Premium
Exploring goal‐setting as a tool for leadership development
Author(s) -
Kaufman Eric K.,
Israel Glenn D.,
Rudd Rick D.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of leadership studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.219
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1935-262X
pISSN - 1935-2611
DOI - 10.1002/jls.20032
Subject(s) - premise , leadership development , variance (accounting) , goal setting , field (mathematics) , leadership theory , psychology , professional development , goal programming , development theory , action (physics) , public relations , management science , management , political science , leadership style , social psychology , shared leadership , operations research , pedagogy , business , economics , epistemology , philosophy , mathematics , engineering , accounting , quantum mechanics , physics , pure mathematics , market economy
Goal‐setting theory is based on the premise that conscious goals affect action and is supported by four decades of research and more than 1,000 scholarly publications. Although the theory has been widely applied in management settings, it is an underused framework in the broader field of leadership development. This study considers the effects of goal‐setting as applied in a leadership program conducted for local board members in a nonprofit membership organization, the Florida Farm Bureau Federation. A final reduced regression model explains about 25% of the variance in individual performance by considering goal specificity, goal difficulty, education level, and gender. This study has implications for professional development programming and its application of goal‐setting theory. Additional research is needed to explore further the application of goal‐setting theory in programming for volunteer leaders.