I just realized that my thoughts have something in common with two very-well known theories.

First, there is the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He postulates that first and the most important ones are physiological and safety needs but what I observe is that those needs are different for the different people. One just needs a roof over his head and once he has it he starts to think of something bigger. Another may need comfortable office with air conditioner and vending machine, company car and many other things and still he may consider that his basic needs are not satisfied.

You can motivate the first type of persons many ways, even without money but the second type you can’t – you just need to satisfy their hygiene needs – with money.

The second thing is the research made by the Dutch psychologist Hofstede who defines the “masculine” and the “feminine” types of people. These types are almost the same as the “active” and “passive” types in my categorization. And his research showed that in the different countries the “masculine”/”feminine” ratio is different – there are countries where people is mostly “masculine” and others where they are mostly “feminine”. You should have this in consideration when you (1) hire people and (2) try to motivate them.

There is some other research into money that complements your thoughts here; that you have to reach a certain level of financial security before you can abandon it as a priority, but once you are there then I think your theory kicks in. Or maybe you are then set free to be able to become ‘active.’

And as for the Iron Curtain thing – I see what you are saying, but I agree with pawell; that the ‘active’ types are rare in most places. The US, and particularly big-city US are the exceptions.

1. Active vs passive. If you consider ability to resign from significant part of remuneration as a compensation of more interesting and dynamic tasks as a label of “active” people, there will always be shortage of them, no matter the country.

2. Different kinds of motivation. I would move your point further: every person needs different kind of motivation. Money is one of factors. Not the only one, but in almost all cases (no matter of character type) that’s one of essentials.

3. Wrong side of Iron Curtain. Yes, the heritage our nations bring results in significant percentage of passive people. That’s vividly visible when we come to United States and we compare our typical approach with their standard optimism and “we are the best” beliefs. Anyway it doesn’t really change the background significantly. No matter if you’re located in Sofia, Krakow or New York you won’t be willing to agree to get less money in new job.

Thanks for bringing food for thought.