GOAL SETTING AND JOB SATISFACTION

INTRODUCTION

The basic framework of goal setting theory is that it deals with the relationship between conscious goals or intentions and task performance. A goal is defined as what the individual is consciously trying to do. The basic premise of the approach is that an individual’s conscious goals or intentions influence his behavior. Specific, concrete or harder goals result in a higher level of individual performance than do easy goals.

Goal setting involves four steps: i) It involves the establishment of target results and the clarification of potential rewards that are associated with goal accomplishment ii) goal setting aspects such as the degree of goal difficulty and goal challenges iii) goal-setting intension made by the individual involving the acceptance and commitment to the previously established goals iv) task performer’s interest, personality characteristics..

GOAL SETTING THEORY

Locke proposed that intentions to work towards a goal are major source of work motivation. The goals facilitate employees what needs to be done and how much effort will need to be put forth in their tasks. The evidence shows the work values and goals will determine strongly the performance of an individual. Actual work behavior then becomes a function of values and goals set by the individual. The manager can motivate employees between goals which jointly decided by both.

The following are the four important requirements for setting the goal in such a way to elicit a desired performance. They are: goal specificity, goal difficulty, goal acceptance and feedback.

i) Goal Specificity: Setting specific goals with clear expectations both in terms of quantitatively as well as qualitatively will reduce the ambiguity or confusion among the employees. Then the employee can put forth more effort and concentrate the achievement of a well-defined output. Research findings revealed that setting specific performance goals is a better motivator and achieves better results than asking employees to do their best in general.

ii) Goal Difficulty: If the goals are too easy to finish the required task, the employee will not be motivated enough and get bored in due course of time. Similarly if the goals are too difficult to complete, he will get high level of frustration and not able to complete the task in time. Hence, it is desirable to set the goal with moderate difficult level that will provide much challenge and motivate people to do work better than easy goals.

iii) Participation in Goal Setting Process:

If the employees are allowed to participate in setting their work goals with clear directions, the likelihood getting full acceptance and participation in their task will be very high. Further, the goals must be so consonance with the employee’s attitudes and values that is there must be a perfect harmonization of individual values system and nature of work. Once there is an acceptance and commitment to the goal, the employees will be motivated to put forth greater effort and perform well.

iv) Feedback on Goal Effort: Once the knowledge of the results of their work (feedback) is known to the employees periodically, they will realize their shortcomings, errors, and adjust their work behavior accordingly to meet the required expected output. Feedback helps in as much as is it keeps the employee’s goal directed behavior on target and stimulates the person to put in greater efforts.

Self- Efficacy:

Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief that he is capable of performing a task. If an individual’s self-efficacy is very high, he will have more confidence in his ability to succeed in a task. So, in difficult situations, people with low selfefficacy are more likely to lessen their effort or given up altogether, while those with high self-efficacy will try harder to master the challenge. In addition, individual’s high in self-efficacy seem to respond to negative feedback with increased effort and motivation, whereas those low in self-efficacy are likely to lessen their effort when given negative feedback.

Research indicates that individual goals setting does not work equally well on all tasks. The results showed that goals seem to have a more substantial effect on performance when tasks are simple rather than complex, well learned rather than novel, and independent rather than interdependent goals.

Implications of Goal Setting Theory:

The success of goal setting as a motivational technique is largely a function of designing the goals with all four characteristics. Goal setting is a powerful motivator and can be used even in service organizations where the output is not easily quantifiable. Goals can be set in such organizations in terms of servicing time, customer complaints, customer satisfaction levels, and other factors as would be appropriate to the managerial responsibilities at hand.

Management by Objectives (MBO):

It is a program that encompasses specific goals set with cooperation of employees, for an explicit time period, with feedback on goal progress. MBO emphasizes setting goals participatively that are tangible, variable, measurable, realistic and timely. The main focus of MBO is converting overall organizational objectives into specific objectives for the organizational units and individual members. The objectives are flowing from top to bottom in the hierarchy as corporate goals, divisional goals, departmental goals and individual goals in the organization. Lower unit managers jointly participate in setting their own goals.

