What you will learn today
Reading/Lecture
Latham
Role Play
Goal Setting as supervisor vs. for
self
State Bank of Vermont
Probationary officer
To learn how to set effective goals, you
need to know
• Why do goals improve performance
– Personal examples
• What makes goals more effective in improving
performance
– Personal examples, research studies
Why do goals improve performance
Focus attention on behaviors that will attain goal
Increase how hard one works on task
Goals
Lengthen time spent on task
Improved
Task
Performance
Promote use/discovery of
knowledge needed to do task
e.g., graduate school, glucose intolerance
What makes goals more effective in improving
Performance?
Specificity & Difficulty of Goal
Goals
Knowledge to attain goal
Feedback on progress toward
goal
Commitment to goal
Situational Conditions
Improved
Performance
Goals
Specificity &
Difficulty of Goal
Improved
Performance
Evidence for how Goal Specificity
& Difficulty Improves Performance
• Unskilled, uneducated loggers paid at piece
rate were randomly assigned to one of two
groups
Type of Goal Setting
Performance
Specific & Difficult Goal
“Do your best” Goal
High
Low
Review of B23
Why do specific & difficult goals result in better
performance than ‘do your best’ goals?
Do your best
goals
Specific &
Difficult
Goals
•No external standard for
Performance
•Performance defined
individually
Clear performance standard
Low
Performance
Hi Performance
What makes goals more effective in improving
Performance?
Specificity & Difficulty of Goal
Goals
Knowledge to attain goal
Feedback on progress toward
goal
Commitment to goal
Situational Conditions
Improved
Performance
Knowledge to attain goal
Goals
Improved
Performance
Knowledge to attain goals can be increased via..
Set Learning Goals
Goals
Knowledge to
attain goal
Provide Training
Improved
Performance
Learning vs. Performance Goals
– Learning goals = learn to network; master specific
subject matter
– Performance goals= attain specific GPA at end of
semester
Evidence on Learning Goals  Performance
Type of Goals
GPA of MBA
students
Learning Goals
Performance Goals
High
Low
– Learning goals = learn to network; master specific
subject matter
– Performance goals= attain specific GPA at end of
semester
(cited in Latham & Locke, 2006)
Why do learning goals  Performance
• Learning goals
– facilitate planning,
– focus on understanding the task,
– monitoring & evaluating progress toward goal
attainment
– Such behaviors are especially needed in
unstructured environments
(cited in Latham & Locke, 2006)
Why do learning goals, training improve
performance?
Learning Goals
Training
Focus attention on
understanding task
and doing it
effectively
Goals
Increase knowledge
on how to do task
Improved
Performance
What makes goals more effective in improving
Performance?
Specificity & Difficulty of Goal
Goals
Knowledge to attain goal
Feedback on progress toward
goal
Commitment to goal
Situational Conditions
Improved
Performance
Knowledge to attain goals can be increased via..
Sub Goals
Goals
Feedback on
progress toward goals
Improved
Performance
Why do sub goals improve performance?
Sub Goals
Provides immediate
feedback on whether
Behavior is
consistent with goals
Goals
Improved
Performance
What makes goals more effective in improving
Performance?
Specificity & Difficulty of Goal
Goals
Knowledge to attain goal
Feedback on progress toward
goal
Commitment to goal
Situational Conditions
Improved
Performance
How can you increase commitment toward goals
Making goal public
Assigning goals that
implicitly convey
Confidence in performer
Making goals important
By rewarding their
achievement
Increased
Commitment
Evidence on how rewards  commitment
Type of Reward
Money =
Praise > Public Recognition
Why do rewards affect commitment?
Money/Praise
Goal
importance
Goal
Commitment
How will you increase your
commitment to goals?
Goals
Situational Conditions
Improved
Performance
Evidence demonstrating how….
Goals
Situational Conditions
Improved Performance
• High Role overload=having excess work
without resources to accomplish task
• Goals positively affect performance only when
overload was low
(cited in Latham & Locke, 2006)
What you learned today
• Why goals improve performance
–
–
–
–
Focus attention
Promote use of knowledge
Increase amt of time on task
Increase amt of effort on task
• What makes goals more effective in improving
performance
–
–
–
–
–
Commitment to goals
Knowledge of how to attain goals
Feedback on progress toward goals
Specificity & difficulty of goals
Situational constraints
Debriefing Questions
• In your role play, how did you …
– make your goals specific and difficult?
– increase knowledge to accomplish goals?
• Set training goals, set sub-goals, enable feedback
toward progress
– Increase commitment to goals
– overcome situational obstacles
Debriefing Questions
– Does goal setting emphasize short-term results at the
expense of long-term effectiveness?
– How does goal setting deal with employees who have
multiple goals, some of which are conflicting?
– What barriers in an organization can you identify that
might limit the effectiveness of a goal-setting program?
How can these barriers be overcome?
Debriefing Questions
• How easy/difficult was this –
• On which of the key learning behaviours relevant
to goal-setting skills were you best? Weakest?
How would you improve these skills?
• Overall performance standard / objective, vs. goals
to help employees achieve the standard?
• Goal setting vs. micro managing