Supported or stressed while being assessed? How motivational climates in UK University workplaces promote or inhibit researcher well-being

Abstract

Academic culture now places high expectations on researchers to demonstrate research productivity alongside teaching, leadership and knowledge exchange. In two studies of researchers across career stages in UK higher education institutions (HEIs), we examined workplace climate within academic departments as (1) supportive of researchers' needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, (2) publish-or-perish focused and (3) hyper-competitive. In Study 1 (multiwave from 2018 to 2020), need support predicted researchers' lower turnover intention 2 years later, even when controlling for concurrent need support, and career and economic conditions. In Study 2, need support correlated with academic well-being (lower job strain and turnover intention, greater job satisfaction) in a nationwide sample of 2951 researchers. Study 2 found that need support related to improved, and a hyper-competitive motivational climate related to undermined, well-being. Results were mixed for publish-or-perish climate. Performative demands can have deleterious effects on researcher well-being.