Preview

Goal-Setting Theory of Motivation

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2096 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Goal-Setting Theory of Motivation
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, BUSINESS, AND ADMINISTRATION VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1, 2011

Goal-Setting Theory of Motivation
Fred C. Lunenburg
Sam Houston State University

ABSTRACT Locke and Latham provide a well-developed goal-setting theory of motivation. The theory emphasizes the important relationship between goals and performance. Research supports predictions that the most effective performance seems to result when goals are specific and challenging, when they are used to evaluate performance and linked to feedback on results, and create commitment and acceptance. The motivational impact of goals may be affected by moderators such as ability and self-efficacy. Deadlines improve the effectiveness of goals. A learning goal orientation leads to higher performance than a performance goal orientation, and group goal-setting is as important as individual goalsetting.

Goals have a pervasive influence on employee behavior and performance in organizations and management practice (Locke & Latham, 2002). Nearly every modern organization has some form of goal setting in operation. Programs such as management by objectives (MBO), high-performance work practices (HPWPs), management information systems (MIS), benchmarking, stretch targets, as well as systems thinking and strategic planning, include the development of specific goals. Furthermore, goal setting is the underlying explanation for all major theories of work motivation—whether that be Vroom’s (1994) VIE theory, Maslow’s (1970) or Herzberg’s (2009) motivation theories, Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory, or operant-based behaviorism (Skinner, 1979). Managers widely accept goal setting as a means to improve and sustain performance (DuBrin, 2012). Based on hundreds of studies, the major finding of goal setting is that individuals who are provided with specific, difficult but attainable goals perform better than those given easy, nonspecific, or no goals at all. At the same time, however, the



References: Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman. Button, S., Mathieu, J., & Zajac, D. (1995). Goal orientation in organizational behavior research. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 67, 26-48. DuBrin, A. J. (2012). Essentials of management. Mason, OH: Cengage South-Western. Greenberg, J. (2011). Behavior in organizations (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Herzberg, F. (2009). One more time: How do you motivate employees? Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Kristof-Brown, A. L., & Stevens, C. K. (2001). Goal congruence in project teams: Does the fit between members’ personal mastery and performance goals matter? Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(6), 1083-1095. Latham, G. P. (2003). Goal setting: A five-step approach to behavior change. Organizational Dynamics, 32(3), 309-318. Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (1990). A theory of goal setting and task performance. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, BUSINESS, AND ADMINISTRATION 6_____________________________________________________________________________________ Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717. Luthans, F. (2011). Organizational behavior (12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personality (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: AddisonWesley. Newstrom, J. W. (2011). Organizational behavior (13th ed.). New York, NY: McGrawHill. Skinner, B. F. (1979). The shaping of a behaviorist. New York, NY: Knopf. Van Yperen, N. W., & Janssen, O. (2002). Fatigued and dissatisfied or fatigued but satisfied? Goal orientations and responses to high job demands. Academy of Management Journal, 45(6), 1161-1171. VandeWalle, D. (2001). Goal orientation: Why wanting to look successful doesn’t always lead to success. Organizational Dynamics, 30(2), 162-171. VandeWalle, D., Brown, S., Cron, W., & Slocum, J. (1999). The influence of goal orientation and self-regulation tactics on sales performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 249-259. VandeWalle, D., Cron, W. L., & Slocum, J. W. (2001). The role of goal orientation following performance feedback. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(4), 629-640. Vroom, V. H. (1994). Work and motivation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Goal setting is a technique that is used by athletes, business people and top achievers in all aspects of life. Psychological research shows that those who set personal goals achieve more, demonstrate improved performance, have less stress and possess positive attitudes. In the business environment there must be a blending of the goals of each individual and those of the organization. People have a desire to be successful and so do organizations. The goals determine the results. When we define our personal goals we are setting a personal standard that will improve the overall effectiveness of the team. Organizations need to help their people define their personal goals. They can then help them interpret the relationship between these personal goals and the organization's goals. "As important as individual growth is, no one person can be responsible for total success in the business world. Personal involvement begins with team dynamics." (Making Success a Shared Responsibility, Security Management; Mar94)…

    • 588 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The path-goal model of motivation refers to the works of Robert J House in 1971 and later revised in 1996. House theorized that leaders are directly responsible for motivating their subordinates, and ideally could motivate them towards achieving personal goals and ultimately the goals of the organisation. Motivation refers to the “cognitive decision-making process through which goal directed behaviour is initiated energized, directed and maintained.” (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2007) Robbins goes on to describe motivation as the “processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort towards attaining a goal.” (2010) Many have theorized about motivation because of positive correlations between employee motivation and productivity. This essay sets out to identify the value of the path goal model in practical terms and how the Path goal model supplements the limitations of other motivational theories.…

    • 2668 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Business owners will often set individual goals to motivate employees and reach company objectives. Goals that are hard to reach are often more intriguing, as more work is required to fulfill them. Edwin A. Locke introduced the theoretical approach to setting goals and building motivation, which can be directly applied to a professional setting. In fact, this type of goal-setting theory is one of the more useful motivational theories used in industrial and organizational psychology and management.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Theories of Motivation

