Goal Analysis by Robert F. Mager

Author:Robert F. Mager
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Goal (Psychology), Motivation (Psychology)

7. A Complete Example

To some people, examples don't examp unless they are set within their own

circumstances. This phenomenon, called the not-invented-here factor (or NIH), implies that unless a procedure was invented or developed for a particular area it couldn't possibly be useful to that area. But fuzzies are pretty much the same no matter where you find them, and I'm sure you can see that you can do the same thing about them here as well as there. The circumstances might be different, but the procedure is the same.

With that preamble, I am presenting a complete example of how the goal analysis

procedure works in practice. The example happens to come from one particular

industry; but when you see the first list of jottings, you will have to agree that it could just as well come from a setting similar to your own. To help show how the analysis progressed, each phase or major modification of the written work is presented as a stage. Please note that all five goal analysis steps are used in the example, but the example stages and procedure steps do not quite coincide.

Stage 1

The problem was posed by a department in a major telephone company. Telephone

operators, I was told, are expected not only to perform their tasks according to company practice and criteria, but also to perform these tasks with "good tone of service." Now the tasks to be performed were well described in a variety of manuals and documents, and there was fairly good agreement about how to tell whether the tasks are being

performed properly. Not so with "good tone of service." Whereas you can watch the tasks being performed, you cannot see anyone "good toning." This is an "attitude," I was told; and, though experienced operators and supervisors show some agreement in their recognition of the presence of this attitude, there was less agreement about just what

"good tone" is and how to teach it. "Good tone of service" was about as clearly understood as "enthusiasm" and "pride in work."

Twelve supervisors agreed to tackle the problem. After writing the goal, they worked in groups of two and jotted down words and phrases that would identify what an operator might do to deserve the label "good tone of service." The first round of discussion took about an hour, and the results looked like this.

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