Goal-Setting Theory (Edwin Locke)

Specific and difficult goals, with selfgenerated feedback, leads to higher

performance.

Specific goals produce a higher level of output than do

generalized goals.
More difficult the goal, higher the level of performance.
Why are people motivated by difficult goals?
Challenging goals get our attention and thus tend to
help us focus.
They energize us because we have to work harder to
achieve them.
They lead us to discover strategies that help us
perform the job or task more effectively

Goal-Setting Theory
Relationship between goals and performance
depends on:
Goal commitment
Task characteristics
National culture

What Is MBO?
Management by Objectives (MBO)
A program that encompasses specific goals,
participatively set, for an explicit time period, with
feedback on goal progress.

Key
KeyElements
Elements
1.
1.
2.
2.
3.
3.
4.
4.

Goal
Goalspecificity
specificity
Participative
Participativedecision
decisionmaking
making
An
Anexplicit
explicittime
timeperiod
period
Performance
Performancefeedback
feedback