Goal Setting
Goal
setting involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and
time-targeted (S.M.A.R.T ) goals. Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests
that an effective tool for making progress is to ensure that participants in a
group with a common goal are clearly aware of what is expected from them. On a
personal level, setting goals helps people work towards their own
objectives—most commonly with financial or career-based goals. Goal setting
features as a major component of personal development
literature.
It
is considered an “open” theory, so as new discoveries are made it is modified.
Studies have shown that specific and ambitious goals lead to a higher level of
performance than easy or general goals. As long as the individual accepts the
goal, has the ability to attain it, and does not have conflicting goals, there
is a positive linear relationship between goal difficulty and task
performance.
Goals
are a form of motivation that sets the standard for self-satisfaction with
performance. Achieving the goal one has set for oneself is a measure of success,
and being able to meet job challenges is a way one measures success in the
workplace. It has been said that "Goal setting capitalizes on the human brain's
amazing powers: Our brains are problem-solving, goal-achieving
machines."
History
The first
empirical studies were performed by Cecil Alec Mace in
1935.
Edwin A.
Locke began to examine goal setting in the mid-1960s and continued researching
goal setting for thirty years. Locke derived the idea for goal-setting from
Aristotle’s form of final causality. Aristotle speculated that purpose can cause
action; thus, Locke began researching the impact goals have on individual
activity of its time performance.
Goal setting
theory was developed and refined by Edwin A. Locke in the 1960s. His first
article on goal setting theory was “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and
Incentives” which was published in 1968. This article laid the foundation for
goal setting theory and established the positive relationship between clearly
identified goals and performance.
Concept
Goals that
are deemed difficult to achieve and specific tend to increase performance more
than goals that are not. A goal can become more specific through quantification
or enumeration (should be measurable), such as by demanding "...increase
productivity by 50%," or by defining certain tasks that must be
completed.
Setting
goals affects outcomes in four ways:
1.Choice: goals narrow attention and
direct efforts to goal-relevant activities, and away from perceived undesirable
and goal-irrelevant actions.
2.Effort: goals can lead to more effort; for
example, if one typically produces 4 widgets an hour, and has the goal of
producing 6, one may work more intensely towards the goal than one would
otherwise.
3.Persistence: someone becomes more prone to work through
setbacks if pursuing a goal.
4.Cognition: goals can lead individuals to
develop and change their behavior.
Goal setting
in business
In business,
goal setting encourages participants to put in substantial effort. Also, because
every member has defined expectations for their role, little room is left for
inadequate, marginal effort to go unnoticed.
Managers
cannot constantly drive motivation, or keep track of an employee’s work on a
continuous basis. Goals are therefore an important tool for managers, since
goals have the ability to function as a self-regulatory mechanism that helps
employees prioritize tasks. Also Locke and Latham
(2002)
The four
mechanisms through which goal setting can affect individual performance
are:
1.Goals focus attention toward goal-relevant activities and away from
goal-irrelevant activities.
2.Goals serve as an energizer: Higher goals
induce greater effort, while low goals induce lesser effort.
3.Goals affect
persistence; constraints with regard to resources affect work pace.
4.Goals
activate cognitive knowledge and strategies that help employees cope with the
situation at hand.
Goal
commitment
People
perform better when they are committed to achieving certain goals. Through an
understanding of the effect of goal setting on individual performance,
organizations are able to use goal setting to benefit organizational
performance. Locke and Latham have indicated three moderators that indicate goal
setting success:
1.The importance of the expected outcomes of goal
attainment, and;
2.Self-efficacy – one's belief that he is able to achieve
the goals, and;
3.Commitment to others – promises or engagements to others
can strongly improve commitment.
Goal–performance relationship
Locke et al.
(1981) examined the behavioral effects of goal-setting, concluding that 90% of
laboratory and field studies involving specific and challenging goals led to
higher performance than did easy or no goals.
