Mapping the nomological network of employee self-determined safety motivation: A preliminary measure in China

• The study confirmed the five-factor structure of safety motivation proposed by self-determination theory.
• The internal consistency coefficients were high for all the sub-scales supporting the reliability of the scale.
• The nomological network analysis provided initial support for the construct validity of the scale.
• Introjected regulation, as a kind of controlled motivation, was positively related to transformational leadership, negatively related to abusive supervision, and positively related to safety behavior.

The present study introduced a preliminary measure of employee safety motivation based on the definition of self-determination theory from Fleming (2012) research and validated the structure of self-determined safety motivation (SDSM) by surveying 375 employees in a Chinese high-risk organization. First, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the factor structure of SDSM, and indices of five-factor model CFA met the requirements. Second, a nomological network was examined to provide evidence of the construct validity of SDSM. Beyond construct validity, the analysis also produced some interesting results concerning the relationship between leadership antecedents and safety motivation, and between safety motivation and safety behavior. Autonomous motivation was positively related to transformational leadership, negatively related to abusive supervision, and positively related to safety behavior. Controlled motivation with the exception of introjected regulation was negatively related to transformational leadership, positively related to abusive supervision, and negatively related to safety behavior. The unique role of introjected regulation and future research based on self-determination theory were discussed.