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THE EFFECTS OF SELF‐SET, PARTICIPATIVELY SET AND ASSIGNED GOALS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
Author(s) -
LATHAM GARY P.,
MARSHALL HERBERT A.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
personnel psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.076
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1744-6570
pISSN - 0031-5826
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1982.tb02204.x
Subject(s) - supervisor , psychology , set (abstract data type) , brainstorming , task (project management) , government (linguistics) , goal setting , intrapersonal communication , agency (philosophy) , job enrichment , job performance , applied psychology , social psychology , goal orientation , job satisfaction , job attitude , management , marketing , interpersonal communication , computer science , business , linguistics , philosophy , epistemology , economics , programming language
A government agency wished to define effective supervisory behavior. Fifty‐seven government employees participated in the job analysis. The employees were randomly assigned to one of three goal setting conditions, namely, self‐set, participatively set, and assigned goals. The task required each individual to brainstorm individually job behaviors that he or she had seen make the difference between effective and ineffective job behavior as a supervisor. Goals were set in terms of the number of behaviors to be listed within 20 minutes. There was no significant difference in goal difficulty between those with participatively set goals and those with self‐set goals. Goal difficulty was held constant between the participative and assigned goal conditions by imposing a goal agreed upon by an employee in the participative condition upon an employee in the assigned condition. There was no significant difference among the three goal setting conditions regarding goal acceptance or actual performance. This was true regardless of employee age, education, position level, years as a supervisor, or time employed in the public sector. The correlation between goal difficulty and performance was .62, .69, and .74, respectively, in the participative, self‐set, and assigned goal conditions.