A meta-analytic study of the effects of goal setting on task performance: 1966–1984

https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(87)90045-8Get rights and content

Abstract

A meta-analytic study was conducted involving primarily published research from 1966 to 1984 and focusing on the relationship between goal-setting variables and task performance. Two major sets of studies were analyzed, those contrasting hard goals (goal difficulty) versus easy goals, and those comparing specific hard goals (goal specificity/difficulty) versus general goals, “do best” instructions, or no goal. As expected, strong support was obtained for the goal difficulty and goal specificity/difficulty components of E. A. Locke's (1968a, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 3, 157–189) theory. A two-stage approach was employed to identify potential moderators of the goal difficulty and goal specificity/difficulty—performance relationships. Setting (laboratory versus field) was identified as a moderator of the relationship between goal specificity/difficulty and task performance. Two supplemental meta-analyses yielded support for the efficacy of combining specific hard goals with feedback versus specific hard goals without feedback and for participatively set goals versus assigned goal setting (when goal level is held constant), although this latter finding was interpreted as inconclusive based on the limited studies available. Implications for future research are addressed.

References (137)

  • J.T Austin et al.

    The application of goal setting: Some boundary conditions and future research

  • A Bandura et al.

    Self-evaluation and self-efficacy mechanisms governing the motivational effects of goal systems

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1983)
  • A Bandura et al.

    Cultivating competence, self-efficacy, and intrinsic interest through proximal self-motivation

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1981)
  • J.B Bavelas et al.

    Effects of goal level on performance: A tradeoff of quantity and quality

    Canadian Journal of Psychology

    (1978)
  • L.J Becker

    Joint effect of feedback and goal setting on performance: A field study of residential energy conservation

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1978)
  • W.S Blumenfeld et al.

    Effectiveness of goal setting as a management device: Research note

    Psychological Reports

    (1969)
  • P Bobko et al.

    Estimation of standard deviation in utility analyses: An empirical test

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1983)
  • J.F Bryan et al.

    Goal-setting as a means of increasing motivation

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1967)
  • R.J Burke et al.

    Characteristics of effective employee performance review and development

    Personnel Psychology

    (1969)
  • D.J Campbell

    The effect of goal contingent payment on the performance of a complex task

    Personnel Psychology

    (1984)
  • D.J Campbell et al.

    Additive effects of task difficulty and goal setting on subsequent task performance

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1976)
  • J.S Chhokar et al.

    A field study of the effect of feedback frequency on performance

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1984)
  • T.R Chidester et al.

    A meta-analysis of the goal setting-performance literature

  • H.M Cooper

    Statistically combining independent studies: A meta-analysis of sex differences in conformity research

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1979)
  • H.P Dachler et al.

    Construct validation of an instrumentality-expec-tancy-task-goal model of work motivation: Some theoretical boundary conditions

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1973)
  • M.K Dey et al.

    Facilitation of performance by experimentally induced ego motivation

    Journal of General Psychology

    (1965)
  • D.L Dossett et al.

    The effects of assigned versus participatively set goals, KR, and individual differences when goal difficulty is held constant

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1979)
  • D.L Dossett et al.

    The impact of goal setting on survey returns

    Academy of Management Journal

    (1980)
  • M Erez

    Feedback: A necessary condition for the goal setting-performance relationship

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1977)
  • M Erez et al.

    Effect of goal acceptance on the relationship of goal difficulty to performance

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1984)
  • C.D Fisher et al.

    A meta-analysis of the correlates of role conflict and ambiguity

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1983)
  • H Garland

    Goal levels and task performance: A compelling replication of some compelling results

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1982)
  • H Garland

    Influence of ability, assigned goals, and normative information on personal goals and performance: A challenge to the goal attainability assumption

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1983)
  • H Garland

    A cognitive mediation theory of task goals and human performance

  • H Garland

    Relation of effort performance expectancy to performance in goal setting experiments

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1984)
  • G.V Glass

    Primary, secondary and meta-analysis of research

    Educational Researcher

    (1976)
  • G.V Glass

    Integrating findings: The meta-analysis of research

    Review of Research in Education

    (1977)
  • G.V Glass et al.
  • B.F Green et al.

    Quantitative methods for literature reviews

    Annual Review of Psychology

    (1984)
  • D.T Hall et al.

    A psychological success cycle and goal setting: Goals, performance, and attitudes

    Academy of Management Journal

    (1977)
  • W.C Hamner et al.

    Goal-setting, performance and satisfaction in an interdependent task

    Organizational Behavior and Human Performance

    (1974)
  • J.E Hunter et al.

    Quantifying the effects of psychological interventions on employee job performance and work-force productivity

    American Psychologist

    (1983)
  • J.E Hunter et al.
  • J.M Ivancevich

    Effects of goal setting on performance and job satisfaction

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1976)
  • J.M Ivancevich

    Different goal setting treatments and their effects on performance and job satisfaction

    Academy of Management Journal

    (1977)
  • J.M Ivancevich

    Subordinates' reactions to performance appraisal interviews: A test of feedback and goal-setting techniques

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1982)
  • J.M Ivancevich et al.

    A study of task goal attributes, higher order need strength, and performance

    Academy of Management Journal

    (1977)
  • J.M Ivancevich et al.

    The effects of goal setting, external feedback, and self-generated feedback on outcome variables: A field experiment

    Academy of Management Journal

    (1982)
  • S.E Jackson et al.

    Explaining performance variability: Contributions of goal setting, task characteristics and evaluative contexts

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1982)
  • R Kaplan et al.

    Instructional objectives as directions to learners: Effect of passage length and amount of objective-relevant content

    Journal of Educational Psychology

    (1974)
  • Cited by (369)

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Funding for this research was made available to the senior author through a Summer Research Grant from the Sellinger School of Business at Loyola College.

    View full text