Goal Setting Goal setting is one of the most widely used methods to foster motiv

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Goal Setting

Goal setting is one of the most widely used methods to foster motivation. The central premise of goal setting theory is that assigning difficult and specific goals will improve performance. Think about the organizational behavior course you are taking right now. How hard would you work if your instructor told you simply to "do your best" on an assignment? Now, how hard would you work if your instructor told you that you needed to complete the assignment with no more than two mistakes by next Friday? Goal setting theory tells us that the latter of these two instructions is more effective. Not only is it confusing for you to know what "your best" is, it is unlikely that your instructor will be able to recognize when you are truly doing "your best" as well.

In this exercise, please read the mini-case and answer the questions which follow.

Pat Smith is a general manager of a retail store in a college town, where he sells local sports team attire. After studying the past few years' sales figures, Pat recently realized that sales in the month of July are decreasing each year. Last July, his sales associates sold an average of 10 items of clothing each, which was down from the year before. Ideally, Pat would like to exceed last July's sales figures this July. With only a few weeks until the start of the month, he decides that he needs to brainstorm ways to motivate his sales associates.

Pat thinks back to the organizational behavior class he took in college and believes that the principles of goal setting theory might help. With that in mind, he knows that he needs to set motivating goals for his sales associates. How can Pat create the type of working environment that will best foster goal attainment?

1a. Pat doesn't want to tell each employee ...

Pat doesn't want to tell each employee how to increase sales because he wants them to develop their own creative methods that everyone can learn from. He knows that good goal setting should lead to development of

a) public goals.

b) task strategies.

c) customer perspectives.

d) competitiveness.

e) standardization.

1b. Pat knows that some employees ...

Pat knows that some employees with more work experience will try to exceed his assigned goals with their own ________, or set of internalized goals.

a) feedback loop

b) task complexity

c) public goals

d) self-set goals

e) reward system

1c. To challenge his employees, Pat carefully set a difficult goal ...

To challenge his employees, Pat carefully set a difficult goal for the first week of July based on an analysis of the average sales in past years, in order to maximize employee

a) intensity and time element.

b) moderation and intensity.

c) satisfaction and persistence.

d) intensity and persistence.

e) complexity and specificity.

1d. Pat decides to post progress toward individual goals ...

Pat decides to post progress toward individual goals on the employee bulletin board in order to increase employee

a) resources.

b) goal commitment.

c) specificity.

d) goal complexity.

e) self-set goals.

1e. If Pat sets a SMART goal ...

If Pat sets a SMART goal, it would include

a) collaboration with others.

b) effort ranking.

c) a specific due date.

d) client feedback.

e) bonus pay.

Explanation / Answer

Pat doesn't want to tell each employee how to increase sales because he wants them to develop their own creative methods that everyone can learn from. He knows that good goal setting should lead to development of task strategies

Pat knows that some employees with more work experience will try to exceed his assigned goals with their own self-set goals, or set of internalized goals

To challenge his employees, Pat carefully set a difficult goal for the first week of July based on an analysis of the average sales in past years, in order to maximize employee intensity and persistence

Pat decides to post progress toward individual goals on the employee bulletin board in order to increase employee goal commitment

If Pat sets a SMART goal, it would include a specific due date

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