Goal-Setting Theory

Process theories are explain how people select behavioral actions to meet their needs and determine whether their choice were successful. Important perspectives about motivation underline the switch from salary to commission pay is goal-setting and expectancy theory.

Goal-setting theory, described by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, proposes that managers can increase motivation and enhance performance by setting specific, challenging goals, then helping people track their progress toward goal achievement by providing timely feedback. Key components of goal-setting theory include the following:

Goal attributes

The two the two attributes of goals that have been most extensively are content and intensity. Two aspects of content have been the main focus of the research to date, specificity and difficulty

With regard to specificity, goal content can be vague (“work on this”) or specific (try for a score of 25 on this task within the next minutes”). With regard to difficulty, goals can be easy (“try to get 10 item completed in the next 20 minutes”), moderate (try to get 20) difficult (“try to get 30 completed in the next 20 minutes”) impossible (try to get 100 completed in the next 20 minutes”).Difficulty pertains to a relationship between the person and the goal. The same goal can be easy for one person and hard for another depending on ability and experience. Generally, however, the higher the absolute level of goal, the more difficult it is foe people attain it.

Goal acceptance is the extent to which a person accepts the goal as legitimate for him or her. Goal commitment is the degree to which the person is interested in attaining the goal and this is reflected in the way he takes interest in attaining the goal.

Finally, the component of feedback means that people get information about how well they are doing in progressing toward goal achievement. It is important for managers to provide performance feedback on a...