The strategic approach to motivation results from a modern business philosophy that is completely oriented to people as the most important resource and source of competitive advantage. People are the holders of all activities and the success of a company depends on them. Therefore, companies are constantly looking for ways to encourage and direct their employees to the desired achievements. Encouraging to work and achieving goals requires the implementation of motivation strategies as an integral part of the motivation system. Motivation strategies link long-term goals of the company and rewarding individuals for work and achievements where rewarding must be linked with the values and needs of employees. The main goal of this paper is to identify the general principles of the relationship between motivation strategies and organizational performance and to formulate an appropriate model of these variables relationship to define the direction and intensity of this relationship. Based on the relevant theoretical material the main variables were researched and analyzed and a conceptual model was constructed which, in addition to motivation strategies and organizational performance, also includes motivation to work as a mediate variable. The representation of material and nonmaterial techniques within motivation strategies is observed through their material and nonmaterial elements. The model was tested on a sample of 105 large and medium-sized enterprises and the results indicate its general suitability. The results of the research proved that companies with consistently designed motivation strategies achieve better organizational performance. It was further confirmed that the material elements of motivation strategies positively affect the work motivation of employees and it was also confirmed that the nonmaterial elements of motivation strategies have a positive impact on work motivation. However, the results proved that the impact of nonmaterial elements of motivation strategies on work motivation is stronger than the impact of material elements in conditions when basic material needs are provided. It was also confirmed that the company´s performance is influenced by work motivation. As a part of the motivation strategies analysis an appropriate approach was developed to identify the basic types of motivational strategies and four framework categories were identified: limited choice strategy, materially oriented strategy, nonmaterially oriented strategy and strategy of comprehensive approach to motivation.