New Developments in Goal Setting and Task Performance by Edwin A. Locke & Gary P. Latham

New Developments in Goal Setting and Task Performance by Edwin A. Locke & Gary P. Latham

Author:Edwin A. Locke & Gary P. Latham
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Industrial & Organizational Psychology, Human Resources & Personnel Management, Psychology, Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781136180958
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-01-03T06:50:34+00:00


Situationally Specific Goal Contexts

Macro goal setting research emphasizes the importance of carefully considering the specific context surrounding the use of goals in organizations. In this chapter section, we discuss recent empirical research on macro goal setting during organizational unit closedown (Häsänen, Hellgren, & Hansson, 2011) and in entrepreneurial venture growth (Baum & Locke, 2004; Baum, Locke, & Smith, 2001).

Unit Closedown. Häsänen et al. (2011, p. 137) examined the “effects of goal setting on job performance, goal commitment, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behaviour and perceived job-induced tension, during the process of a plant closure ... of a large medical manufacturing company located in an urban environment in Sweden.” They found, somewhat surprisingly, that the work motivation of employees actually increased during the closure. For this chapter, we focus on the macro-level dimensions of goal setting in their study, and we do not discuss their examination of micro-level behaviors and psychology.

Häsänen et al. (2011) argue that macro goal setting established in an ongoing organization must adapt to the announcement of a unit’s closedown in order to continue to motivate employee performance. Adaptation to the closedown context is important because specific goals set before the closedown announcement may become obsolete after the announcement. Also, important processes established ex ante to administer performance feedback and rewards for goal achievement will lose motivational power if grounded in time horizons that exceed the expected life of the organizational unit to be closed. To continue to be effective, macro goal setting within the closing unit must manage risks including higher uncertainty introduced by organizational change, lower employee goal commitment because of imminent job loss, less time horizon for learning toward task improvement, and goal conflict between the closing unit and the ongoing organization.

Häsänen et al. (2011) argue that macro goal setting techniques that adapt to the closedown context can improve goal commitment, task learning, and performance outcomes. Accordingly, they hypothesize that outcomes will be higher if goals for a unit going through closedown are more short-term, if supervisors’ appraisals of unit employees include evaluations of performance on short-term goals and tangible rewards for achieving these goals, if unit employees understand more of the rationale how their goal performance affects their performance evaluation, if unit goal conflicts are reduced, and if decision making in the unit is more participatory.

To test their hypotheses, Häsänen et al. (2011) conducted a goal setting intervention in a plant going through a 29 month closedown period (from announcement to closure). At the beginning of the intervention, plant employees were given goals for work-related behaviors and tasks; each employee received performance feedback on goals midway through the closedown period; and managers rated employees’ goal attainment at the end of the period. In addition, Häsänen et al. (2011) surveyed all 450 plant employees and analyzed responses from 136 employees who each completed two rounds of surveys, the first eight months after announcement of the plant closure and the second survey one year after the first. Their results did not show significant improvement in managers’ ratings



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