MBO works from the bottom up as well as from the top down. The result is a hierarchy of objectives that links objectives at one level to those at the next level. Each individual employee will have some specific personal performance objectives.

There are four common elements in the MBA program: They are: goals specificity, participative decision making, time frame and feedback process.

i) Goal Specificity: Listing a set of goal statements of what employees are expected of in their work life. Instead of highlighting vague and general statements such as improve service or increase the quality, converting those into a specific and measurable statements such as 20 customers are attended with one hour, rejection rate or error rate in the quality must be less than 1 per 10000 pieces produced will help to achieve the goals.

ii) Participative Decision Making: The objectives of MBO program are set unilaterally by the top managers. The employees are invited to share their ideas and consulted periodically to list the desired objectives. MBO replaces imposed goals with participatively determined goals.

iii) Time Frame: Each objective must have a specific time period to accomplish with a strict deadline by stating the time and date. The time period can be one month, three months which facilitate to complete the tasks in time.

iv) Feedback on Performance. MBO system will facilitate to provide the knowledge of results (feedback) to the concerned employees immediately by their supervisors whether it is positive or negative. In case the performance will be inferior or below the level of set objective, the same will be appraised to the employees immediately and corrective action will be taken accordingly. This can be supplemented by periodic managerial evaluations, when progress is reviewed.

Comparison of Goal Setting and MBO:

MBO directly advocates specific goals and feedback. MBO implies that goals must be perceived as feasible. Consistent with goal setting, MBO would be most effective when the goals are difficult enough to require the person to do some stretching. The only area of difference between MBO and goal setting is on the issue of participation. MBO advocates strongly the participation is part of the setting objectives, while goal setting theory states that supervisors can set and assign goals to subordinates frequently. As the participation is elicited form the employees periodically, employees can be induced to set even more difficult goals themselves.

Failures of MBO:

When MBO programmes do not work well, it is often due to one or more of the following reasons:

1. The managers unilaterally set the goals and expect the subordinates to accept them without reservation.

2. Adequate resources are not provided, lack of top management commitment

3. Feedback is not provided to the subordinates on how well or poorly the individual is making progress towards goals attainment

4. When the goals are met, the subordinates are not appropriately rewarded.

Employee Recognition Programs

Even if the nature of work is repetitive and boring such as working as waiter in fast food restaurant, attending to customer complaints in departmental stores, the employees can be motivated further and retain them within their organization by giving proper recognition.

The following are the ways to recognize the employees:

i) Complementing regularly in front of the other employees

ii) Displaying ‘Employees of the Month’ in the notice board prominently

iii) Giving special attractive incentives – free lunch, travel, bonus etc

iv) Employees are referred as ‘associates’ as a mark of respect for their contribution

v) Celebrating the positive aspects of each employees work once in a month

vi) Everyone wears same type of uniform

Linking Recognition and Reinforcement:

If the desired behavior is rewarded or recognized immediate quite often or periodically that behavior is likely to encourage its repetition. Recognition can take many forms:

i) Sending a personal note congratulating an employee

ii) Sending e-mail note acknowledging commendable work.

iii) Recognize accomplishments openly.

iv) Celebrate team success

v) Use of suggestion system

Employee Involvement Program:

Employee Involvement: It is a participative process that uses the entire capacity of employees and is designed to encourage increased commitment to the organization’s success. The key issues involved in the involvement process are as follows:

i) Involving workers in those decision that affect them

ii) Increasing their autonomy and control over their work life

iii) Opportunity to interact with customers and get adequate feedback directly from them regarding their work

iv) Introducing a flat structure with flexible rules and regulations within the unit

The following are the various types of Employment Involvement Programs:

Workers Participation in Management, Quality Circles, and Employee share ownership plans

Workers Participation in Management:

It is a process in which workers share a significant degree of decision-making power with their immediate supervisors. It promotes high level of morale and productivity within the organization. More participation can be elicited from the employees by providing some facilities such as giving adequate time to participate, issues must be relevant to their interest, and employees must have the ability (intelligence, technical knowledge, communication skills) to participate and conducive work culture supporting employee involvement.

