Overview
In "Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives" (1968), Edwin A. Locke argued that conscious goals and intentions regulate task performance, and that incentives such as money, praise or competition affect behaviour through goals and intentions. With Gary P. Latham he later integrated hundreds of studies in A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance (1990). It is a process theory of motivation and one of the most practically applied.
Core propositions
- Goal difficulty: within the limits of ability, harder goals lead to higher performance.
- Goal specificity: specific, difficult goals such as "20 new customers this month" outperform vague goals such as "do your best".
Mechanisms
Locke and Latham (2002) identified four ways in which goals raise performance.
- Direction: goals focus attention and effort on relevant activities and away from irrelevant ones.
- Effort: harder goals mobilise more effort.
- Persistence: goals sustain effort over time.
- Task strategies: goals prompt people to find and develop relevant knowledge and strategies.
Moderators
- Goal commitment: effects are stronger when the goal is important to people and they believe they can reach it (high self-efficacy). Participation in goal setting and public commitment can raise commitment.
- Feedback: people need feedback on progress to adjust effort and strategy.
- Task complexity: on complex, novel tasks a high performance goal can hinder the search for strategies, so a learning goal (mastering strategies) is often more effective at first.
- Ability and situational constraints: a lack of ability or resources weakens the effect of difficult goals.
Practice: SMART goals and MBO
George T. Doran (1981) proposed that good objectives are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-related; today the A is often read as Achievable. Goal-setting theory underpins management by objectives (MBO), performance management systems and OKRs. Read together with Vroom's expectancy theory, goals set the direction of effort while expectancy and valence explain its intensity.
Critiques
Ordóñez and colleagues (2009), in "Goals gone wild", warned that overly specific and difficult goals can narrow focus, encourage risk-taking and unethical behaviour, and undermine learning and intrinsic motivation. An emphasis on measurable goals can also crowd out qualitative performance that is hard to measure. Goals should therefore be challenging but designed alongside ethical standards, learning goals and fair appraisal (equity).
References
- Locke, E. A. (1968). Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 3(2), 157–189.
- Doran, G. T. (1981). There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives. Management Review, 70(11), 35–36.
- Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (1990). A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717.
- Ordóñez, L. D., Schweitzer, M. E., Galinsky, A. D., & Bazerman, M. H. (2009). Goals gone wild: The systematic side effects of overprescribing goal setting. Academy of Management Perspectives, 23(1), 6–16.