2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering CAReS (Competence, Autonomy, Relatedness Study) is an engineering workplace climate survey that is based on basic psychological needs theory (BPNT) -- a mini-theory associated with self-determination theory (SDT). The CAReS survey uses a combination of existing items and scales from the BPNT and belonging literature as well as items adapted to the workplace setting to measure the degree to which basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness are satisfied or frustrated at work. The CAReS study was initiated at the start of 2022 and Phase 1 of the study, which focused on tool development, was completed in December of 2022.

Over 200 survey responses were collected from engineers working in academic positions, engineers working in non-academic positions, and individuals working closely with engineers. Phase 1 used confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses to develop and refine measurement scales suited to the engineering workplace. Scale refinement also revealed interesting insights regarding how engineers perceive their workplace needs. For instance, scales associated with the satisfaction of relatedness needs that have been validated in previous workplace studies did not demonstrate good fit to the engineering workplace context and had to be discarded. Feelings of being cared for by coworkers and being close to coworkers did not make a suitable construct for measuring relatedness. Instead, belonging scales that explored perceptions of being accepted and supported within a workgroup indicated validity for this study and therefore replaced the satisfaction of relatedness needs as a suitable scale for relatedness.

After confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were completed, four, three, and two subscales demonstrated sufficient construct validity and reliability to be used to measure relatedness, competence, and autonomy needs, respectively. One subscale (organizational belonging) associated with relatedness needs was eliminated because of its similarity to the occupational belonging subscale. Satisfaction of relatedness needs was eliminated as a subscale due to poor model fit and replaced with a workgroup belonging subscale with better fit.

Altogether, factor analyses of our tool development data generated multiple reliable scales suitable for measuring psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. In total, 53 items representing 10 subscales measuring these three psychological needs were reduced to 37 items on 8 subscales which significantly reduced the overall length and average time required to complete the BPNT portion of the survey. The shorter completion time will support the recruitment of a much larger study population among working engineers.