[Excerpt from authors] Problems related to health worker motivation are remarkably pervasive, but to-date little attention has been paid to them in developing and transition countries. Basic tools to measure the determinants and consequences of motivation have not been adapted to contexts outside the industrialized world. This paper assesses the feasibility of transferring psychometric tools, typically used in industrialized countries to measure motivational processes, to other contexts. The paper draws upon two field studies conducted in two hospitals in the Republic of Georgia and two hospitals in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The studies started by using more qualitative techniques and progressed to the use of entirely quantitative survey instruments applied to a relatively large sample of workers.