Goal-setting Theory

Goal-setting theory has become one of the most popular theories in organizational psychology.

History
Edwin A. Locke began to examine this idea 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 performance.

Concept
For goals to increase performance, one must define them as difficult to achieve and as specific. Easily-attained goals tend to correlate with lower performance than more difficult goals. A vague goal does not seem likely to enhance performance. A goal can become more specific through quantification or enumeration (specifying a certain number or a list), such as by demanding "increasing productivity by 50%"; or by defining certain tasks that need completing.

Goal-performance relationship
Goals can affect performance in three ways:


 * 1) goals narrow attention and direct efforts to goal-relevant activities, and away from perceived undesirable and goal-irrelevant actions
 * 2) 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 than one would otherwise in order to reach the goal
 * 3) goals influence persistence.  One becomes more prone to work through setbacks or to work harder if pursuing a goal.

There are 4 factors affecting the goal-directed efforts. Goal difficulty is the level of difficulty to achieve the goal. Goal Commitment is the extent to which a person is interested to reach the goal. Goal specificity means the goal should be relatively clarity and precision to the target. Goal acceptance is the extent to which a person adopts a goal as his or her own.

Moderators
Various moderators can affect the relationship between goals and performance:


 * goal-commitment, the most influential moderator, becomes especially important when dealing with difficult or complex goals.  If people lack commitment to goals, they will lack motivation to reach them.  In order to become committed 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.

Feedback
The enhancement of performance through goals requires feedback. Goal-setting may have little effect if individuals cannot check where the state of their performance in relation to their goal. Note the importance of people knowing where they stand in relation to achieving their goals, so they can determine the desirability of working harder or of changing their methods.

Advances in technology can make for giving feedback more effectively. Systems analysts have designed computer programs to track goals for numerous members of an organization. Such computer systems may maintains every employee’s goals, as well as their deadlines for achieving them. Separate methods may check the employee’s progress on a regular basis, and other systems may require perceived slackers to explain themselves, and/or account for how they intend to improve the perception.

Limitations
Goal-setting theory has its 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. Moreover, for complex tasks, goal-setting may actual impair performance. In these situations, an individual may become preoccupied with meeting the goals, rather than performing tasks.