Suchergebnisse

This book concentrates on the last twenty years of research in the area of goal setting and performance at work. The editors and contributors believe goals affect action, and this volume will have a lineup of international contributors who look at the recent theories and implications in this area for IO psychologists and human resource management academics and graduate students.

Abstract. Goal setting is an "open" theory built on inductive findings from empirical research. The present paper briefly summarizes this theory. Emphasis is then given to findings that have been obtained in the present millennium with regard to (1) the high performance cycle, (2) the role of goals as mediators of personality effects on performance, (3) personality variables as moderators of goal effects on performance, the effect of (4) distal, (5) proximal, and (6) learning goals on performance on tasks that are complex for people, (7) the ways in which priming affects the impact of a goal, (8) the interrelationship between goal setting and affect, and (9) the results of goal setting by teams. Potential directions for research on goal setting in the workplace are suggested with regard to goal abandonment, perfectionism, an employee's age, subconscious goals, and the relationship between goals and knowledge.

The effect of learning versus outcome goals on performance quality on a simple versus a complex scheduling task was examined using business school students as participants (n = 114). On a simple task an outcome goal led to significantly more correct schedules being produced than urging people to do their best. On a complex task, assigning a learning goal led to performance that was significantly higher than either an assigned outcome goal or being urged to do one's best. Self-efficacy was significantly higher in the learning goal condition than it was in the do-best condition. Moreover, the number of effective task strategies used on a complex task was significantly higher in the learning goal condition than it was in the other two conditions. These findings suggest that when attempting new complex processes, such as acquiring new businesses, organizations should set specific difficult learning as opposed to performance outcome goals.