AbstractThe analysis of the responses from certain questions in a series of guided interviews suggests that the views of workpeople's motivation held by executives relate more to the size and type of company in which they are employed than to their age, training, education or amount shop floor of contact arising from periods of apprenticeship or of line management experience. The ways in which their view of the motivation of workpeople differs from their own attitudes to work are indicated. In particular, the commonly held dictum that apprenticeship is valuable in creating an understanding of workpeople and their viewpoints does not appear to be supported. The limitations of the study are discussed and future work indicated.