the same using an unweighted index in both Studies 1 and 2.
Work satisfaction. The adapted version for work (Bérubé, Donia, Gagné, Houlfort, &Lvina, 2016) of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griﬃn, 1985)
was used to measure work satisfaction with ﬁve items. Sample item included “In general,
my work closely corresponds to my ideals”. Cronbach’s alpha coeﬃcient was .84 in thepresent study.
Burnout. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (BMI; Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996) wasused to measure burnout. In this study, the 8-item emotional exhaustion subscale wasused, as it is generally considered the hallmark of burnout (e.g. Halbesleben & Bowler,
2007; Piko, 2006). A sample item is “I feel emotionally drained from my work”. Cronbach’s alpha coeﬃcient in this study was .90.

WORK & STRESS

9Results
Table 1 reports means, standard deviations, and correlations among Study 1 variables.
Preliminary analyses revealed that age and years of experience were highly correlated (r= .73) and that age was a better predictor of the examined outcomes than years of experience. Age was therefore kept in the main analyses. Categories of employment (executives,
administrative staﬀ, professionals, and teachers) were also highly related to levels of education, F(3, 216) = 76.25, η 2 = .51. Executives, professionals, and teachers did not diﬀer
against each other, but all had higher levels of education than the administrative
support staﬀ (all ts > 5.80). Education was also a better predictor of the examined outcomes than categories of employment and was therefore included in the analyses.
The main objective of Study 1 was to examine whether need satisfaction in work-related
memories would be associated with self-determined motivation and indicators of psychological health at work, above and beyond the eﬀect of work need satisfaction. To ensurethat the eﬀects were not only due to self-determined motivation, we also controlled forthis variable in the analyses examining psychological health. Multiple regression analyses
were conducted with age, sex, weekly hours of work, and education as control variables.
There were all entered at Step 1, along with work need satisfaction and self-determined
motivation when appropriate. Need satisfaction in the work-related memory wasentered at Step 2.
A ﬁrst hierarchical regression analysis was conducted with self-determined motivation
at work as the dependent variable (see Table 1 for detailed results). At Step 1, sex (female =0; male = 1) was negatively associated with self-determined motivation, whereas education
and work need satisfaction were signiﬁcantly and positively associated with it, both
explaining 28% of the variance. At Step 2, need satisfaction in the work-related
memory was signiﬁcantly and positively associated with self-determined motivation,over and above all previous variables, explaining an additional 2% of the variance(Table 2).
A second hierarchical regression analysis with work satisfaction as the dependent variable revealed that, at Step 1, work need satisfaction and work self-determined motivation
were positively associated with work satisfaction, accounting for 51% of the variance. At
Step 2, need satisfaction in the work-related memory was signiﬁcantly associated withwork satisfaction, explaining an additional 2% of the variance.
In a third hierarchical regression analysis, regressing burnout on the independent variables entered at Step 1 revealed that weekly hours of work were positively associated withburnout, whereas work need satisfaction and self-determined motivation were found to be
negatively associated with burnout. This model explained 35% of the variance of burnout.

Table 1. Means, standard deviations, and correlations among Study 1 variables.
Variables

M

SD

1

2

3

4

Work-related memory NS (1)Need satisfaction at work (2)Self-determination index (3)Work satisfaction (4)Burnout (5)

1.21
5.51
11.41
5.09
2.77

1.56
0.79
9.12
1.16
1.21

–
.49**
.32**
.41**
−.41**

–
.46**
.52**
−.53**–.66**−.44**–−.47**

Note: **p < .01.
NS = Need satisfaction.

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F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

Table 2. Standardised betas coeﬃcients of regression analyses on work satisfaction, burnout, workrelated memory and work need satisfaction: Study 1.
Steps

Independent variables

Self-determined motivation

Work satisfaction

Burnout

NS at work

Step 1Age
Sex (0 = f; 1 = m)
Weekly hours of work
Education
NS at work
Self-determined motivation
R2
F(6, 213)
Work-related memory NS
R2
F(1, 213)

.17
−.09
.12*
.19**
.47**
–
.28
18.97**
.16*
.019
6.08*

−.04
−.06
.06
.05
.28**
.51**
.51
35.98**.15**.017
7.30**

−.03
−.07
.12*
.09
−.38**−.29**.35
18.87**−.17**.021
6.95**

−.04
−.08
−.14*
−.12*
–
.50**
.26
15.13**.35**.102
34.13**

Step 2

Note: *p < .05; **p < .01.
NS = Need satisfaction.

