The AchieveGlobal study was conducted over a span of three months from October to December 2011, with more than 1,000 individuals across 10 locations including Australia, India, China, Singapore and Taiwan.

Fifty-five percent of the respondents across Asia said they were "quite" or "very" motivated, the study found.

The study also found that respondents from companies with 500 employees or less were more motivated than those from larger organisations.

In terms of organisational rank, 33 per cent of vice president- or C- level executives said they were "very" motivated in their jobs versus just 14 percent of those in managerial positions. This is natural given the greater job responsibilities of senior executives.