Goal – Setting: Research Abstract

 

Hollenbeck, J. R., Williams, C. R., & Klein, H. J. (1989). An empirical examination of the antecedents of commitment to difficult goals. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 18 – 23.

Though goal commitment appears to play a critical role in goal-setting theory the factors that contribute to goal commitment have not yet been carefully examined. An regression analysis was utilized to examine the possible antecedents of commitment to difficult goals. The variables examined were situational and personal. Situation incorporated the following, goal public-ness and goal origin where personal was composed of the need for achievement and locus of control. The participants for this study were190 college students and there was no reward for participating in the study.

Results showed that the person x situation interaction accounted for a significant portion of the variance. Commitment to difficult goals was higher when the goals were made public, when the locus of control was internal, and when goals were self-set.

 

Hollenbeck, J. R., Klein, H. J., O’Leary, A. M., & Wright, P. M. (1989). Investigation of the construct validity of a self-report measure of goal commitment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 951 – 956.

The authors undertook this study to develop a construct valid measure of goal commitment. Research indicates that setting difficult goals leads to higher levels of performance rather than easy or vague goals. This research makes the assumption that there is commitment to the goal, but currently there is no construct valid measure of goal commitment. There is no true consensus on how to measure goal commitment or when to measure goal commitment. The participants for this study were 194 college students enrolled in a management course, all the students had the rank of sophomore level or above.

The measure (a nine item pool) was developed by adapting items from a previous goal commitment measure and by adapting items from other measures of proven validity that dealt with commitment to goals. The measure used a 5 point Likert scale with negative items recoded.

The reliability of the scale was .71 (internal consistency), the scale showed statistically significant relationship with three alternative measures of the same construct. The results indicated with expected antecedents such as goal public-ness, monetary incentives, need for achievement, loco of control, and task involvement data was in the predicted direction and was statistically significant.

 

Latham, G. P., & Saari, L. M. ( 1979). Importance of supportive relationships in goal-setting. Journal of Applied Psychology, 64(2), 151 – 156.

Attaining difficult goals might require a supportive relationship between the individual trying to obtain the goal and his/her supervisor. Studies that have examined this relationship to date have been correlational. The study uses an experimental method to examine the supportiveness of a supervisor on the goal achievement of a subordinate. This study was conducted in a lab setting due to ethical considerations. The participants in this study were 90 college students (44 males and 46 females, age ranged from 18 to 24). The participants were assigned at random to one of six conditions. The design for this experiment was a 2 x 3 factorial. The factors were supportive or nonsupportive and assigned, participative, and do your best (goal-setting conditions). Goal-setting was held constant between assigned and participative goal-setting conditions.

Results indicate that supportive behavior to higher goals being set and goals set through the participation route led to better performance than assigned goals. Participation appears to play an important role in understanding the task that is required of the individuals that set goals.

 

Locke, E. A. & Latham, G. P. (1990). A theory of goal-setting & task performance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Goal-setting theory assumes that human action is directed by conscious goals & intentions. When a goal has been established and accepted by an individual then the goal acts as guidepost for the final outcome. Goal-setting theory does not assume that the individual can foresee every outcome when having an extremely difficult goal. By having a goal to complete a task, this goal will influence both how they will accomplish the task and how well they will perform the task.

Goal-setting theory asserts that there is a linear relationship between degree of goal difficulty and performance. The second aspect of goal-setting is that goals that are specific and difficult will lead to a higher level of performance than a vague goal. Many factors can modify how well or how quickly a goal is achieved and they are; ability, demographic variables, personality, task complexity, and situational constraints.

 

Madden, L. E. (1997). Motivating students to learn better through own goal-setting. Education, 117, 411 – 416.

An investigation of what method teachers used to motivated their student learning was conducted by surveying 126 elementary teachers. The two primarily methods were goal-setting or academic expectations. Goal-setting was defined as the level of achievement that the students chose for themselves, whereas academic expectations was defined as the level of achievement a student must obtain to satisfy the teachers expectations. The results of the survey were as follows, 62% of the teachers used goal-setting methods and 38% used academic expectations. The author synthesized the responses from both methods and outlined the major findings. Goals set by students need to be specific and have appropriate feedback from the teacher throughout the development of the goal. Moderate level of difficulty level is best, rewards provided to children when they reach their goals help them achieve better. Individual goals are better than group goals.

 

Phillips, J.M., & Gully, S.M. (1997). Role of goal orientation, ability, need for achievement, and locus of control in the self-efficacy and goal-setting process. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 792 – 802.

This study examined the ability of various traits integrated into one common framework to explain and predict individual performance. The traits examined were goal-setting, self-efficacy, and multiple personality traits. Participants in this study were 405 undergraduate students at a Midwestern university. Demographics of the participants were 72% female, 28% male, the average age was 19.5 years and they received one course credit for participating in the study.

The model was analyzed by LISREL 8. Results from the analysis are as follows: ability, learning goal orientation, and locus of control are positively related to self-efficacy. The need for achievement and self-efficacy are positively related to goal level. Perhaps the most unique finding was that after the effects of ability and other individual differences had been accounted for both self-efficacy and goal level still added to the motivational level.

 

Tubbs, M.E. (1986). Goal-setting: A meta-analytic examination of the empirical evidence. Journal of applied Psychology, 71, 474-483.

Meta-analysis conducted to estimate the amount of empirical support for the major postulates of goal theory. Total number of studies located and used 87. Variables coded, effect size, sample size, reliability information, methodological characteristics. Support found for basic theory tenets: goal difficulty, goal specificity, and participation in the goal-setting process, and feedback.