The Effects of Three Participative Goal Setting Strategies on Task Goal Attributes and Perfor Mance

Abstract

Historically, goal-setting research has included attempts to gauge the importance of participation on perfor Mance and other task-goal attributes such as satisfaction. But much of the prevailing research has failed to recognise the dynamics of the process itself. In an attempt to determine if variation in the level of participation would have any impact, a laboratory experiment using clerical-type tasks was conducted with 72 students separated into participative and assigned goal-setting conditions. Those in the participative condition were assigned to one of three strategies which varied the actual participation allowed. It was hypothesized that both condition and strategies would affect such factors as perfor Mance and satisfaction. Results indicated that the participative condition did not have a significant impact but that there were some differences created by using different participative strategies. Discussion centered on the implications for organisations considering a participative management philosophy and suggestions for further research.