AN EXPLORATORY-STUDY OF GOAL-SETTING IN THEORY AND PRACTICE - A MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUE THAT WORKS

Although goal setting is a common organizational practice, studies con cerning goal setting have almost exclusively been carried out in exper imental settings. Ir may therefore be erroneous to assume chat the rel ationships found to exist in controlled settings will hold true within organizations. Goal difficulty and participation in the goal setting process were examined as they related to goal performance. Participant s were 132 scientists and professional staff, and 27 of their supervis ors. The positive linear relationship between goal difficulty and perf ormance typically found in controlled settings was not replicated. Con sistent with some previous studies, a modest but significant relations hip between participation and performance was found. The results of th is research have implications for practitioners, researchers conductin g goal setting studies within applied settings, and for goal setting t heory in general.