New Developments in and Directions for Goal-Setting Research
Abstract
Abstract. Goal setting is an “open” theory built on inductive findings from empirical research. The present paper briefly summarizes this theory. Emphasis is then given to findings that have been obtained in the present millennium with regard to (1) the high performance cycle, (2) the role of goals as mediators of personality effects on performance, (3) personality variables as moderators of goal effects on performance, the effect of (4) distal, (5) proximal, and (6) learning goals on performance on tasks that are complex for people, (7) the ways in which priming affects the impact of a goal, (8) the interrelationship between goal setting and affect, and (9) the results of goal setting by teams. Potential directions for research on goal setting in the workplace are suggested with regard to goal abandonment, perfectionism, an employee's age, subconscious goals, and the relationship between goals and knowledge.
References
2000). Domain-specific knowledge as the “dark matter” of adult intelligence: gf/gc, personality, and interest correlates. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 55, 69– 84.
(1988). Recent developments in the study of personality and organizational behavior. In C.L. Cooper & I.T. Robertson (Eds.), International review of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 307-330). Oxford, UK: Wiley.
(2000). Beyond behaviorism: On the automaticity of higher mental processes. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 925– 945.
(2004). The relationship of entrepreneurial traits, skill, and motivation to subsequent venture. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 587– 598.
(2001). A multidimensional model of venture growth. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 292– 303.
(2003). Lo suiluppo delle persone nelle organizzantion: Goal setting, coaching and counseling . [Developing people in organizations]. Carocci: Roma.
(2001). Implementation intentions and efficient action initiation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 946– 960.
(2003). Goals need implementation intentions: The model of action phases tested in the applied setting of continuing education. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 12, 863– 873.
(1999). Goal orientation and goal content as predictors of performance in a training program. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 863– 873.
(2001). Regulatory focus theory: Implications for the study of emotions at work. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86, 35– 66.
(2002). Dysfunctional attitudes, perfectionism, and models of vulnerability to depression. In G.L. Flett & P.L. Hewitt (Eds), Perfectionism: Theory, research, and treatment (pp. 231-251). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
(2002). The effects of behavioral outcome goals, learning goals, and urging people to do their best on teamwork behavior in a group problem-solving task. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 34, 276– 285.
(1897). Studies in the physiology and psychology of the telegraphic language. Psychological Review, 4, 27– 53.
(2005). At the intersection of emotion and cognition. Aging and the positivity effect. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 117– 121.
(2003). Minding the mark: Effects of time and causal attributions on goal revision in response to goal performance descriptions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 379– 390.
(2002). Challenge versus threat effects on the goal-performance relationship. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 88, 667– 682.
(2000). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development (Essays in social psychology). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
(1987). Work plan availability and performance: An assessment of task strategy priming on subsequent task completion. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 39, 279– 302.
(2001). Relationship of core self-evaluations to goal setting, motivation, and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 1270– 1279.
(2005). Grand theories and midrange theories. Cultural effects on theorizing and the attempt to understand active approaches to work. In K.G. Smith & M. Hitt (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of management theory: The process of theory development (pp. 84-108). Oxford University Press.
(1994). Action as the core of work psychology: A German approach. In H.C. Triandis, M.D. Dunnette, & L. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 271-340). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.
(1988). Managerial lives in transition: Advancing age and changing times . New York: Guilford.
(2005). Goal regulation across time: The effects of feedback and affect. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 453– 467.
(1997). The dispositional causes of job satisfaction: A core self-evaluation approach. Research in Organizational Behavior, 19, 151– 188.
(1987). Task-specific motivation: An integrative approach to issues of measurement, mechanisms, processes, and determinants. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 5, 237– 264.
(1989). Motivation and cognitive abilities: An integrative/aptitude-treatment interaction approach to skill acquisition. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 657– 690.
(2004). Ageing, adult development, and work motivation. Academy of Management Review, 29, 440– 458.
(2005). Self-regulation in error management training: Emotion control and metacognition as mediators of performance effects. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 677– 691.
(1990). Role conflict and role ambiguity: A critical assessment of construct validity. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 48– 64.
(2002). Attaining personal goals: Self-concordance plus implementation intentions equals success. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 231– 244.
(2004). The motivational benefits of goal setting. Academy of Management Executive, 18, 126– 129.
(2007). Work motivation: History, theory, research, and practice . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(1975). The “practical significance” of Locke's theory of goal setting. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, 122– 124.
(2006). The effect of learning vs. outcome goals on self-efficacy and satisfaction in a MBA Program. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 55, 606– 623.
(1988). Resolving scientific disputes by the joint design of crucial experiments by the antagonists: Application of the Erez-Latham dispute regarding participation in goal setting. Journal of Applied Psychology Monograph, 73, 753– 772.
(1989). Self-management training for increasing job attendance: A follow-up and a replication. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 411– 416.
(1975). Increasing productivity with decreasing time limits: A field replication of Parkinson's law. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, 524– 526.
(2006). Enhancing the benefits and overcoming the pitfalls of goal setting. Organization Dynamics,.
(2002). The high performance cycle: Standing the test of time. In S. Sonnentag (Ed.), The psychological management of individual performance. A handbook in the psychology of management in organizations (pp. 201-228). Chichester: Wiley.
(1978). The importance of participative goal setting and anticipated rewards on goal difficulty and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 163– 171.
