THE EFFECTS OF VARYING GOAL DIFFICULTY OPERATIONALIZATIONS ON GOAL-SETTING OUTCOMES AND PROCESSES

The three studies reported here investigated the effect of operational ization of goal difficulty on the relationship between goal difficulty and performance. Subjects were assigned goals (easy, moderately diffi cult, or very difficult) under either an absolute goal level or perfor mance improvement condition. Results indicated that the goal difficult y interacted with operationalization in affecting performance. Specifi cally, there was a linear relationship between goal difficulty and per formance when goals were operationalized in terms of absolute level, b ut an inverted U-relationship between these two variables when goals w ere operationalized in terms of performance improvement. This interact ion held up despite controlling for normative goal difficulty, perform ance improvement difficulty and absolute goal level difficulty. The ef fects of operationalization seemed to be attributable to differences i n self-set goal levels, particularly among high ability persons. Taken as a whole, these studies indicate that how assigned goals are derive d and how they are communicated to subjects affects goal setting outco mes. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.