    • 3842 Words
    • 16 Pages

    Nearly all the conscious behavior of human being is motivated. The internal needs and drives lead to tensions, which in turn result into actions. The need for food results into hunger and hence a person is motivated to eat.…

    • 3842 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Goals and Performance of Global Firms task engagement.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, (1993) 65, 18-31. Button, S. B., Mathieu, J. E., & Zajac, D. M. (1996). “Goal orientation research: A conceptual and empirical foundation.” Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, (1996) 67, 26-48. Coprazano, R., James, K., & Citera, M. (1993). “A goal hierarchy model of personality, motivation, and leadership.” Research in Organizational Behavior, (1993)15, 267-322. Deci, E. L. (1975). Intrinsic motivation. New York: Plenum, 1975. Dweck, C. S. “Motivational Processes affecting learning.” American Psychologist, (1986) 41, 1040-1048. Dweck, C. S. (1989). “Motivation.” In A. Lesgold & R. Glaser (Eds.) Foundations for a Psychology of Education. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1989. Dweck, C.S. & Elliott, E.S. “Achievement motivation.” In P. Mussen (Gen. Ed.), E.M. Hetherington (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 4), New York: Wiley, 1983. Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. “A social cognitive approach to motivation and personality.” Psychological Review, (1988) 95, 256-273. Elliott, E. S. & Dweck, C. S. “Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, (1988) 54, 5-12. Kanfer, R. “Task-specific motivation: An integrative approach to issues of measurement, mechanisms, processes, and determinants.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, (1988) 5, 237-264. Kanfer, R. “Motivation theory in industrial and organizational psychology.” In H. C. Triandis, M. D. Dunette, & L. M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, vol 2, (2nd. Ed): 75-124, 1990. Kirkman, B. L. and Shapiro, D. L. “The impact of cultural values on employee resistance to teams: Toward a model of globalized self-managing work team effectiveness.” Academy of Management Review, 22, 730-757, 1997.…

    • 4926 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Job Fair Broshure

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I decided to use the goal setting theory to motivate the employees in my hypothetical company. Work goals are helping employees to perform their duties with better motivation than just collecting pay checks. Goal setting theory suggests that there are five properties, such as specific, challenge, measurable, results oriented, and timeframe for…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Managers in any organization must set goals to achieve the organization 's mission. They can define goals as a desirable objective that is to be achieved. There are two reasons or purposes to use goals in the workplace: (1) goals are useful in framing and managing motivation, (2) goals can be an effective control device. Robbins states, "That specific goals lead to increased performance and that difficult goals, when accepted, result in higher performance than easy goals." (Organizational Behavior, 2001).…

    • 1826 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Reflective Work

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Goal setting theory talks about setting objectives and motivating employees to achieve them. As organizational and individual objects are similar, achieving objectives lead to satisfaction and productivity.…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Motivation and subsequent actions are influenced by conscious performance goals in an organizational or work-related environment.…

    • 1205 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bus 610

    • 1138 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Every organization no matter how large or small has goals they wish to meet. Each organization will have changes in its future and has to have certain set goals and objectives in place to help map out their course of action that will lead to their desired end result (Martin, 2009). In order for a company to successfully meet their final goal it is important for them to continually motivate their employees. According to Organizational Behavior by David Baack, motivation is what starts, maintains and stops behavior (Baack, 2012). Organizations each have their own way to set goals and motivate their employees to reach those goals.…

    • 1138 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Personality Theories

    • 1796 Words
    • 8 Pages

    References: Austina, J.T & Klein, H.J. (1996). Work motivation and goal striving. In K.R.Murphy (Ed), Individual differences and behaviour in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.…

    • 1796 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Motivation is one the various branches of a much wider applied science, that is, Organization Behavior. Therefore, before any further progress is made towards understanding Motivation and its application, a brief introduction to Organizational Behavior would be in place.…

    • 4715 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the goal setting model (Hellrigel & Slocum, 2011, p. 194), it emphasizes the challenges provided for the individual: goal difficulty, goal clarity, and self-efficacy. Setting difficult but clear and achievable goals, for individuals who believe that they have the ability to complete their tasks, leads to high performance. Four moderators-ability, goal commitment, feedback, and task complexity-influence the strength of the relationship between challenging goals and performance. If the individual has the ability, is committed to the goal, and is given feedback on progress toward achievement of the goal-and if the task is complex-high performance will result. All four moderators must be present to motivate an employee to achieve goals. Four mediators-direction, effort, persistence, and task strategy-facilitate goal attainment. These four characteristics channel or focus the employee’s motivational efforts. Performance, rewards, satisfaction, and consequences complete the model.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lunenburg, F C., (2011). Goal-Setting Theory of Motivation, International Journal of Management, Business and Administration, Vol 15 No. 1.…

    • 6594 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Locke, E. A., & Latham, G.P. (1990). A theory of goal setting and task performance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.…

    • 3913 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays