BUSI 240 Week 3 Discussion Board Forum 2 Thread Example

Discussion Board Forum 2 Thread: Goal Setting as a Motivation Practice

BUSI 240 Organizational Behavior and Management, Discussion Board Forum 2 Thread

Thread by [Student Name]

The workplace example is a composite; the textbook and studies cited are real, and textbook locations are given by chapter.

The key term I chose is goal setting, which McShane and Von Glinow (2015, ch. 5) describe as the process of motivating employees and clarifying their role perceptions by establishing performance objectives. Goal setting is one of the most practical ideas in the motivation chapters, because almost every workplace already uses goals; the question is whether they use them well.

Goals improve performance through several mechanisms. Looking across roughly 35 years of their own and others' experiments, Locke and Latham (2002) reported a remarkably steady pattern: a precise, stretching target beat both an easy target and the familiar instruction to "do your best." Such goals direct attention toward what matters, raise the effort people put in, make them persist longer and prompt them to look for better ways of working. Three conditions amplify the effect: genuine commitment to the target, regular information about progress, and enough skill to make the target reachable.

The textbook turns these findings into a checklist for effective goals: they should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-framed, exciting and reviewed (McShane & Von Glinow, 2015, ch. 5). The last two elements are easy to overlook. A goal that employees find exciting earns commitment, and a goal that is reviewed regularly gives the feedback that keeps effort on track.

Goals also have a darker side. Ordonez et al. (2009) push back against treating goals as a cure-all. In their account, a tightly drawn target invites people to neglect whatever the target leaves out, a stretch target can tempt them toward reckless or dishonest shortcuts, and a constant focus on hitting numbers can squeeze out learning and teamwork. A goal tells people what matters, and they will often sacrifice everything it leaves out.

A composite call center shows both sides. Management set a goal of reducing average call time from eight minutes to five. Within a month, the goal was met, but repeat calls rose sharply because agents were ending calls before customers' problems were solved. The goal was specific, measurable and time-framed, but it was not relevant to what customers actually needed. When the center added a second goal for first-call resolution and reviewed both each week, call times settled near six minutes and repeat calls fell.

The example also shows why the textbook insists that goals be reviewed. Without the weekly review, the center might have celebrated the faster calls for months while customer frustration grew, because the measure everyone watched kept improving. A review that looks beyond the target itself is how an organization notices that a goal has started to distort behavior.

For managers, the research suggests three guidelines. Set specific, challenging goals tied to what the organization truly values, not only what is easy to count. Pair any speed or volume goal with a quality goal. And review goals often enough to catch side effects before they become habits.

References

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705

McShane, S. L., & Von Glinow, M. A. (2015). Organizational behavior: Emerging knowledge, global reality (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Ordonez, L. D., Schweitzer, M. E., Galinsky, A. D., & Bazerman, M. H. (2009). Goals gone wild: The systematic side effects of overprescribing goal setting. Academy of Management Perspectives, 23(1), 6-16. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2009.37007999