Psychological need satisfaction and work engagement in a self-administered retirement fund

Abstract

In order to stay competitive within the pension fund sector, management needs to actively engage in ways to improve service delivery to its members and pensioners of the Fund, offering benefits and services to stakeholders at competitive fees. Human capital is imperative in service delivery and giving the organisation a competitive edge. Retaining a motivated workforce will benefit positive organisational outcomes and success. Disregarding employees' psychological needs leads to their perceiving that they are not valued by the employer. Affected employees will display disengaged behaviour either on a cognitive, emotional, and/or physical level. Satisfaction of employees' psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence is essential for ensuring motivated employees. Offering members and pensioners excellent service relies heavily on employee motivation as it will have an impact on their attitude towards stakeholders. An unmotivated workforce also affects the number of staff that needs to be employed, as less work is done and quality of output will be impaired as well. Psychological need satisfaction and work engagement both contribute towards increasing employees' intrinsic levels of motivation. The aim of this study was to investigate psychological need satisfaction and work engagement in a self-administered retirement fund in Gauteng. An exploratory qualitative approach from an interpretivist epistemology was utilised to gather data. Staff members (N = 12) reporting to either middle management or executive level were interviewed and a thematic content analysis was performed. Results indicated that the majority of staff made reference to the lack of social integration, lack of trust, and lack of employability. Two other significant themes which emerged included the lack of equity and equality, as well as resistance to change. The findings support the negative impact of these identified themes on employees' psychological need satisfaction and work engagement. Recommendations for the organisation and for future research were made