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.
