How does goal setting influence motivation

Three office workers image by Vladimir Melnik from Fotolia. Goal setting and its influence on employee behavior and performance has been widely researched and discussed. Successful implementation of goal-setting strategies will result in employees being more motivated to complete specific tasks as well as higher morale and a more effective workplace. The theory of goal setting and its motivational impact has been studied extensively.

As early as , Edwin A. Eisenhardt, who developed the Agency Theory, dealing with the influence of target setting on human behavior. Most modern research on goal-setting is based on the earlier works of Locke and Eisenhardt.

Higher the level of self-efficiency, greater will be the efforts pm in by the individual when they face challenging tasks. While lower the level of self-efficiency, less will be the efforts put in by the individual or he might even quit while meeting challenges. The goal-setting theory assumes that the individual is committed to the goal and will not leave the goal.

The goal commitment is dependent on the following factors:. In recent years, there has been an uptick in the number of companies linking organizational business goals to functional business objectives, and converting those into team-performance goals. This encourages accountability and better performance as individuals grasp the direct impact of their performance.

Goals should never be seen as stagnant, but dynamic and evolving. One common mistake is setting goals at the beginning of the year and forgetting about them until review season.

As realities fluctuate throughout the year, failing to revisit goals can be demotivating. At one multinational company McKinsey works with, for example, targets are updated if the assumptions used to set them change unexpectedly. This has helped establish a performance-management system that helps motivate performance. Never miss an insight. The mental side of sport is now seen as being just as important as the physical side and research has illustrated that goal setting is one of the most effective tools when it comes to providing athletes with a psychological edge.

The value of goal setting is encapsulated by David Harrison when he wrote:. Goal setting is an extremely powerful technique for enhancing performance so it is one of the most important strategies you can implement for success in any environment. Goal setting helps to focus attention and it is critical to maintain and enhance motivation. Goal setting gives direction both in the short term and the long term and you can see success as you achieve your short term goals.

These goals can be broken down into three categories Outcome goals deal with specific results in competition, while performance goals deal with helping an athlete make improvements over a period of time. Process goals are the aspects a competitor should be concentrating on when carrying out a specific skill.