Summary: Motivate Employee Performance through Goal Setting – Gary P. Latham
The goal setting theory provides a framework that specifies the most valid and practical ways of
increasing employee motivation. The theory is generally accepted as a way to predict, influence and
explain behavior. The theory states that some people perform better than others, because they have
different performance goals.
The essence of the theory is four-fold:
1. Difficult specific goals lead to significantly higher performance than easy goals or no goals.
2. Given that the ability and commitment is equal, it yields that the higher the goal, the higher the
performance.
3. Personality traits and incentives influence an individual’s behavior to the extent that they lead
to the setting of and commitment to a specific difficult goal.
4. Goal setting, in addition to affecting the 3 mechanism of motivation (choice, effort and
persistence) can also have a cognitive benefit. It can influence the motivation to discover ways
to attain the goal.
Four subprinciples are necessary for deriving the motivational benefits of goal setting:
The goal must be challenging and specific: when there is equal ability and commitment, it yields
that the higher the goal, the higher the performance, because people adjust their level of effort
to the difficulty of the goal. Challenging goals create pride in accomplishment. Therefore,
employees with high standards must accomplish more than those with low standards, in order
to create satisfaction. In addition, employees expect more attainment from higher goals.
Specific means that it should be explicitly clear what the individual should do, in order to
accomplish the goal. Setting specific challenging goals is important for job performance and job
satisfaction. Job satisfaction is the result of appraisal of one’s performance against one’s goals.
Feedback must be provided on progress in relation to goal attainment: without a goal, feedback
has no effect on performance. Feedback is just information, and it works only when it is
provided in relation to a goal: then they can apply it.
Without feedback the effect of goal setting is minimized. Feedback allows people to know what
they should continue doing, stop doing or start doing to attain the goal.
Ways must be found to maintain goal commitment: without commitment, goal setting is
meaningless. To create commitment you should focus on an individual’s outcome expectancies
and on self-efficacy. As an employer, it is important to help people to realize the outcomes that
they can expect as a result of what they do. In order to discover those expectancies, you can use
a four cell empathy box:
1. The positive outcomes an employee expects from committing to a goal
2. The negative outcomes expected from goal commitment
3. The positive outcomes expected from sticking with the status quo
4. The negative outcomes from sticking with the status quo
A second step is to increase the persons self-efficacy (the conviction that one can mobilize one’s
resources, to attain a specific performance level). It is not only our ability that holds us back or
propels us forward, it is also our perception of our ability. People with low self-efficacy look for
evidence to abandon a goal, while people with high self-efficacy view obstacles as challenges to
overcome. Improving self-efficacy can in 3 ways:
The goal setting theory provides a framework that specifies the most valid and practical ways of
increasing employee motivation. The theory is generally accepted as a way to predict, influence and
explain behavior. The theory states that some people perform better than others, because they have
different performance goals.
The essence of the theory is four-fold:
1. Difficult specific goals lead to significantly higher performance than easy goals or no goals.
2. Given that the ability and commitment is equal, it yields that the higher the goal, the higher the
performance.
3. Personality traits and incentives influence an individual’s behavior to the extent that they lead
to the setting of and commitment to a specific difficult goal.
4. Goal setting, in addition to affecting the 3 mechanism of motivation (choice, effort and
persistence) can also have a cognitive benefit. It can influence the motivation to discover ways
to attain the goal.
Four subprinciples are necessary for deriving the motivational benefits of goal setting:
The goal must be challenging and specific: when there is equal ability and commitment, it yields
that the higher the goal, the higher the performance, because people adjust their level of effort
to the difficulty of the goal. Challenging goals create pride in accomplishment. Therefore,
employees with high standards must accomplish more than those with low standards, in order
to create satisfaction. In addition, employees expect more attainment from higher goals.
Specific means that it should be explicitly clear what the individual should do, in order to
accomplish the goal. Setting specific challenging goals is important for job performance and job
satisfaction. Job satisfaction is the result of appraisal of one’s performance against one’s goals.
Feedback must be provided on progress in relation to goal attainment: without a goal, feedback
has no effect on performance. Feedback is just information, and it works only when it is
provided in relation to a goal: then they can apply it.
Without feedback the effect of goal setting is minimized. Feedback allows people to know what
they should continue doing, stop doing or start doing to attain the goal.
Ways must be found to maintain goal commitment: without commitment, goal setting is
meaningless. To create commitment you should focus on an individual’s outcome expectancies
and on self-efficacy. As an employer, it is important to help people to realize the outcomes that
they can expect as a result of what they do. In order to discover those expectancies, you can use
a four cell empathy box:
1. The positive outcomes an employee expects from committing to a goal
2. The negative outcomes expected from goal commitment
3. The positive outcomes expected from sticking with the status quo
4. The negative outcomes from sticking with the status quo
A second step is to increase the persons self-efficacy (the conviction that one can mobilize one’s
resources, to attain a specific performance level). It is not only our ability that holds us back or
propels us forward, it is also our perception of our ability. People with low self-efficacy look for
evidence to abandon a goal, while people with high self-efficacy view obstacles as challenges to
overcome. Improving self-efficacy can in 3 ways:
