Before I start my remarks, I would like to give you little background of myself. I have worked in Greenpeace India for three years . Work was fun at Greenpeace and those three years were my some of the best in 31 years of my life. Salary was not great but we were great team and didn't expect our compensation to rise so fast because we worked to protect our planet and lived less consumerist life. Anyways I moved on in my life , finished my MPA at Sciences Po and SIPA. Currently,I work here in New York at small private company which believes in making money while helping people in getting jobs. In short my current company is a for profit private company which works with New York City Government to reduce urban poverty through employment and other public policy issues.
All these debates/protests about compensation are symptoms of something more deeper and chronic problems of our time. Organizations find it easier to buy engagement of their leaders/staff through monetary compensation because understanding and tackling of the real issues of man's alienation to his/her work, takes totally different approach . Its easy to monetize and put everything in numbers but its so difficult to create organic and engaging system where people can feel connected and their work would be liberating factor of their existence.
People are motivated by different factors when they choose their job. Their decision to join particular job is outcome of their emotional,social,and financial needs. For example when I decided to join Greenpeace India, I was motivated by organization's capability to save environment and compensation didn't play significant role in my decision. People were engaged and motivated to work for something which they believe in ( again this motivation and engagement are dynamic processes and it keep changing, transforming ,evolving in due course of time). I enjoyed my work there because I felt connected to some bigger purpose, a thread (passion for environment,feeling of doing something good) which held everyone together in Greenpeace . We demonstrated this connection through our daily lives . For example we would use public transport/bicycles to come to our work, use less plastics and refrain from using air conditioners. All these personal choices combined with professional zeal to save environment brought lots of satisfaction in life at that time.
I identify at least three real issues at work place.
1.There is a myth among management that monetary rewards can solve the problems of disengaging employees. Companies consider monetary rewards as most powerful tool to buy employees engagement but human mind is very complicated and an employee can never be engaged just by seeing his pay raise. For example I get pay raise every year at my current company but happiness is very transitory because getting pay doesn't resolve my problems.
Cooperation- I wont call this as tool for enhancing productivity, I would rather phrase as a medium of connectivity(this connectivity is not about technology but its about their passion, and spirit which binds people together) Individuals can feel connected when they cooperate, because employees at work feel alienated and by cooperation they can relate themselves to something collective. For example in Greenpeace we had this feeling among all the 38 offices of the world that we are warriors and fighting for our mother earth. Off course that feeling has evaporated now in me but organizations can still create engaging work environment where people can feel connected .
Designing small and organic systems- Currently technology has transformed management into machine which does the same job as machine does ,i:e tracking performance and conducting meeting with charts and data. Technology has immense potential to transform modern management into a more living and organic unit. Modern organization should learn a lot from nature,for example there is lot of research going on how to design intelligent urban distribution system based on living organisms like leaf and trunk of trees ,which is considered as resilient distribution network (Refer to network theory )
