MGHC02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Goal Setting, Health Policy, Team Building
Goal Setting
Goal Setting Theory - Locke and Latham
• Goal setting theory - theory of motivation that explains what causes some people to
perform better on work-related tasks than others
• At roots, goal-directed action is based in biology since survival requires taking action that
satisfies needs → some goal-directed action is automatic
• This view of goals is different than control theory which doesn’t have roots in biology, but
in electromechanical engineering
• Control theorists view discrepancy reduction to be the motivating force for action;
whereas, goal setting theory states that the goal itself is the primary source of a person’s
motivation
o If discrepancy reduction alone were the primary source of motivation, people
would eliminate/abandon their goals or have as easy ones as possible
• Goal - object or aim of an action
o 2 main attributes:
▪ Goal content - object or result being sought (ex. increase profits)
▪ Goal intensity - effort needed to set a goal (position of goal in goal
hierarchy) and commitment to goal attainment
• 2 findings that lead to development of goal setting theory:
o Linear relationship between degree of goal difficulty and performance
o Specific, difficult goals lead to higher performance than no goals or
vague/abstract goals (ex. do your best)
▪ Problem with “do your best” goal is its ambiguity as to what constitutes
performance effectiveness and defined subjectively
▪ Specific, difficult goal eliminates ambiguity as to what constitutes high
performance effectiveness and an acceptable level of performance
• 4 goal mechanisms/mediator which causes specific, high difficulty goals to lead to
performance:
o Choice or direction
▪ Specific, high difficulty goals has 2 directional effects:
• Specific, high difficulty goals orients an individual’s attention and
effort toward goal-relevant activities
• Specific, high difficulty goals orients an individual away from those
that are deemed irrelevant goal-relevant activities
▪ Specific, high difficulty goals activates knowledge and skills a person
possesses that are necessary to attain the goal
o Effort - expended in proportion to the difficulty of the goal
o Persistence (time spent to attain a goal)
▪ Specific, high difficulty goals lead to people working longer at a task than
vague or easy goals
o Knowledge or task strategy (more cognitive than other 3 mechanisms)
▪ Specific, high difficulty goal draw upon knowledge/skill required to attain it
▪ Without the knowledge or skill, a do-best goal may work out better than
specific, high difficulty goal here
• Moderator variables that affect the goal-performance relationship
o Ability
▪ Affects the choice of goal - people cannot perform a goal when they lack
the knowledge or skill to obtain that level of performance
▪ Goal setting has greater effect if high ability b/c leads to high performance
