Human resource has been increasingly considered as the key 01' decisive factor inrnorganizational development for a multitude of reasons, however , human resource hasrnbecome a serious challenge in cultivating a strong and vibrant private sector, the emergencernand development of which is only a recent phenomenon in Ethiopia. The private banks, inrnthe present state of' stiff com petit ion and intensified globalization , above all, necessitaternhighly competent and motivated employees, which is a principal determinant for the growthrnand development of the sector.rnCognizant of t he above ('acts as well as existing gaps in the area , which justified the researchrnagenda, t his study aimed at assessing the effects of motivational schemes on employees' levelrnof satisfaction t hat determines effectiveness in Awash International Bank.rnThe study relied on a combination of qualitative and quantitative data from both primaryrnand secondary sources. A total of 125 employees were communicated with an opinion surveyrnand 50 key officials working in the 24 branches of the bank were interviewed. Supplementaryrndata was also obtained from the review of pertinent secondary data like the bank's incentivernpolicy and other literature relevant to the topic under investigation.rnStudy results showed that the Bank has been with due recognition of the fact that low levelrnof job satisfaction and high-staff turnover, mainly resulting from low level o[ motivation hasrnremained to be a serious challenge for the growth/development of the bank. In effect, thernbank revised the Incentive Policy four years ago and has been applying this to date.rnnonetheless, the policy has not yet been revised to adapt to the ever changing externalrnenvironment. Level of motivation is positively and strongly correlated with the level of jobrnsatisfaction , which ultimately affects their level of effectiveness in the bank. Furthermore,rnthe findings indicated the relative importance of an incentive scheme depends on suchrncharacteristics of worker as educational status, work experience, sex, and marital status,rnalso, price escalation (inflation) was found to be an important factor external to the control ofrnthe bank. In addition to the above, most of the employees, as opposed to the management,rnwere of the opinion that the bank's incentive policy and working environment is unfavorable.rnon top of t his, lack of consistent and fair application of the existing incentive policy was alsornfueling the dissatisfaction of the employees. Finally, the fin dings uncovered that thosernemployees with high level of' education and/or assuming key positions in the Bank werernamong the least motivated by extrinsic actors such as bonus and salary increment. Rather,rnthey were highly motivated by intrinsic factors such as their working relationship and lessrnsupervision and control by the management. The opposite holds true for those employeesrnassuming lower status, who are mostly motivated by the extrinsic than the intrinsic factors.rnThe study, based on the findings, forwarded pertinent recommendations for improved level ofrnmotivation and job satisfaction thereby for effective performance and reduced staff turnoverrnin awash international Bank. These include, inter alia , revising the incentive policy based onrnrigorous environmental scanning and employees' participation , enhanced level ofrntransparency in administration of incentive schemes as well as devising monitoring andrnreview mechanism.rnI