Money A factor of Motivation, Not Always!

Aayan, an engineer and a post graduate in management, was happy in his job. He was working with a renowned bank as a Sr Manager Treasury sale and performing well with his targets. One evening he happened to meet his previous office colleague, Ravi, who was his reporting head and they had spent 5 years working together. Over a cup of coffee, they discussed work, targets, market scenario and many such things. During the conversation, Ravi offered Aayan to join back his previous bank as management was happy with his performance and they would love to hire him back. Aayan had left his previous company for better prospects but when Ravi gave him this offer, he was tempted. It is not that Aayan was dissatisfied in his current organization but he was happier with his previous workplace as there he was a star performer and everybody recognised him for his talent and work.

Aayan was in dilemma whether to re-join his previous workplace or continue with his current job which he had started just a year back. Here the role and responsibilities were huge and great scope for development whereas in his previous organization he was more comfortable and recognised. Aayan thought at least he should go and meet the management of previous organization and see what they are offering as his heart belongs to that place. He met the management and they asked him to re-join on a better scale and position compared to what he had left. He was offered the designation of Assistant Vice-President and 30% increment in his salary and ESOPS. He was very happy and soon he accepted the offer with dignity and bigger role.

The day came when he re-joined, there was lot of grapevine communication happening in the organization upon his joining, some were talking positive whereas some were bitching, but this was something that he expected and never paid attention to any of those communications. He just concentrated upon his goals and worked hard to achieve his targets. He took up targets which would result in 40% growth of his department (something which was never achieved in the past) He worked hard day and night, made strategies, motivated team, increased efficient manpower to achieve results. A year passed with all the ups and downs and Aayan with his team achieved the target. Everyone in their team was very excited and since it was a time of appraisal, everyone was expecting a decent increment. Aayan was also expecting a recognition and reward for all the hard work done. The results of the appraisal came and to his surprise he got a 3-star rating out of 5. He was shocked as this was not something which was expected. He immediately went to met his boss and the boss shared that he was also equally shocked looking at the results and consoled Aayan saying that he would speak to the HR dept. The HR dept said they did what the management asked them to do. Aayan was highly disappointed and was thinking whether he did the right decision of coming back. If he had continued in his organization and not accepted to re-join this organization, he would have been on a better package and benefits to what he was today. All these thoughts kept triggering his mind as he was trying to convince himself that money is not his factor of motivation but he knew that emotionally he was not happy with the management decision.

Prof Kanchan Akshay

Dr VN BRIMS