How successful are motivation theories in practice?

Abstract

In this study, 503 South African companies are used to ascertain the utilization of various important theories of motivation. Furthermore, utilizing the questionnaire method, the perceived success of the various theories and practices with the main South African population groups was assessed. The findings are of great importance: motivation theories are not applied extensively; but perhaps of greater importance is the finding that companies report less than 50% success rate in the application of these theories.