Abstract: The performance of any government is dependent upon its employees, especially the low and middle ranking ones, just like the performance of any other organization is dependent on its workers. Therefore, it is required that the government employees be motivated in order to achieve higher levels of performance. However, motivating government employees is not without constraints. Usually these barriers or constraints are different from the ones faced by profit making private organizations. Money is widely used by profit making organizations as a motivator whereas it is usually not available to motivate government employees. Similarly punishment including firing from the service is common in the private profit making concerns, whereas civil servants or the government employees are usually protected by the civil service rules. A look at the motivation theories, methods used by non profit organizations and methods adopted to motivate low paid monotonous work employees gives some clues as to how to motivate government employees.