Dyadic Goal Setting within Organizations: Role-Making and Motivational Considerations

This article identifies two extensions of the task performance model developed by Locke (36) for examining goal-setting activities in organizations. The first identifies and develops the role-making function of goal-setting activities, introducing the concepts of superior-subordinate consensus and role congruence. The validity of this approach is based on previous research. The second extension considers the contextual variables that may influence the motivational and role-making functions of goal-setting activities. A framework is proposed which considers three categories of contextual variables, the dimensions of goal setting, and the variables that moderate the performance and role stress outcomes.