At Step 2, need satisfaction in the work-related memory was signiﬁcantly and negatively
associated with burnout, explaining an additional 2% of its variance.
Finally, we also regressed work need satisfaction on the independent variables to
examine the contribution of need satisfaction in the work-related memory to this variable.
At Step 1, weekly hours of work were negatively associated with work need satisfaction,
whereas self-determined motivation was signiﬁcantly and positively associated with it,
together accounting for 26% of the variance. At Step 2, need satisfaction in the workrelated memory was signiﬁcantly and positively associated with work need satisfaction,
explaining an additional 10% of its variance.
In sum, the results of Study 1 showed that need satisfaction in work-related memories is
associated with self-determined motivation. It is also associated with indicators of psychological health, over and above demographic variables and levels of work need satisfaction
and self-determined motivation at work. These ﬁndings suggest that work-related memories have a speciﬁc and independent impact on motivation and psychological health andcan act as personal resources when they are need satisfying and as hindrances when they
are need thwarting.

STUDY 2
Study 1 was cross-sectional and therefore, it was not possible to disentangle whether needsatisfaction in work-related memories predict psychological health at work or whether
employees with greater psychological health recall more need satisfying memories. The
purpose of Study 2 was to investigate the directionality of this eﬀect and examine
whether need satisfaction in work-related memories could predict changes over time inmotivation and psychological health at work. To this extent, Study 2 used a longitudinal
design where participants described a work-related memory at Time 1 and completed
measures of need satisfaction at work, self-determined motivation at work, work satisfaction, and burnout. At Time 2, two years later, participants completed the same scales
again. We expected that need satisfaction in the work-related memory would predict
increases in self-determined motivation and in work satisfaction, and decreases inburnout over this two-year period. Based on past longitudinal research assessing
domain-related memories (Philippe et al., 2013), we did not expect need satisfaction inWORK & STRESS

11

the work-related memory to predict increases in need satisfaction at work, although wenevertheless tested this possibility.
MethodParticipants
A Monte Carlo analysis was conducted to estimate the required sample size. A minimal
power of .70 was deemed adequate considering the longitudinal nature of the study andthe small eﬀect sizes expected. Based on past studies on the eﬀect of memories on longterm outcomes (Philippe et al., 2012, 2013), standardised regression coeﬃcients
between .15 and .20 were expected (except on work need satisfaction which was expected
to be zero). The stability between Times 1 and 2 outcome variables was estimated at 50% ofcommon variance and the eﬀect of demographic variables on the outcomes was estimatedfrom Study 1 results and literature reviews (e.g. Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001).
Reliabilities of the outcome measures were derived from Study 1. Analyses revealed thata sample of 200 participants would yield power > .70 and > .91 to detect signiﬁcant coeﬃcients of .15 and .20, respectively, from need satisfaction in work-related memories to theoutcomes, for a power above .80 to detect average coeﬃcients (.175). A total of 256 participants were recruited at Time 1. Two years later, six participants had retired (their data
were therefore discarded), 10 were then working elsewhere and could not be contacted
again, 23 started completing the questionnaire at Time 2, but did not ﬁnish completingit despite several reminders sent by email, and 20 refused to complete it. Final sample
was composed of 197 participants who fully completed all the scales at Time 2. Participants
were employees (70% female) from diﬀerent cegeps in the Province of Quebec (Canada)
and included administrative support staﬀ (26.5%), professionals (15.8%), teachers (52.6%),
and executives (5.1%). They were aged 43.59 years on average (SD = 9.78), worked on
average 37.22 hours per week (SD = 7.19), and had 14.37 years of experience in theircurrent employment (SD = 9.86).
Measures
Work-related memory. At Time 1, participants described a work-related memory.
Instructions were the same as those used in Study 1. After describing their memory, participants rated it for need satisfaction using the same three items used in Study 1. The
memory description and ratings were completed at the end of the questionnaire atTime 1. Cronbach’s alpha coeﬃcient was .84 in the present study.
Outcomes. The same scales of work need satisfaction, self-determined motivation atwork, work satisfaction, and burnout were used again in this study and were measured
at Times 1 and 2. Cronbach’s alpha coeﬃcients were all above .75 at both time points(except for the external regulation subscale, which alpha was .69 at Time 1). Participants
were also asked to describe again a work-related memory at Time 2 at the end of the questionnaire, but this will not be analysed in the present study.
Results
The same control variables as those in Study 1 were used in Study 2. A cross-lagged panel
design was modelled in Mplus with Maximum Likelihood as the method of estimation.

12

F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

Outcome variables measured at Time 1 were modelled to predict their measure at Time 2(autoregressive eﬀects) as well as all the other outcomes assessed at Time 2. Sociodemographic variables were modelled to predict all outcomes at Time 2. Finally, need satisfaction in the work-related memory was estimated to predict all outcomes at Time 2. Fit
indices for such a fully identiﬁed model are irrelevant (i.e. χ 2 = 0 with zero degree of
freedom). Results revealed that age predicted a marginal increase in self-determined
motivation and work satisfaction (p < .10) and a signiﬁcant decrease in burnout. Education predicted a signiﬁcant increase in work satisfaction and a signiﬁcant decrease inburnout. More importantly, and as expected, need satisfaction in the work memory predicted increases in self-determined motivation and work satisfaction and decreases inburnout. It did not predict changes in need satisfaction at work signiﬁcantly (δ = .08, p= .18). There were no other signiﬁcant relationships, except for the Time 1 variables on
their Time 2 measurement and for self-determined motivation, which predicted an

Figure 1. Path analysis of need satisfaction in work-related memory predicting changes in work selfdetermined motivation, work satisfaction, and burnout. Covariances among exogenous variables andnon-signiﬁcant paths are not shown for the sake of clarity.

WORK & STRESS

13

increase in work satisfaction over the years. See Figure 1 for the full model. Non-signiﬁcant
paths are not shown in the ﬁgure for the sake of clarity.

General discussion
The purpose of the present research was to investigate whether work-related memories could have a unique impact on employee’s motivation and psychologicalhealth at work. Within two studies, ﬁndings revealed that the way employees haveexperienced unique past work events in terms of need satisfaction plays a majorrole on their motivation and psychological health at work. These eﬀects were independent of demographics and general perceptions of need satisfaction at work. In
addition, the impact of these memories on indicators of psychological health were
not due to employees’ perceptions of motivation, that is, to the way they are motivated(in a self-determined fashion or not). Finally, these memories were found to predictchanges in motivation and psychological health over time. In other words, evenwhen holding constant initial levels of need satisfaction at work, self-determined
motivation, work satisfaction, and burnout, need satisfaction in work-related memories was found to predict the direction of the changes that would occur over two
years in self-determined motivation, work satisfaction, and burnout. These ﬁndings
underscore the unique directive role that episodic memories related to work canplay in employee’s work life outcomes.
A ﬁrst contribution of the present paper was to show that work-related episodic memories constitute a speciﬁc level of information that is not redundant with employees’
general perceptions of their work or of external workplace factors (e.g. need satisfaction
at work). Memories are unique and active information that will lead to changes inthose perceptions and alter levels of psychological health over time. In a nutshell, thepast – encoded as memories – is key to future psychological functioning at work, regardless of the present. Memories are constantly reconstructed and new key self-deﬁning
memories are frequently elected from the autobiographical memory base (Bouizegarene& Philippe, 2018; Conway et al., 2004). These memories become central to one’s work
because they represent an employee’s goal or concern at work. At the time of theirmeasurement, memories do not have had their full eﬀect yet. This is because their eﬀect
is slow and cumulative over time and can take months or years. They slowly transform
one’s perceptions of motivation and slowly impact the way people feel about their workand how they feel at work. That is why they are non-redundant with general perceptionsof need satisfaction at work or with motivation at work and that they predict changes inmotivation and in psychological health over time, over and above baseline measures ofthese outcomes. These memories will typically stop having such a directive eﬀect on outcomes once the goal to which they are linked is achieved or abandoned or that the concern
is ruled out or integrated (i.e. accepted or that a psychological compromise is achieved). At
that point, new self-deﬁning memories more in line with the worker’s new goals or concerns are elected and start having a novel and diﬀerent inﬂuence on work outcomes(Conway et al., 2004).
People hold more than one active self-deﬁning memories at the same time point intheir life. There is still no research that has investigated the exact number of inﬂuential
self-deﬁning memories that people can typically remember at a speciﬁc time point in14