While some
managers believe it is sufficient to urge employees to ‘do their best,’ Locke
and Latham have a contradicting view on this. The authors state that people who
are told to ‘do their best’ don't. ‘Doing your best’ has no external referent,
which makes it useless in eliciting specific behavior. To elicit some specific
form of behavior from others, it is important that this person has a clear view
of what is expected from him/her. A goal is thereby of vital importance because
it facilitates an individual in focusing their efforts in a specified direction.
In other words, goals canalize behavior (Cummings & Worley p. 368). However,
when goals are established at a management level and thereafter solely
promulgated from the top, employee motivation with regard to achieving these
goals is rather suppressed (Locke & Latham, 2002 p. 705). To increase
motivation, employees not only must be allowed to participate in the goal
setting process, but the goals must be challenging as well. (Cummings &
Worley p. 369)
Goal setting
and feedback
Without
proper feedback channels it is impossible for employees to adapt or adjust to
the required behavior. Keep track of performance to allow employees to see how
effective they have been in attaining their goals. Goal setting and feedback go
hand in hand. Without feedback, goal setting is unlikely to work. Providing
feedback on short-term objectives helps to sustain motivation and commitment to
a goal. Feedback should be provided on the strategies followed to achieve the
goals and the final outcomes achieved, as well. Feedback on strategies used to
obtain goals is very important, especially for complex work, because challenging
goals put focus on outcomes rather than on performance strategies, so they
impair performance. Properly-delivered feedback is also very essential, and the
following hints may help for providing a good feedback:
Create a positive
context for feedback.
Use constructive and positive language.
Focus on
behaviors and strategies.
Tailor feedback to the needs of the individual
worker.
Make feedback a two-way communication
process.
Advances in
technology can facilitate providing feedback. Systems analysts have designed
computer programs that track goals for numerous members of an organization. Such
computer systems may maintain every employee’s goals, as well as their
deadlines. Separate methods may check the employee’s progress on a regular
basis, and other systems may require perceived slackers to explain how they
intend to improve.
More
difficult goals require more cognitive strategies and well-developed skills. The
more difficult the tasks, the smaller the group of people who possess the
necessary skills and strategies. From an organizational perspective, it is
thereby more difficult to successfully attain more difficult goals, since
resources become more scarce.
Honing goal
setting using Temporal Motivation Theory
Locke and
Latham (2004) note that goal setting theory lacks "the issue of time
perspective". Taking this into consideration, Steel and Konig (2006) utilize
their Temporal Motivation Theory (TMT) to account for goal setting's effects,
and suggest new hypotheses regarding a pair of its moderators: goal difficulty
and proximity. The effectiveness of goal setting can be explained by two aspects
of TMT: the principle of diminishing returns and temporal discounting. Similar
to the expression "the sum of the parts can be greater than the whole", a
division of a project into several, immediate, subgoals appears to take
advantage of these two elements.
Employee
motivation
See also:
job satisfaction and motivation
The more
employees are motivated, the more they are stimulated and interested in
accepting goals. These success factors are interdependent. For example, the
expected outcomes of goals are positively influenced when employees are involved
in the goal setting process. Not only does participation increase commitment in
attaining the goals that are set, participation influences self-efficacy as
well. Additionally, feedback is necessary to monitor one's progress. When
feedback is not present, an employee might think (s)he is not making enough
progress. This can reduce self-efficacy and thereby harm the performance
outcomes in the long run.
Goal-commitment, the most influential moderator,
becomes especially important when dealing with difficult or complex goals. If
people lack commitment to goals, they lack motivation to reach them. To commit
to a goal, one must believe in its importance or
significance.
Attainability: individuals must also believe that they can
attain — or at least partially reach — a defined goal. If they think no chance
exists of reaching a goal, they may not even try.
Self-efficacy: the higher
someone’s self-efficacy regarding a certain task, the more likely they will set
higher goals, and the more persistence they will show in achieving
them.
