Goal Settings

A Review of Research
on the Application of
Goal aspect in Organizations^
GARY P. LATHAM
Weyerhaeuser Company
GARY A. YUKL
Banich College
City University of New York
Research on determination setting in organizations is reviewed
in order to evaluate Lockes scheme of goal setting and to
determine the practical feasibility of this technique for
increasing employee motivation and performance. An
attempt is made to identify bound conditions, moderator
variables, and promising directions for future research.
Lockes (36) possibleness of goal setting deals with the kinship between
conscious goals or intentions and task performance. The basic premise of
the theory is that an individuals conscious intentions regulate his actions.
A goal is defined scarce as what the individual is consciously trying to do.
According to the theory, badly goals result in a higher level of performance
than do easy goals, and specific hard goals result in a higher level of performance than do no goals or a generalized goal of do your best. In addition, the theory states that a persons goals mediate how performance is
affected by financial incentives, time limits, seeledge of results (i.e., performance feedback), participation in conclusiveness making, and competition.
Goals that are assigned to a person (e.g.



, by a supervisor) have an effect on
behavior only to the degree that they are consciously accepted by the person.
Thus, Locke states, It is not enough to cheat that an order or request was
made; one has to know whether or not the individual heard it and understood it, how he appraised it, and what he decided to do about it before its
effect on his behavior can be predicted and explained (36, p. 174).
Gary P. Latham (Ph.D.â€"University of Akron) is Manager and lag Psychologist of
Human Resource Research in the Weyerhaeuser Company, Tacoma, Washington.
Gary A. Yukl (Ph.D.â€"University of California, Berkeley) is Associate prof of Management, Baruch College, City...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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