Does Goal Setting Affect Employee Performance?

Goal setting theory is a theory that emphasizes that the characteristics of setting goals will affect the level of motivation and job performance. One of the procedural incentive theories was proposed by American scholar Edwin Locke in 1967. It is believed that the set goals should meet the "SMART" principle, that is, challenging goals, specific goals, employee participation in the goal setting process, and feedback on past employees' accomplishment of goals have an motivating role. The guiding significance to practice is that setting specific and challenging goals for employees is an effective incentive to improve performance. ^[1]

There are two main conditions for goal setting: the employee must be aware of the goal and know what action to use to achieve the goal; the employee must accept the goal, that is, he is willing to use the necessary actions to complete the goal.

Goal setting refers to the process of developing, negotiating, and establishing goals that challenge individuals. Goals may be clear or implicit, or imposed by themselves, or imposed externally. Whatever the form of goal, it helps individuals to make reasonable arrangements for their time and effort. Employees with no goals or unclear goals have a slow pace, poor performance, and lack of interest at work. They do not have as many tasks as those with clear and challenging goals. In addition, employees with clear goals appear to be both competent and dynamic. They can complete tasks on time and then turn to other things (and goals).

Moderating variables are factors that regulate the strength of the relationship between goals and performance, including capabilities, goal commitments, feedback, and task complexity.

Goals in themselves help individuals achieve their goals directly. Goals are affected by four mechanisms

When the individual finally achieves the goal through various efforts, he will be satisfied if he can get the reward and reward he needs; if he does not get the expected reward, the individual will be dissatisfied. At the same time, satisfaction is also affected by another factor, which is the individual's understanding of whether his remuneration is fair. If, by comparing with colleagues, friends, compared with his past, compared with his investment, he would be satisfied with the remuneration he received. Otherwise, you will not be satisfied.

The difficulty of the goal also affects satisfaction. When the task is easier, the easier it is to succeed, the individual will often experience the satisfaction that comes with success. When the goal is difficult, the probability of success is small, so individuals rarely experience satisfaction. This means that easy goals produce more satisfaction than difficult goals. However, reaching difficult goals will result in higher

Since Locke proposed the goal setting theory in 1967, 30 years of research has strongly proved that studying incentives from the goal setting perspective is effective. A lot of meaningful results have been achieved in this field, and these theoretical results have also been applied to actual management work, which has greatly helped the actual work. However, there are still many problems in goal setting theory that require further research.

1. The relationship between goal setting and internal motivation. It is generally believed that the setting of Mastery Goal

The characteristics of goal setting theory goal management

1. Participate in management. Management by objectives promotes management thoughts of democracy, equality, and participation, and does not encourage managers to act in an arbitrary manner behind closed doors. The achiever of the goal is also the setter of the goal, and advocates that the subordinates work together to determine the goal. Therefore, organizations should have a loose organizational atmosphere and culture of democracy, equality, and participation.

2. Self-control. The main purpose of target management is to replace "repressive management" with "self-controlled management", which enables managers to control their own performance. This kind of self-control can become a stronger motivation to push them to do their best to get the job done, not just "dead".

3. Decentralization. The implementation of management by objectives helps to promote decentralization, mobilize the imagination and creativity of employees, exert their subjective initiative, and make the situation more lively and efficient while maintaining effective control.

4. Focus on results. Management by objectives focuses on results first and values actual contributions. The organization implements target management. Because it has a complete target assessment system, it can evaluate a person truthfully according to the actual contribution of employees.

Problems of Goal Setting Theory in the Process of Goal Setting

The corporate goal is the core of corporate cohesion, which embodies the meaning of the work of employees, and can motivate all employees at the level of ideals and beliefs. Goal setting is an important part of goal motivation. What kind of goals are set in the work to achieve the optimal combination of goals and performance, the goals set are closely related to the personal interests of the individual. Therefore, managers and employees should pay attention to the following issues in the goal setting process:

First, goal setting must meet the needs of the incentive object. The work achievement of the motivated object should be linked with its legitimate achievement expectation, so that the motivated object can show positive intentional behavior. Only when employees truly realize that the goals set meet their expectations and needs, will they put in a lot of effective efforts in the process of achieving the goals, otherwise they will not have an motivating effect on the employees' work.