(2005). Work motivation theory and research at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 485– 516.
(1999). The effects of proximal and distal goals on performance on a moderately complex task. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20, 421– 429.
(2006, August). The effects of learning goal difficulty level and cognitive ability on strategy development and performance . Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Atlanta, GA.
(1982). The effects of participation and goal difficulty on performance. Personnel Psychology, 35, 677– 686.
(1975). A review of research on the application of goal setting in organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 18, 824– 845.
(1965). The relationship of task success to task liking and satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 49, 379– 385.
(1968). Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 3, 157– 189.
(2001). Self-set goals and self-efficacy as mediators of incentives and personality. In M. Erez & U. Kleinbeck (Eds.), Work motivation in the context of a globalizing economy (pp. 13-26). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
(2007, August). What happens to performance when conscious and subconscious goals are in conflict?. In G.P. Latham (Chair), Conscious and subconscious goal effects on self-efficacy and performance in single and dual tasks. Symposium presented at the Academy of Management, Philadelphia, PA.
(1969). Knowledge of score and goal level as determinants. Journal of Applied Psychology, 53, 59– 65.
(1968). Motivation effects of knowledge of results: A goal setting phenomenon?. Psychological Bulletin, 70, 474– 485.
(1990a). A theory of goal setting and task performance . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
(1990b). Work motivation and satisfaction: Light at the end of the tunnel. Psychological Science, 1, 240– 246.
(2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57, 705– 717.
(1981). Goal setting and task performance: 1969-1980. Psychological Bulletin, 90, 125– 152.
(2006). The effects of learning and outcome goals on performance using a moderately complex task . Unpublished doctoral dissertation, State University of New York at Albany.
(1935). Incentives: Some experimental studies. In Industrial health research report (Great Britain), No. 72.
(1965). Split roles in performance appraisal. Harvard Business Review, 65, 123– 129.
(1979). Organizational behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 30, 243– 81.
(2003). Motivation. In W.C. Borman, D.R. Ilgen, & R.J. Klimoski (Eds.), Comprehensive handbook of psychology: Industrial organizational psychology (Vol. 12, pp. 225-254). New York: Wiley.
(1997). The effects of learning goals on group performance on an independent task . Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder. UMI#9812911.
(2006). The importance of learning goals versus outcome goals for entrepreneurs. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 7, 213– 220.
(2007). A multilevel investigation of the motivational mechanisms underlying knowledge sharing and performance. Organizational Science, 18, 71– 88.
(1973). The effects of goal setting and supervision on worker behavior in an industrial situation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 58, 302– 307.
(2003). The mediation and moderation of general motivational variables by specific goals that are negatively framed . Unpublished manuscript.
(1947). Work and effort: The psychology of production . New York: Ronald Press.
(1970). Intentional behavior . New York: Ronald Press.
(1986). Behavioral economics as an approach to stress theory. In M.H. Appley and R. Trumbull (Eds.), Dynamics of stress: Physiological, psychological, and social perspectives (pp. 81-98). New York: Plenum.
(2000). The effects of goal setting and group size on performance in a social dilemma. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 32, 104– 116.
(2001). The effect of learning, outcome, and proximal goals on a moderately complex task. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 291– 307.
(2005). Learning versus performance goals: When should each be used?. Academy of Management Executive, 19, 124– 131.
(2004). Goal setting and goal orientation: An integration of two different yet related literatures. Academy of Management Journal, 47, 227– 239.
(2000). Work motivation in the senior executive service: Testing the high performance cycle theory. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10, 531– 550.
(2002). Performance, well-being, and self-regulation. In S. Sonnentag (Ed.), Psychological management of individual performance (pp. 405-424). New York: Wiley.
(2006). A first examination of the relationship between primed subconscious goals, assigned conscious goals and task performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 1172– 1180.
(1999). Does competition enhance or inhibit motor performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 133– 154.
(1911). Principles of scientific management . New York: Harper.
(1976). The motivational components of goal setting. Journal of Applied Psychology, 61, 613– 621.
(2001). The role of goal orientation following performance feedback. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 629– 640.
(1996). Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes, and consequences of affective experiences at work. In B.M. Staw & L.L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 18, pp. 1-74). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
(2000). Zur wirkung von Zielsetzungen auf die Informationsverarbeitung bei Buchstabenvergleichsaufgaben. [Effects of goal setting on information processing in letter-matching tasks] Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie, 47, 89– 114.
(2005). Improving work motivation and performance in brainstorming groups: Effects of three group goal setting strategies. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 14, 400– 430.
(1991). Processes that mediate the relationship between group goal and improved group performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 555– 569.
(2005). Goal progress makes one happy, or does it? Longitudinal findings from the work domain. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78, 287– 304.
(1996). The effect of learning versus outcome goals on a simple versus a complex task. Group and Organization Management, 21, 236– 250.
(2005). Organizational partnerships in China: Self-interest, goal interdependence, and opportunism. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 782– 791.
(1987). Task complexity as a moderator of goal effects: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72, 416– 425.
(1934). Incentives in repetitive work . Industrial Health Research Board (Great Britain) Report, No. 69.
(1978). Interrelationships among employee participation, individual differences, goal difficulty, goal acceptance, goal instrumentality, and performance. Personnel Psychology, 31, 305– 324.
(