Background:
Grounded in self-determination theory, the present study aimed to investigate whether daily changes in employee motiva-tion depend on whether employees receive appreciation from various sources at work, using a 7-day diary design. Beyond general knowledge about the effects of appreciation as an important source of motivation, there is still a lack of knowledge about the intrapersonal effect of appreciation on different types of regulation/motivation in terms of self-determination the-ory over time.

Participants and procedure:
The sample consisted of 104 employees in full-time employment. More than half were women (72%) and the mean age was 43.25 years (SD = 10.53). They completed trait-level measures and then daily records, in which they reported their motiva-tion and whether they received appreciation. Sources of appreciation were leaders, followers, and clients.

Results:
Multilevel random coefficient modeling showed that employees reported higher levels of motivation on days when they received appreciation from different sources, independent of gender, trait-level motivation, and the Big Five. Furthermore, introjected regulation moderated the positive association between daily motivation and daily appreciation by the client, and appreciation did not have a lagged effect for subsequent days.

Conclusions:
The current study has both practical and theoretical implications. The results show that employee motivation can be sup-ported through simple but effective steps through appreciation regardless of the source, although appreciation may be more important for employees with introjected regulation than for others.