Suchergebnisse

Many academics, consultants, and managers advocate stretch goals to attain superior organizational performance. However, existing theory speculates that, although stretch goals may benefit some organizations, they are not a "rule for riches" for all organizations. To address this speculation, we use two experimental studies to explore the effects on the mean, median, variance, and skewness of performance of stretch compared with moderate goals. Participants were assigned moderate or stretch goals to manage a widely used business simulation. Compared with moderate goals, stretch goals improve performance for a few participants, but many abandon the stretch goals in favor of lower self-set goals, or adopt a survival goal when faced with the threat of bankruptcy. Consequently, stretch goals generate higher performance variance across organizations and a right-skewed performance distribution. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we find no positive stretch goal main effect on performance. Instead, stretch goals compared with moderate goals generate large attainment discrepancies that increase willingness to take risks, undermine goal commitment, and generate lower risk-adjusted performance. The results provide a richer theoretical and empirical appreciation of how stretch goals influence performance. The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1131 .

Responding to the weak evidence for moderating effects of growth need strength on the growth satisfaction/job enrichment relationship, Bottger and Chew (1986) argue that capacity rather than need for growth should be studied. They show that "assimilation of work experience" (A WE), a measure of the individual's affective responses to work performance variations, does explain variance in growth satisfaction independent of job scope and context satisfactions. Here we investigate aspects of the internal and construct validities of this finding. We show that the A WE effect on growth satisfaction is independent of role ambiguity and leader behavior. Also, whereas A WE explains variance in growth satisfaction, it has a random effect on satisfaction with supervision. The sample is 487 sales representatives. Moderated regression analysis is the primary analytical method.