Limitations
Goal-setting
theory has limitations. In an organization, a goal of a manager may not align
with the goals of the organization as a whole. In such cases, the goals of an
individual may come into direct conflict with the employing organization.
Without aligning goals between the organization and the individual, performance
may suffer.
For complex
tasks, goal-setting may actually impair performance. In these situations, an
individual may become preoccupied with meeting the goals, rather than performing
tasks.
Some
evidence suggests that goal-setting can foster unethical behavior when people do
not achieve specified goals.
Some people
feel that goal setting may have the drawback of inhibiting implicit learning:
goal setting may encourage simple focus on an outcome without openness to
exploration, understanding, or growth.
Developments
in goal-setting theory
Goal
choice
Self-efficacy, past performance and various other social
factors influence goal setting. Failure to meet previous goals often leads to
setting lower (and more likely achievable) goals.
Learning
goals
There are
times when having specific goals is not a best option; this is the case when the
goal requires new skills or knowledge. “Tunnel vision” is a consequence of
specific goals; if one is too focused on attaining a specific goal they ignore
the need to learn new skills or acquire new information. In situations like
this, the best option is to set a learning goal. A learning goal is a
generalized goal to achieve knowledge in a certain topic or field, but it can
ultimately lead to better performance in specific goals related to the learning
goals. Locke and Latham attribute this response to metacognition. They believe
that “a learning goal facilitates or enhances metacognition—namely, planning,
monitoring, and evaluating progress toward goal attainment". This is necessary
in environments with little or no guidance and structure. Although jobs
typically have set goals, individual goals and achievement can benefit from
metacognition.
Framing
How goals
are viewed influences performance. When one feels threatened and or intimidated
by a high goal they perform poorer than those who view the goal as a challenge.
The framing of a goal as a gain or a loss influences one’s eventual
performance.
Affect
Realization
of goals has an effect on feelings of success and satisfaction. Achieving goals
has a positive effect, and failing to meet goals has negative consequences.
However, the affect of goals is not exclusive to one realm. Success in one’s job
can compensate for feelings of failure in one’s personal
life.
Group goals
The
relationship between group goals and individual goals influences group
performance; when goals are compatible there is a positive effect, but when
goals are incompatible the effects can be detrimental to the group’s
performance. There is another factor at work in groups, and that is the sharing
factor; a positive correlation exists between sharing information within the
group and group performance. In the case of group goals, feedback needs to be
related to the group, not individuals, in order for it to improve the group’s
performance.
Goals and
traits
On a basic
level the two types of goals are learning goals and performance goals. Each
possesses different traits associated with the kind of goal that is
selected.
1.) Learning
goals
• Tasks
where skills and knowledge can be acquired
2.)
Performance goals
• Avoid
tasks where error and judgment are possible
• Select
tasks that are easy to accomplish and will make one appear
successful
A more
complex trait-mediation study is the one conducted by Lee, Sheldon, and Turban,
which yielded the following results:
"Amotivated
orientation" (low confidence in one’s capabilities) is associated with
goal-avoidance motivation, and more generally, associated with lower goals
levels and lower performance.
"Control
orientation" (extrinsic motivation) is associated with both avoidance and
approach goals. Approach goals are associated with higher goal levels and higher
performance.
"Autonomy
goals" (intrinsic motivation) leads to mastery goals, enhanced focus, and
therefore enhanced performance.
Macro-level
goals
This is goal
setting applied to the company as a whole. Cooperative goals reduce the negative
feelings that occur as a result of alliances and the formation of groups. The
most common parties involved are the company and its suppliers. The three
motivators for macro-level goals are: self-efficacy, growth goals, and
organizational vision
Goals and
subconscious priming
The effects
of subconscious priming and conscious goals are independent, although a
conscious goal has a larger effect. The interaction effect is that priming can
enhance the effects of difficult goals, but it has no effect on easy goals.