Second, pay attention to the specificity of goal setting. The content of the goal should be specific and clear. A goal with a quantitative requirement is better, and it should not be general and abstract. Specific goals are closer to the employees' own interests, and enable employees to experience a sense of accomplishment in constant feedback. However, too specific goals appear to be chaotic in the organization, causing management difficulties and not conducive to the company's macro-control of goals. Therefore, companies can only set appropriate specific targets under the guidance of an overall goal, which can better improve work performance.

Third, pay attention to the stage of the goal. Achieving a short-term goal allows people to see their progress faster, the relationship between their efforts and achievements, and the desire to keep making progress to achieve the next goal. If the time is set too long, it will make people feel that it is difficult to achieve, which will discourage people from working. Therefore, when setting goals, there should be both short-term goals and long-term goals. Long-term goals should be decomposed into stage goals, long-term goals should be organically combined with stage goals, long-term ideals should be combined with near-term needs, the pace of work should be mastered, and the expected goals should be achieved in stages.

Fourth, the difficulty of the goal should be properly formulated. If it is too high, it cannot be achieved. If it is too low, it requires no effort and can be easily obtained. It cannot receive a good incentive effect. The goals set must be both practical and inspiring. The same goal has different difficulties for different people. Enterprise employees can adjust their efforts according to different task difficulties. Set appropriate targets for employees in different positions and the differences between employees' capabilities, and combine the establishment of target difficulty with the level of employee capabilities and target commitments. That is, you can set more difficult targets when you have sufficient capabilities and high target commitments. Goals, otherwise make appropriate adjustments.

Fifth, the rational use of feedback mechanisms. From a psychological analysis, after the results are recognized, they are fed back to the workers, so that they have a positive emotional response, and encourage individuals to continue to work with higher enthusiasm. As a result, a positive feedback chain reaction and generative cycle are formed, so that the two terminals supplement each other's energy. If employees are not made aware that their work performance has not met the expected performance requirements, performance will not improve, and effective managers should provide employees with clear performance feedback in a way that can induce positive action responses. . Specifically, the following points should be paid attention to: Feedback should be frequent, so that employees can almost know their performance evaluation results before the formal evaluation process ends; Encourage subordinate employees to actively participate in the performance feedback process and use the "problem solving method" That is, managers and employees discuss how to solve problems in employee performance in an atmosphere of mutual respect and encouragement. Performance feedback should provide accurate feedback, which includes both finding bad performance and recognition of effective performance. Praising the effective performance of employees will help strengthen the corresponding behaviors of employees; focus performance feedback on behaviors or results Instead of the person, you should avoid questioning the value of the employee as a person when giving negative feedback. To do this, you must focus on performance feedback or the results of the employee; develop specific performance Improvement goals, and then set a date for reviewing improvement progress.

Sixth, encourage employees to participate in the setting of personal goals and corporate goals. Employees participating in goal setting are more able to establish higher goals and achieve higher performance than employees assigned goals by leaders, because participating in goal setting itself enhances The employee's commitment to the goal, and the employee's passive acceptance of the goal will cause the set goal to be inconsistent with their own needs, so it may affect work efficiency and goal achievement.

Seventh, goal setting should focus on responding to employees' efforts and carry out personalized job measurement. Employees have individual differences in various aspects such as ability, seniority, and personality, so goal setting should be personalized. To achieve the individualization of goal setting, we should focus on the measurement of how hard each employee is working, rather than measuring everyone with a ruler, so as to stimulate the enthusiasm of each employee to the greatest extent. Specifically, first of all, you should seek the opinions of each employee when setting work goals, and try to set personalized work goals for them, so as to make them have as much identification with the work goals as possible, and focus on avoiding the There is a phenomenon of "unsatisfactory" or "unable to eat" in the work task. Secondly, according to their personal opinions, they should formulate multiple steps and set goals for each step so that they can see their progress and goals when completing the work goals one by one. Hope to achieve unit goals, eliminate boring work, increase the desire for challenge and success, and enhance self-confidence; Finally, goal feedback mainly based on the improvement of the individual performance of employees as the basis for evaluation, emphasizing individual efforts, and diluting individual abilities, Under the guidance of unit goals, enable employees to work hard to achieve their long-term and overall goals.