GOAL SETTING

Motivating people through goal setting

Organizational Psychology
Lecture 6
 Edwin Locke’s theory of goal setting
• 1968 “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives”
• Employees are motivated by clear goals and appropriate feedback
• Working toward a goal is motivating throughout a process and helps to actually
reach a goal, which in turn improves performance
• Locke’s research: specific and difficult goals lead to better task performance than
vague or easy goals
• “try hard” vs “try to get more than 80% correct”
• Easy goals are not motivating; feeling of accomplishment comes from hard work
 Edwin Locke and Garry Latham’s Theory
of Goal Setting and Task Performance

Five principles of goal setting

In order to motivate others, goals must have:
1. Clarity
2. Challenge
3. Commitment
4. Feedback
5. Task complexity
 CLARITY
goals need to be specific

1. Clear goals can be measured and are distinct and understandable

2. It is clear what behaviors will be rewarded
3. You know what to expect
4. Vague or general instructions like “take initiative” have lesser
motivational value
5. “try to correct employees mistakes” – “after each Monday morning
meeting speak with employees about their mistakes”
 CHALLENGE
goals must be difficult but attainable

1. Level of challenge – important characteristic of a goal

2. If a goal has significance, if it’s accomplishment brings achievement –
such goal is motivating to be reached
3. Well and adequately rewarded, significant goals boost the enthusiasm
and a drive to get them accomplished
4. Easy, viewed as unimportant, goals reduce the effort and commitment
of an employee
5. Challenging goals have to be realistic!!! Achievable and attainable
 COMMITMENT
goals must be accepted
1. Goals shall be understood and agreed upon – employees must have an
opportunity to be part of creating the goal
2. Participative management: make effort to encourage employees to
participate in organizational goal setting as well as own goals
3. Agreed goals lead to commitment
4. Goals shall be consistent with company’s organizational mission, vision and
purpose
5. Person assigning the goal should be credible
6. Goal commitment and difficulty of a goal often come hand in hand: the
harder the goal the more commitment is needed
 FEEDBACK
must be provided on goal attainment
• Feedback - information of important value to an employee:
• provides clarification of expectations,
• adjusts goal’s difficulty,
• provides recognition – employees basically get to know how they are doing
• Feedback can be understood as progress reports; they measure specific
success throughout the process of accomplishing a goal
• Linking feedback to smaller chunks (intermediate milestones) is an
important measure of success
• Formal feedback should be provided at the right time
 TASK COMPLEXITY

• For highly complex tasks it has to be ensured that the work cannot be
overwhelming
• Sufficient time has to be given for complex tasks
• Sufficient time has to be given to learn and improve performance
• Sufficient time has to be given for practicing what is important for
performance
• Goals must be attainable (SMART)
 Goal setting follow simple rules
• Goal setting means facilitating success
• People shall not be frustrated by goals which are too easy or too difficult
• Goal setting is necessary for success
• Set clear, challenging goals, encourage commitment and provide timely
feedback either on milestones (if the goal achieving as a lengthy process) or
after the goal is accomplished
 Set SMART goals

• S – Specific (or Significant)

• M – Measurable (or Meaningful)
• A – Attainable (or Action-Oriented)
• R – Relevant (or Rewarding)
• T – Time-bound (Trackable)
 Starting to set your personal goals

1. Create big picture: identify large scale goals (in a perspective of

10 years)
2. Break them down to smaller targets to be reached before
hitting the large scale goal
3. Once the plan is set start working on it and record your progress
4. Reward yourself for achieving milestones
 Glossary

• Goal – is the aim of an action or task that a person consciously desires to

achieve or obtain
• Goal setting – conscious effort to establish such performance as to obtain
desirable outcomes
• Goal setting theory states that a source of motivation is the desire and
intention to reach a goal. So setting goals can be very effective in increasing
motivation