This study investigated influences on work motivation based on the theories of Latham and Locke (2002), Porter and Lawler III (1968), Vroom (1964), and Wright (2001, 2007). We conducted a survey with 333 public officials from 6 state agencies and 1 municipal agency in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, which had policies for goals and rewards. Officials' motivation showed to be directly and significantly influenced by the valence of the institutional mission, through the instrumentality related to rewards and self-effectiveness to achieve goals. The specificity and feedback with regard to goals influenced the motivation in a significant and indirect way. The importance of goals, valence of extrinsic rewards, expectation, equity, participation in the setting of goals, difficulty of goals, overall evaluation of goal systems, and overall evaluation of reward systems did not exert direct influences on motivation. Officials' from an older age group had higher average values for motivation. In turn, officials occupying leadership positions and those who received some kind of extra reward (in addition to wage) showed higher indices in factors related to motivation.
goals; motivation; variable remuneration; public administration
