A cultural assessment of employee motivation in the Brazilian hotel industry: A comparison between the northeast and the southeast

This study used Hofstede's (1980) Value Survey Module to compare culture and Hackman and Oldham's (1980) intrinsic motivation six-item measure to compare motivation to work between hotel employees in Northeast and Southeast Brazil. The results of this study showed there are significant cultural differences between the two regions. These differences are correlated to motivation. Sub cultural differences found between Northeast and Southeast Brazil require that training contents and organizational culture differ between the regions since employees' values and needs and values are not the same. The correlation between culture and motivation suggests that cultural differences may be used by managers as a tool to motivate their employees. If employees value different things they are therefore motivated by different things as well, for values are the driving forces of action.