Seeking participation is vital for the organization as the nature of job is very complex and the managers may not know everything their employees do. As the employees know the operational difficulties and the ways to overcome, they can provide better decision than the managers. Further, the nature of tasks are interdependent requiring frequent consultation with concerned people in other departments, which demanding to form teams, committee and group meetings to resolve issues that affect them jointly. Participation also facilitates to enhance employees commitment to the collective decision. Finally, participation provides intrinsic rewards for employees and it can make their jobs more interesting and meaningful.

Instituting suitable reward system, creating flexible organic organizational structure with more flexibility will help significantly enhance participative decision-making. However, research results showed that participation typically has only a modest influence on employee productivity, motivation and job satisfaction. The following are the types of workers representation:

a) Representative Participation: It refers to workers participatio n i n organizational decision making through a small group of representative employees. The goal of representative participation is to redistribute power with in an organization, putting employees on a more equal footing with the interest of management and shareholders.

b) Works Council: It refers to groups of nominated or elected employees who must be consulted when management makes decisions involving personnel.

c) Board Representative: This is a form of representative participation. Here the employees sit on a company’s board of directors and represent the interests of the firm’s employees.

Quality Circle:

It refers to a work group of employees who meet regularly to discuss their quality problems, investigate causes, recommend solutions and take corrective actions. The members meet regularly typically once a week, during office time within the company premises to discuss their quality problems, investigate causes of the problem, recommend solutions and take corrective actions. The QC members take over the responsibility for solving quality problems and they generate and evaluate their own feedback. In general, management typically retains control over the final decision regarding implementation of recommended solutions.

QC concept includes teaching participating employees group communication skills, various quality strategies, and measurement and problem analysis. The formation of QC is more likely to positively affect productivity. The failure of many QC to measurable benefits has also led to abandoning of QC system. There are two possible disappointment results. i) lack of time to get full involvement among employees ii) lack of planning and top-management commitment often contributed to quality circle failures.

Employee share ownership plans: It refers to company-established benefit plans in which employee acquire shares as part of their benefits.

JOB SATISFACTION:

It is defined as an individual’s general attitude towards his or job. If an individual holds a positive attitude and livingness towards various elements of job, he is likely to have more job satisfaction. It involves interaction with fellow employees and bosses, following organizational rules, and policies, working conditions, job itself, recognition from superiors etc.

Factors that lead to Job Satisfaction:

The following important factors such as conducive work environment such as mentally challenging work, equitable rewards, supportive working conditions, supportive colleagues, the personality-job fit etc. will enhance the level of job satisfaction.

Mentally Challenging Jobs: Employees tend to prefer jobs that give them opportunities to use their skills and abilities and offer a variety of tasks, freedom on how well they are doing. Jobs that have too little challenge create bordom. Most employees will experience more pleasure and satisfaction if they have moderate level of challenge in their work.

Equitable rewards: When pay is seen as fair and based on job demands, individual skill level and the prevailing market pay standards, job satisfaction is likely to result. Promotion provides opportunities for personal growth, more responsibilities and increased social status. Employees who perceive that promotion decisions are made in a fair and just manner are likely to experience satisfaction from their jobs.

Supportive Working Conditions: Comfortable working conditions such as temperature, light and other environmental factors facilitate to enhance satisfaction level of the employees. Most employees prefer working relatively close to home, in clean and relatively modern facilities and with adequate, safe and well-maintained tools and equipment.

Supportive Fellow Employees: Employees satisfaction is increased when the immediate supervisor understands and friendly, offers praise for good performance, listens to the employee’s opinions and shows a personal interest in them.

Personality-job fit: High agreement between an employee’s personality and occupation results in more satisfaction. People with personality types congruent with their chosen vocations find that have the right talents and abilities to meet the demands of their jobs. Such people are more likely to be successful at those jobs.

Effect job satisfaction on employee performance

Satisfaction and Productivity: The general notion is that a happy employee is a productive employee. The relationship between productivity and satisfaction is very high when the employee behavior is not constrained or controlled by the outside factors.

Satisfaction and Absenteeism: Research results reported that the employees with high satisfaction scores had much higher attendance than those with lower satisfaction levels.

Satisfaction and Turnover: Satisfaction is also negatively related to turnover. People with low level of job satisfaction are likely to leave the organization.