When I think about a time when compensation led me to act a certain way, I am reminded of my internship experiences. I have worked three internships in construction engineering. Two of my internships paid roughly the same, but the third internship paid significantly more. Going into the higher-paying internship, I was curious if there would be a catch or something that justified the company offering more. On my first day, I quickly gained a clear picture of the cultural differences between this company and the others. It felt as if the company that paid more treated employees as numbers, to be used wherever upper management saw fit. They had a great structure, amazing benefits, and excellent pay—something that many people absolutely love and are content with—but the family-oriented culture I was looking for was missing.
This context is important in explaining my motivation toward this company and the decisions I made regarding an offer for the following summer. On my first day, during a lunch with my supervisors, I was told, “You will be bored all summer.” They weren’t lying—I’ll give them that—but I quickly realized that I didn’t want to work there full-time and told myself I would not accept an offer, regardless of the pay. However, when the offer came, and it was even more than I had expected, I spent far too much time considering it, weighing factors I already knew were important to me.
Reflecting on this experience, I realized that compensation and pay play a significant role in decision-making, even when you believe you are already set in a certain direction. I believe the compensation motivated my behavior because it introduced an internal conflict between short-term financial gain and long-term job satisfaction. The time I spent deliberating was a testament to the powerful influence money can have.
I believe that my situation aligns well with the Expectancy Theory, which suggests that individuals are motivated to act based on their expectations of the outcomes [1]. The high-paying internship gave me a strong instrumentality factor by offering significant financial compensation. This made it tempting to accept despite my dissatisfaction with the work culture. The internal conflict came into play with this theory as the financial compensation wasn’t outweighing the expectancy component (the belief that my effort/work would be fulfilling). This meant that the long-term dissatisfaction outweighed the short-term financial gain, leading me to decline the offer.
[1] Filipova, A.A. (2016). Expectancy Theory in Organizations. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3002-1