F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

their life. However, a certain number of studies have found that distinct self-deﬁning
memories are not redundant with each other and that each explains an independentand unique portion of variance in outcomes (e.g. Bouizegarene & Philippe, 2016; Philippe et al., 2012). Therefore, it can be reasonably expected that people also hold morethan one work-related self-deﬁning memories and that each memory probably contributes to predicting additional variance in the outcomes. The eﬀect sizes reported in thepresent two studies are small. Yet, it remains impressive that signiﬁcant eﬀects wereobtained, even over two years, for just one work-related memory. It is likely that
other work-related memories are at play and contribute to additional and non-redundant variance in self-determined motivation and psychological health at work, alltogether accounting for a substantial portion of the variance in these outcomes.
Future research is needed to quantify the amount of variance that additional workrelated self-deﬁning memories could account for in the outcomes assessed in thepresent research.
A second contribution is that the current ﬁndings extend past research on the directivefunction of episodic memories in people’s lives. Past research on this topic has shown that
activating a speciﬁc episodic memory or a domain-related memory by either deliberately
recalling it or by using keywords derived from a memory narrative to prime it subliminally(i.e. outside of awareness) led to changes in situational well-being (Philippe & BernardDesrosiers, 2017; Philippe et al., 2012) and increased the likelihood of speciﬁc behaviours,
such as successfully solving social problems (Kuwabara, Rouleau, & Pillemer, 2011),
donating to a charity (Kuwabara & Pillemer, 2010), and motivating exercising (Biondolillo& Pillemer, 2015). Such speciﬁc episodic memories were also found to predict increases inwell-being over time (Houle & Philippe, 2017; Milyavskaya et al., 2013; Philippe &Bernard-Desrosiers, 2017; Philippe et al., 2012), changes in identity processing styles
and in friend satisfaction (Bouizegarene & Philippe, 2018), and greater quality of romantic
relationship and a lower likelihood of romantic breakup (Philippe et al., 2013). The
present research shows for the ﬁrst time that work-related memories can have such a
directive function on important work outcomes, such as self-determined motivation,
work satisfaction, and burnout and that the eﬀect of these memories can last for at least
two years. As such, work-related memories can both increase employee motivation andalleviate their psychological strain at work.
Finally, a third contribution is to highlight a novel applied perspective of intervention
for organisations. The present ﬁndings underscore the importance for employers andemployees of evaluating and revisiting negative work memories. As mentioned in the
introduction, not all negative work events will be encoded as memories and even asmaller number will become self-deﬁning memories. However, it may be important todetect those need-thwarting self-deﬁning work memories and act upon them. Key tothis reconstructive endeavour will be to reinterpret the experience of need thwarting
events, acknowledge them, or support the person through it (Ryan & Deci, 2008).
Another strategy is to create self-deﬁning moments for employees by sustaining positive
memories in workers’ mind. Since life episodes aﬀecting the needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness will be particularly well remembered and are more likely to remainchronically accessible, employers could develop strategies to build self-deﬁning momentson these themes by providing employees with special initiatives, challenges meeting theirexpertise and positive feedback (competence), as well as strong acknowledgment of theirWORK & STRESS

15

importance to the organisation (relatedness). Much relatedness also emerges throughwork-related social events, parties, and happy hours, and these types of events are certainly
not superﬂuous at potentially creating self-deﬁning moments.

Limitations
A certain number of limitations need to be underscored from the present research. First,
only employees from cegeps in Quebec were recruited in both studies. This means that thepresent ﬁndings may not be generalisable to other occupations, industries, or cultures.
Future research could examine whether work-related memories are as predictive of motivational and psychological health outcomes across diﬀerent types of context. A second
limitation is that, as mentioned above, only one work-related memory was assessed ineach study. The eﬀect sizes obtained are therefore small. Future research could assess
more than one work memories in order to better estimate the amount of unique variancein work outcomes that can be accounted for by memories. A third limitation is that all datacollected were self-reported. This increases the risk of common shared method varianceamong variables. This limitation was slightly attenuated by controlling for need satisfaction at work in general. The shared method variance between the measures of need satisfaction in the work-related memory and of need satisfaction at work in general was partial
out by entering these measures as two distinct independent variables. Nevertheless, replicating the present results using more objective measures of motivation and psychologicalhealth would strengthen them.
In sum, the present research shows for the ﬁrst time that work-related memories
matter, are not redundant with general perceptions of environmental factors at work,and predict changes in motivation and psychological health over time. We hope thatthe present ﬁndings will prompt researchers’ interest on the importance of workers’ memories for organisations.

Notes
1. Philippe, Bouizegarene, Guilbault, Rajotte, and Houle (2015) recommended that memory
measures should always be collected last to avoid inﬂuencing other more general measuresrelated to well-being.
2. Memories were also coded for valence (positive or negative) and we examined whether they
moderated the results. All moderations were non-signiﬁcant, therefore, this variable will not
be further analysed in the present research.

Disclosure statement
No potential conﬂict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant
number 435- 2012-1358].

16

F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

ORCID
Frederick L. Philippe

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6997-8072

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