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Motivation is one of the most ubiquitous topics in various disciplines including education, medicine, sports, etc. Researchers have tackled questions regarding motivation and different theories have been coined throughout the years, but the existence of a universal theory of motivation remains difficult to attest. This paper aims at testing the Four-Drive Model (Lawrence & Nohria, 2002) - a model proclaimed to have universal validity - in a post-communist country like Albania and examine how the drives to acquire, to bond, to comprehend and to defend manifest themselves in the IT sector. Moreover, it analyses how the perceived importance of these drives changes with regard to different demographic characteristics and to the meaning that employees assign to work. A survey was sent to six IT branches in Albania and Kosovo, in an attempt to measure the main motivators and their relative importance for the employees. The data acquired was then analyzed with primary attention to tenure and income. The drives were examined as separate units but also in comparison to one another.

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Marshela Joti, Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Sigmund Freud University, Vienna, Austria. Motivation Specialist at Infosoft Group sh.p.k., Tirana, Albania.

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