{"id":62,"date":"2026-02-27T09:08:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/?p=62"},"modified":"2026-02-27T09:08:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:08:23","slug":"the-exchange-has-to-make-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/2026\/02\/27\/the-exchange-has-to-make-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"The Exchange Has to Make Sense"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I joined a retail company that I genuinely loved. I had been a loyal customer for years before\u00a0I ever\u00a0applied. I believed in the brand, the culture, and what it\u00a0represented, so stepping into a management role there felt personal. Compensation was part of the equation, but it was never the whole equation. The pay felt aligned with the scope and authority of the position I was hired to perform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compensation\u00a0operates\u00a0as part of a total reward system that includes both extrinsic and intrinsic components (Lecture 1), and at the beginning both were intact. The salary provided financial stability, which corresponds with the foundational levels of Maslow\u2019s hierarchy of needs. Maslow was introduced in Lecture 5 as a needs-based theory of motivation, and although it was not\u00a0expanded on\u00a0in depth there, I am highly familiar with it from my background in psychology. Once basic and security needs are met, motivation tends to move toward belonging, esteem, and growth. Working for a company I already cared about satisfied more than financial needs. It created\u00a0psychological\u00a0attachment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lecture 1 notes that intrinsic rewards, the intangible psychological and social effects of compensation, influence attachment to the organization. That was true for me. I felt connected to the mission and invested in the team. Because the exchange felt fair and the attachment felt real, I worked accordingly. I took on\u00a0additional\u00a0responsibilities and\u00a0operated\u00a0beyond the minimum expectations of the role because\u00a0I believed effort and advancement\u00a0were connected.\u00a0Compensation influenced my behavior because it signaled how the organization valued my expanded contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The imbalance developed later. My direct supervisor was removed, and much of that work was placed on me. The scope and complexity of my responsibilities increased significantly. The compensation, title, and authority did not. Distributive justice concerns the fairness of outcomes, and procedural justice concerns the fairness of how decisions are made (Lecture 1). The outcome remained fixed while the role expanded, and there was no structural recalibration of the position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equity theory provides a clear explanation for what\u00a0followed. Employees compare their inputs and outcomes, and when the ratio becomes unequal, they\u00a0attempt\u00a0to restore balance (Lecture 1). My\u00a0inputs\u00a0increased substantially. The outcomes\u00a0did\u00a0not. Equity theory outlines responses such as reducing effort, seeking adjustment, or leaving (Lecture 1). Compensation became the visible symptom of a broader organizational misalignment between role, authority, support, and expectations. When the exchange no longer made sense across those dimensions, I left.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerr argues that organizations often reinforce behaviors different from those they claim to value (Kerr, 1975). Initiative and leadership were praised, yet absorbing higher-level responsibilities without structural recognition was what was reinforced. Over time, both the extrinsic and intrinsic components of the total reward system weakened. Research also shows that employees\u2019 intent to leave is strongly influenced by how fairly and transparently compensation decisions are communicated (Smith, 2015). At the beginning, the compensation structure and the role were coherent. Later, they were not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving was deeply emotional. I was not walking away from just a paycheck. I was walking away from a company I had admired long before I worked there. The experience did not just end my employment relationship. It altered my attachment to the brand itself. Lecture 1 connects intrinsic rewards to organizational attachment, and once those intrinsic elements\u00a0eroded, the attachment\u00a0eroded with them. I no longer shop there. That outcome is not about resentment. It reflects how closely compensation structure, fairness\u00a0perception, and psychological attachment operate together. When the exchange no longer felt\u00a0equitable across both tangible and intangible rewards, the employment relationship ended, and so did my loyalty as a consumer.<\/p>\n\n\n

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REFERENCES:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cieri, M., & Swift, M. (2026). Lectures 1 and 5. GMT 553 Human Resources Management, Oregon State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerr, S., (1977)\u00a0Folly of Rewarding A While Hoping for B<\/a>,\u00a0Academy of Management Executive<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith, D. (2015).\u00a0Most people have no idea whether they’re paid fairly
Links to an external site.<\/a>.\u00a0Harvard Business Review<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I joined a retail company that I genuinely loved. I had been a loyal customer for years before\u00a0I ever\u00a0applied. I believed in the brand, the culture, and what it\u00a0represented, so stepping into a management role there felt personal. Compensation was part of the equation, but it was never the whole equation. The pay felt aligned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/nicholeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}