"self-serving motivations" is an acceptable phrase in written English.
You can use it to refer to people who act out of self-interest instead of pursuing what is best for the greater good. For example: His self-serving motivations led him to make decisions that benefitted him, rather than the company as a whole.
Our findings suggest that, even for prosocial services, messages offering self-serving motivations are more effective than altruistic ones on inspiring interests.
Both Beer et al (2007) and Greer (2000) reported perceived self-serving motivations (e.g. economic gain) were found to be the primary reason for 'attraction' among many same-sex relationships in prison.
Senders were given an option of choosing one of four pre-designed invitation messages to send to their contacts, two framed for self-serving motivations and two framed for other-oriented motivations.
Each of these actions are being taken with their own, somewhat self-serving, motivations, but, how else would they be done?
To fit the OPTN definition, a donation must be made to an anonymous stranger -- eliminating any possibility of self-serving motivation.
Based on analysis of domestic A-share listed companies' donations after the Wenchuan earthquake, Leiwei Shan and colleagues (2008) point out the self-serving advertising motivation behind the behavior of corporate donations, and Yongqiang Gao et al. (2012) find that China's private enterprises use donations to divert public attention from their misconduct.
Well-crafted, excellently acted characters on both sides with a range of motivations, both self-serving and noble.
"Does anyone really believe that these companies, out of the goodness of their black oil hearts, are spending millions and millions of dollars to protect jobs?...They are blatantly trying to manipulate the will of the people and the public good... Their motivation is self-serving greed".
While there are times when the motivations of family members for asserting their particular point of view regarding the "well being" of a critically ill loved one are self-serving at best, more often the motivation is love.
I think some of their motivation was less self-serving; they wanted to fulfill Dr. Hall's vision that low-income children from single parent homes and tough neighborhoods could and would succeed at levels comparable to suburban Atlanta peers.
Tree's motivation appears to be neither opportunistic nor self-serving.
