Setting Goals in Different Roles: Applying Key Results From the Goal-Setting Literature

Abstract

Decades of research have demonstrated that managers can effect substantial performance improvements by setting challenging and specific performance goals (Locke & Latham, 2002), providing goal-relevant feedback on a regular basis (Karakowsky & Mann, 2008), and, when appropriate, involving subordinates in goal setting (Stansfield & Longenecker, 2006). This article reviews core findings from the goal setting literature, and presents a collaborative exercise in which teams of students apply these findings to address management problems in five fictitious scenarios. Debriefing tips cite additional research evidence to allow for more nuanced classroom discussion of goal setting. A pretest indicated that prior to completing the goal-setting exercise, only a minority of students had a strong intuitive sense of how to set effective goals; a posttest following its completion demonstrated substantial improvement. Students rated the exercise as both challenging and effective in improving their knowledge of goal setting.

Keywords:

• goal setting
• collaborative learning
• organizational behavior
• classroom exercise

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lynn E. Miller

Lynn E. Miller is Professor of Management and Leadership at La Salle University. She received a PhD in personality and social psychology from Northern Illinois University. Her current work examines historical processes of legitimation and competition in U.S. medical education and the effects of power on feedback giving. Her research has appeared in journals including Journal of Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, and Sociological Quarterly. She may be reached at [email protected].

Richard M. Weiss

Richard M. Weiss (deceased) was Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE. He held a PhD from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. His work on organization theory, medical education, and employee assistance programs appeared in journals including Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Personnel Psychology, and Sociological Quarterly.