I may dwell upon some practical approaches (may not be preferred however) which may win your colleagues heart and he/she feel motivated for institutional purpose:

• Leading from the front.
• Believing in the person who has been entrusted the task.
• Taking responsibility of the failure even if it happened through subordinate or some one else who assigned the task.
• Credit of success to the real contributor instead of self.
• Praise in public and criticism in alone.
• Creating an environment of trust and happiness (instead of an stressful and hype creating environment) which will create a feeling of "Ownership" of the organization in the employees and they will feel motivated and committed.

However this is not an exhaustive list there my changes, friendly to the individuals, institutions and other cultural and national requirements.

I may dwell upon some practical approaches (may not be preferred however) which may win your colleagues heart and he/she feel motivated for institutional purpose:

• Leading from the front.
• Believing in the person who has been entrusted the task.
• Taking responsibility of the failure even if it happened through subordinate or some one else who assigned the task.
• Credit of success to the real contributor instead of self.
• Praise in public and criticism in alone.
• Creating an environment of trust and happiness (instead of an stressful and hype creating environment) which will create a feeling of "Ownership" of the organization in the employees and they will feel motivated and committed.

However this is not an exhaustive list there my changes, friendly to the individuals, institutions and other cultural and national requirements.

Dear BK Punia sir, Thanks for your inputs. I appreciate the points you've enumerated. They are really valid, I believe. Thanks once again for sharing your valuable insights with me. Dhanyabaad sir

There are two ways: incentives and needs.  The behavioral psychologists described how incentives work.  Our work on 16 basic desires shows how needs work (see my book who am i to 16 strivings for god.). 

Thanks Prof. Dr. Steven Reiss. I appreciate it

You could look at:

Gagné, M., & Deci, E. L. (2005). Self-determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational behavior, 26(4), 331-362.

Schaufeli, W., & Salanova, M. (2007). Work engagement. Managing social and ethical issues in organizations, 135-177.

Bakker, A. B., & Leiter, M. P. (Eds.). (2010). Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research. Psychology Press.

Increasing motivation in your workplace can help improve performance, raise morale and boost productivity. While different motivators work for different types of employees, there are several common techniques for getting employees excited and energized for their jobs.

See some good papers through link.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/7-techniques-increasing-motivation-55420.html

http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED091542

http://scholar.google.co.in/scholar_url?url=https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/13791546/147358703/name/creativity.pdf&hl=en&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm2Olnpx9OLQC2ZB7QAVT-MzOIe88w&nossl=1&oi=scholarr&ved=0CB0QgAMoAjAAahUKEwi-v-Phk6vIAhWUTY4KHd8oDVw

http://amj.aom.org/content/40/2/279.short

http://amr.aom.org/content/7/1/89.short

Chapter Motivation Theory and Industrial and Organizational Psychology

At the top of the best motivation techniques, in an organization, is appointing a leader on the basis of merits. This leader is expected to be surrounded by few efficient assistants and this small group will direct the organization into the right path by adopting a "fair for all" policy & a friendly atmosphere in the workplace. The employees will trust such leadership & they will be induced to operate the functions well & to produce quality outcomes knowing that their efforts will get recognized, their dedication will be appreciated, their salaries will be adequate, and their promotion will not be hindered.                                                     The aforementioned statements came from personal observations in places where the opposite went on for so long with the subsequent result of forming organizations with too many imperfections.  

Depends upon whether we are talking about extrinsic motivation or intrinsic motivation.

With regards to intrinsic motivation, I agree with Giovanna Gianesin. some of the widely acknowledged techniques are setting challenging goals give positive reinforcement and encouraging participation in decision making process.

I find these strategies and theories related to intrinsic motivation more relevant in Nepalese context. As the pay scale in most of the private as well as government organizations considerably low, extrinsic motivation is found to less effective.

In addition to Giovanna's recommendations, I think some of these articles might also be of some help:

Latham, G.P. (2003) ‘Goal Setting: A Five-step Approach to Behavior Change’, Organizational Dynamics, 32: 309–18.

Locke, A.E. & Latham, G.P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717. doi: 10.1037//0003-066X.57.9.705

Ryan, R. and Deci, E. (2000) ‘Self-determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic

Motivation, Social Development, and Well-being’, American Psychologist, 55: 68–78.

Likert, R. Measuring organizational performance. Harvard Business Review, 36(2), 41-50.

 I would like to remark an important aspect that many managers don't understand. Motivation is based on emotional knowledge and intelligence, both of these concepts reflecting nonlinear phenomena. Thus, in order to really motivate somebody you should thing about this nonlinear nature of motivation. For instance, rewarding somebody with money means to use a linear metric and the effect is not always the expected one. The best way is to correlate the work done and performance with creating a high positive emotional state such that next time that person will be motivated to continue in his/her successful attitude. If motivation is for something to be done, like for for a change, then it is important to create a vision for that change and to suggest the expected results from that change. 

In my view the best motivational technique is to make a person to feel great about his/her work and contribution in a certain job. Steve Jobs wanted to change the world and this feeling is fantastic in motivating people. Once again, motivation is based on creating emotional states that are nonlinear and thus the technique used should be based on a nonlinear metric. In the recently published book on Organizational Knowledge Dynamics I wrote a chapter about emotional knowledge, and a chapter about spiritual knowledge, both of them explaining some important aspects of this excellent issue formulated by you. I attached a flyer about this book.

Hearty thanks to Giovanna Gianesini, Subhash C. Kundu Sir, Mr. Nizar Matar, Mr. Anup Bhurtel, Mr. Constantin Bratianu for contributing invaluable insights to me.

There are not 2 categories of motivation but three: intrinsic (liking the activity), achievement (wanting to do well) and extrinsic (work as a means to an end). It is not either or: it is all 3 together to get the best results.  Match the people to the work they like; set goals for attainment; give fair rewards.

Arhan Sir, are you in touch with Edwin. A. Locke, the founder of 'goal setting theory'? I know I am a novice in the field of research but if anyone would ask me the names I idealize, E.A. Locke is the first name that comes in my mind.

WOW!! This has just made my day :)

Yes, Anup, that's great. It's the greatness of Dr. Locke

Thanks all for the nice comments. E.L.

Thanks. It depends on the context. But I still feel that 20% still work 80% of the organizational work. Therefore take care of them....?

It is only possible when we practice Adam Stacy theory of motivation.

I express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Edwin A. Locke. My sincere thanks also to Khaliq Ahmad sir, Anup Bhurtel, Steven Reiss sir, and BK Punia sir for sharing their invaluable insights with me.