The challenge stressor—Reduced professional efficacy link: The role of motivational mechanisms.

By drawing on the transactional theory of stress, achievement goal theory, and self-determination theory, we tested whether controlled motivation and amotivation are mediating mechanisms in the relationship between stressors (i.e., perceived performance climate and challenge stressors) and reduced professional efficacy (strain indicator). The results from a two-wave study including 1,081 engineers and technologists show that employees who perceive a performance climate and challenge stressors experience controlled work motivation and amotivation, which, in turn, fuel their perceptions of reduced professional efficacy. Our findings also illustrate that amotivation is the predominant mechanism in the stressor–strain relationship, thereby advancing understanding of its underlying process. Our results have important practical implications for how leaders can prevent the evolvement of employees’ controlled motivation and amotivation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)