In an era of increasingly diminishing public funding for local government organizations, motivating public employees is becoming a nearly impossible mission, with managers searching for non-monetary reward practices, to maintain or even increase motivation and performance of their subordinates. The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivational dynamics of the employees of a public sector organization and their relationship to its culture. The Competing Values Model was employed to diagnose the organizational culture and to illuminate the relationship of culture and motivation in the organization studied. The research has shown that the dominant culture type is Hierarchy (Bureaucracy) while motivation level was found to be low, demonstrating a negative association between the two variables. Also found was a positive relationship between the desired culture (clan) and motivation. The findings point to the need of a re-examination of the existing organizational culture by the local government and the creation of one that is closer to the one with greater motivating potential