Assignment 07 - Goal-setting Theory
Goal
setting theory was introduced by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham. This theory
explains that individual employees and organizations are setting various goals
simply by paying attention and action. The pioneer of this theory explains the
importance of setting organizational goals as these goals are driving employees
to achieve them by being highly motivated. It will further enhance the
performance of the employees and the entire organization (Lunenburg &
Ornstein, 2008).
Further,
according to Lunenburg & Ornstein (2008), this theory emphasized that, more
the goals are becoming difficult and challenging, employees try to mobilize
energy and pay higher efforts to achieve those challenging goals in an
efficient manner. Further Edwin Locke who introduced this theory believed that
goals motivate employees to develop relevant strategies to perform at a
required level. Increased motivation ultimately enhances the satisfaction of
employees. On the other hand, when if the goal is not accomplished, then it
leads to employee frustration, dissatisfaction and reduce motivation.
Thus,
the morale of this theory is that, not only organizations and management are
responsible to set goals. Employees also should set own challenging
goals. It leads to enhance motivation, enthusiasm, commitment and involvement
of employees to attain those challenging goals. If the goal is something
simple, easy and achievable it is a demotivating factor for employees, for the
reason that there is nothing to be achieved.
However,
according to the scholar Elock (2020), there are critiques for this theory. In
any organization, not all individual goals will be the same. They might vary
from one another and also, they might be contradicting with the organizational
goals. The key reason for this difference is, employees join organizations with
different expectations. Therefore, even though how much the employee is
motivated, if their individual goal is deviating them from the organizational
ideas, values and goals, it would be harmful for the organization and on the
other hand individual employee’s effort will be in vain.
Another
video produced by Dr. Ben Baran explains the importance of setting
goals for an organization to increase motivation. According to him, traits of
these goals should be realistic, but difficult, challenging and specific. The
video can be viewed for the viewers through the below link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yj2wsPJEWs
Overly ambitious goals can harm the organizational and
employee performances and their confidence. Thus, goals should be
realistic. As an example, sales teams
should be given reasonable sales targets. Once the challenging target is
achieved, they should be given set of commissions as per their
achievements.
In
most manufacturing firms, realistic but challenging goals are given to factory
floor employees. Specially sewing machine operators in apparel sector are given
team-based targets and once achieved those challenging and difficult tasks they
are offered additional payments. Further some apparel manufacturing companies
like MAS Holdings are appreciating their employees by giving them awards with
the purpose of appreciating their efforts and to motivate individuals and
teams.
References
Elock,
E. S. (2020). The Role of Motivational Theories in Shaping Teacher Motivation
and Performance: A Review of Related Literature. International Journal
of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), 4(4), 64-76.
Lunenburg,
F.C. & Ornstein, A.C. (2008). Education administration: Concepts
and practices (5th Ed.). Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.
Nicely explained and you are so right about overly ambitious goals. Welsh et al (2020), concludes literiture as, in some situations, overly ambitious goals have even shown to cause stress and anxiety, reduce self-esteem, and promote a competitive, individualistic mindset. Also it was found that individuals were significantly more likely to cheat in order to attain overly ambitious goals.
ReplyDeleteWelsh, D.T., Baer, M.D., Sessions, H. and Garud, N., 2020. Motivated to disengage: The ethical consequences of goal commitment and moral disengagement in goal setting. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 41(7), pp.663-677.
Thanks Ruwini.Motivation factors such as recognition, achievement, responsibility, growth, opportunities and promotion make high motivation and high satisfaction further, Hygiene factors include salary, Working Conditions, Job Security, personal life, Company policies and administration create general satisfaction (Kim, 2006).Herzberg says best way to motivate the employees is to give challenging work that they can take responsibility (Leach and Westbrook, 2000).
DeleteLunenburg (2011) emphasizes the fact that individuals who are provided with specific, difficult but attainable goals perform better than those who are given easy, nonspecific goals or no goals at all however the individuals must also have sufficient ability, mindset to accept the goals and receive feedback on the same.
ReplyDeleteLunenburg, F.C. (2011). Goal-setting theory of motivation. International journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), pp.1-6.
Nyambegera and Gicheru's (2016) study highlights the importance of multiple intrinsic factors that drive employee motivation, such as financial remuneration, empowerment, rewards and recognition, the nature of work, and an employee's perception of the contribution to the organization.
Delete
ReplyDeleteAccording to Yurtkoru et al., (2017) Goal setting theory may be applied in a Turkish context to assess work satisfaction and emotional commitment; however, the factor structure differs from the original, and goal clarity is the sole core goal variable. Theoretically postulated moderators and mediators are discovered to have just a minor or no influence. urtkoru et al., (2017)
Reference
Yurtkoru, E.S., Bozkurt, T., Bektas, F., Ahmed, M.J. and Kola, V. (2017). Application of goal setting theory. Pressacademia,
Yes Upul. Hygiene factors are not directly related to the job and the presence of such conditions does not necessarily build strong motivation but necessary to prevent dissatisfaction. The absence of motivational factors does not prove highly dissatisfying but when present, they build strong levels of motivation that result in good job performance (Baah & Amoako, 2011).
ReplyDelete