There is also the situation in which priming and conscious goals conflict with
one another, and in this situation the conscious goals have a greater effect on
performance.
setting involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and
time-targeted (S.M.A.R.T ) goals. Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests
that an effective tool for making progress is to ensure that participants in a
group with a common goal are clearly aware of what is expected from them. On a
personal level, setting goals helps people work towards their own
objectives—most commonly with financial or career-based goals. Goal setting
features as a major component of personal development
literature.
It
is considered an “open” theory, so as new discoveries are made it is modified.
Studies have shown that specific and ambitious goals lead to a higher level of
performance than easy or general goals. As long as the individual accepts the
goal, has the ability to attain it, and does not have conflicting goals, there
is a positive linear relationship between goal difficulty and task
performance.
Goals
are a form of motivation that sets the standard for self-satisfaction with
performance. Achieving the goal one has set for oneself is a measure of success,
and being able to meet job challenges is a way one measures success in the
workplace. It has been said that "Goal setting capitalizes on the human brain's
amazing powers: Our brains are problem-solving, goal-achieving
machines."
History
The first
empirical studies were performed by Cecil Alec Mace in
1935.
Edwin A.
Locke began to examine goal setting in the mid-1960s and continued researching
goal setting for thirty years. Locke derived the idea for goal-setting from
Aristotle’s form of final causality. Aristotle speculated that purpose can cause
action; thus, Locke began researching the impact goals have on individual
activity of its time performance.
Goal setting
theory was developed and refined by Edwin A. Locke in the 1960s. His first
article on goal setting theory was “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and
Incentives” which was published in 1968. This article laid the foundation for
goal setting theory and established the positive relationship between clearly
identified goals and performance.
Concept
Goals that
are deemed difficult to achieve and specific tend to increase performance more
than goals that are not. A goal can become more specific through quantification
or enumeration (should be measurable), such as by demanding "...increase
productivity by 50%," or by defining certain tasks that must be
completed.
Setting
goals affects outcomes in four ways:
1.Choice: goals narrow attention and
direct efforts to goal-relevant activities, and away from perceived undesirable
and goal-irrelevant actions.
2.Effort: goals can lead to more effort; for
example, if one typically produces 4 widgets an hour, and has the goal of
producing 6, one may work more intensely towards the goal than one would
otherwise.
3.Persistence: someone becomes more prone to work through
setbacks if pursuing a goal.
4.Cognition: goals can lead individuals to
develop and change their behavior.
Goal setting
in business
In business,
goal setting encourages participants to put in substantial effort. Also, because
every member has defined expectations for their role, little room is left for
inadequate, marginal effort to go unnoticed.
Managers
cannot constantly drive motivation, or keep track of an employee’s work on a
continuous basis. Goals are therefore an important tool for managers, since
goals have the ability to function as a self-regulatory mechanism that helps
employees prioritize tasks. Also Locke and Latham
(2002)
The four
mechanisms through which goal setting can affect individual performance
are:
1.Goals focus attention toward goal-relevant activities and away from
goal-irrelevant activities.
2.Goals serve as an energizer: Higher goals
induce greater effort, while low goals induce lesser effort.
3.Goals affect
persistence; constraints with regard to resources affect work pace.
4.Goals
activate cognitive knowledge and strategies that help employees cope with the
situation at hand.
Goal
commitment
People
perform better when they are committed to achieving certain goals. Through an
understanding of the effect of goal setting on individual performance,
organizations are able to use goal setting to benefit organizational
performance. Locke and Latham have indicated three moderators that indicate goal
setting success:
1.The importance of the expected outcomes of goal
attainment, and;
2.Self-efficacy – one's belief that he is able to achieve
the goals, and;
3.Commitment to others – promises or engagements to others
can strongly improve commitment.
Goal–performance relationship
Locke et al.
(1981) examined the behavioral effects of goal-setting, concluding that 90% of
laboratory and field studies involving specific and challenging goals led to
higher performance than did easy or no goals.
While some
managers believe it is sufficient to urge employees to ‘do their best,’ Locke
and Latham have a contradicting view on this. The authors state that people who
are told to ‘do their best’ don't. ‘Doing your best’ has no external referent,
which makes it useless in eliciting specific behavior. To elicit some specific
form of behavior from others, it is important that this person has a clear view
of what is expected from him/her. A goal is thereby of vital importance because
it facilitates an individual in focusing their efforts in a specified direction.
In other words, goals canalize behavior (Cummings & Worley p. 368). However,
when goals are established at a management level and thereafter solely
promulgated from the top, employee motivation with regard to achieving these
goals is rather suppressed (Locke & Latham, 2002 p. 705). To increase
motivation, employees not only must be allowed to participate in the goal
setting process, but the goals must be challenging as well. (Cummings &
Worley p. 369)
Goal setting
and feedback
Without
proper feedback channels it is impossible for employees to adapt or adjust to
the required behavior. Keep track of performance to allow employees to see how
effective they have been in attaining their goals. Goal setting and feedback go
hand in hand. Without feedback, goal setting is unlikely to work. Providing
feedback on short-term objectives helps to sustain motivation and commitment to
a goal. Feedback should be provided on the strategies followed to achieve the
goals and the final outcomes achieved, as well. Feedback on strategies used to
obtain goals is very important, especially for complex work, because challenging
goals put focus on outcomes rather than on performance strategies, so they
impair performance. Properly-delivered feedback is also very essential, and the
following hints may help for providing a good feedback:
Create a positive
context for feedback.
Use constructive and positive language.
Focus on
behaviors and strategies.
Tailor feedback to the needs of the individual
worker.
Make feedback a two-way communication
process.
Advances in
technology can facilitate providing feedback. Systems analysts have designed
computer programs that track goals for numerous members of an organization. Such
computer systems may maintain every employee’s goals, as well as their
deadlines. Separate methods may check the employee’s progress on a regular
basis, and other systems may require perceived slackers to explain how they
intend to improve.
More
difficult goals require more cognitive strategies and well-developed skills. The
more difficult the tasks, the smaller the group of people who possess the
necessary skills and strategies. From an organizational perspective, it is
thereby more difficult to successfully attain more difficult goals, since
resources become more scarce.
Honing goal
setting using Temporal Motivation Theory
Locke and
Latham (2004) note that goal setting theory lacks "the issue of time
perspective". Taking this into consideration, Steel and Konig (2006) utilize
their Temporal Motivation Theory (TMT) to account for goal setting's effects,
and suggest new hypotheses regarding a pair of its moderators: goal difficulty
and proximity. The effectiveness of goal setting can be explained by two aspects
of TMT: the principle of diminishing returns and temporal discounting. Similar
to the expression "the sum of the parts can be greater than the whole", a
division of a project into several, immediate, subgoals appears to take
advantage of these two elements.
Employee
motivation
See also:
job satisfaction and motivation
The more
employees are motivated, the more they are stimulated and interested in
accepting goals. These success factors are interdependent. For example, the
expected outcomes of goals are positively influenced when employees are involved
in the goal setting process. Not only does participation increase commitment in
attaining the goals that are set, participation influences self-efficacy as
well. Additionally, feedback is necessary to monitor one's progress. When
feedback is not present, an employee might think (s)he is not making enough
progress. This can reduce self-efficacy and thereby harm the performance
outcomes in the long run.
Goal-commitment, the most influential moderator,
becomes especially important when dealing with difficult or complex goals. If
people lack commitment to goals, they lack motivation to reach them. To commit
to a goal, one must believe in its importance or
significance.
Attainability: individuals must also believe that they can
attain — or at least partially reach — a defined goal. If they think no chance
exists of reaching a goal, they may not even try.
Self-efficacy: the higher
someone’s self-efficacy regarding a certain task, the more likely they will set
higher goals, and the more persistence they will show in achieving
them.
Limitations
Goal-setting
theory has limitations. In an organization, a goal of a manager may not align
with the goals of the organization as a whole. In such cases, the goals of an
individual may come into direct conflict with the employing organization.
Without aligning goals between the organization and the individual, performance
may suffer.
For complex
tasks, goal-setting may actually impair performance. In these situations, an
individual may become preoccupied with meeting the goals, rather than performing
tasks.
Some
evidence suggests that goal-setting can foster unethical behavior when people do
not achieve specified goals.
Some people
feel that goal setting may have the drawback of inhibiting implicit learning:
goal setting may encourage simple focus on an outcome without openness to
exploration, understanding, or growth.
Developments
in goal-setting theory
Goal
choice
Self-efficacy, past performance and various other social
factors influence goal setting. Failure to meet previous goals often leads to
setting lower (and more likely achievable) goals.
Learning
goals
There are
times when having specific goals is not a best option; this is the case when the
goal requires new skills or knowledge. “Tunnel vision” is a consequence of
specific goals; if one is too focused on attaining a specific goal they ignore
the need to learn new skills or acquire new information. In situations like
this, the best option is to set a learning goal. A learning goal is a
generalized goal to achieve knowledge in a certain topic or field, but it can
ultimately lead to better performance in specific goals related to the learning
goals. Locke and Latham attribute this response to metacognition. They believe
that “a learning goal facilitates or enhances metacognition—namely, planning,
monitoring, and evaluating progress toward goal attainment". This is necessary
in environments with little or no guidance and structure. Although jobs
typically have set goals, individual goals and achievement can benefit from
metacognition.
Framing
How goals
are viewed influences performance. When one feels threatened and or intimidated
by a high goal they perform poorer than those who view the goal as a challenge.
The framing of a goal as a gain or a loss influences one’s eventual
performance.
Affect
Realization
of goals has an effect on feelings of success and satisfaction. Achieving goals
has a positive effect, and failing to meet goals has negative consequences.
However, the affect of goals is not exclusive to one realm. Success in one’s job
can compensate for feelings of failure in one’s personal
life.
Group goals
The
relationship between group goals and individual goals influences group
performance; when goals are compatible there is a positive effect, but when
goals are incompatible the effects can be detrimental to the group’s
performance. There is another factor at work in groups, and that is the sharing
factor; a positive correlation exists between sharing information within the
group and group performance. In the case of group goals, feedback needs to be
related to the group, not individuals, in order for it to improve the group’s
performance.
Goals and
traits
On a basic
level the two types of goals are learning goals and performance goals. Each
possesses different traits associated with the kind of goal that is
selected.
1.) Learning
goals
• Tasks
where skills and knowledge can be acquired
2.)
Performance goals
• Avoid
tasks where error and judgment are possible
• Select
tasks that are easy to accomplish and will make one appear
successful
A more
complex trait-mediation study is the one conducted by Lee, Sheldon, and Turban,
which yielded the following results:
"Amotivated
orientation" (low confidence in one’s capabilities) is associated with
goal-avoidance motivation, and more generally, associated with lower goals
levels and lower performance.
"Control
orientation" (extrinsic motivation) is associated with both avoidance and
approach goals. Approach goals are associated with higher goal levels and higher
performance.
"Autonomy
goals" (intrinsic motivation) leads to mastery goals, enhanced focus, and
therefore enhanced performance.
Macro-level
goals
This is goal
setting applied to the company as a whole. Cooperative goals reduce the negative
feelings that occur as a result of alliances and the formation of groups. The
most common parties involved are the company and its suppliers. The three
motivators for macro-level goals are: self-efficacy, growth goals, and
organizational vision
Goals and
subconscious priming
The effects
of subconscious priming and conscious goals are independent, although a
conscious goal has a larger effect. The interaction effect is that priming can
enhance the effects of difficult goals, but it has no effect on easy goals.
There is also the situation in which priming and conscious goals conflict with
one another, and in this situation the conscious goals have a greater effect on
performance.
