Research
My research program centers on the psychological mechanisms that drive motivation, sustain well-being, and enable effective leadership — examined across cultures, industries, and levels of analysis.
Using Self-Determination Theory as a lens, I examine autonomous vs. controlled motivation, longitudinal changes in motivation quality, and intervention-based approaches to promoting self-determined motivation at work.
I study daily and weekly rhythms of psychological health, needs satisfaction, and engagement — using diary studies and multi-level modeling to capture how well-being fluctuates and what managers can do about it.
My cross-cultural work on servant and transformational leadership spans Canada, the US, Pakistan, China, and Brazil — examining how leader behavior shapes motivation, trust, and well-being across national contexts.
I investigate how employees' perceived CSR authenticity drives work engagement through meaningfulness — with implications for how CHROs and HR leaders design and communicate CSR strategy internally.
Drawing on my industry background at Towers Perrin and Arthur Andersen, I study how compensation and reward systems interact with intrinsic motivation — and what organizations get wrong about incentive design.
In high-tech industry contexts, I examine how individual values moderate the relationship between self-determination and innovative work behavior — named the most cited paper in the Journal of Creative Behavior 2021–2022.
The majority of my work is grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), one of the most empirically validated frameworks in motivational psychology. SDT distinguishes between autonomous motivation (doing something because it is inherently meaningful or aligned with one's values) and controlled motivation (doing something due to external pressure or reward).
A core insight from SDT — and one I have tested repeatedly across contexts — is that autonomous motivation predicts not just performance, but sustained psychological health, creativity, and engagement. Organizations that rely primarily on external rewards and controls often undermine the very motivation they are trying to cultivate.
My research extends SDT into cross-cultural settings, longitudinal designs, and organizational interventions — asking not just whether SDT principles hold, but how organizations and leaders can actively support them.
Research Collaborators