Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

MOTIVATE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE THROUGH GOAL SETTING
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that benchmark, or is in the process of doing so. Finding and visiting this additional
organization increases the belief that “ if they can, so can we. ”
The American Pulpwood Association found that supervisory presence and support is also a
key to goal commitment and productivity (Ronan, Latham, and Kinne, 1973 ). When the
goal is assigned by a supportive authority figure, goal commitment and performance are
high (Latham and Saari, 1979a ). These findings are supported by a meta - analysis that
showed a 56% average gain in productivity when management commitment to a MBO
program is high versus a 6% increase when their commitment is low (Rodgers and Hunter,
1991 ). Thus, it is not surprising that Bandura (see Chapter 10 ) found that a third way of
increasing self - efficacy is through persuasion from a significant other. People tend to behave
in accordance with the expectations of those people who are significant to them. Assigned
goals themselves usually lead to high goal commitment because listening to the assignment
without objection is in itself a form of consent (Salancik, 1977 ). Assigning the goal implies
that the recipient is capable of attaining it, which in turn increases the person’ s self - effi cacy
regarding the task.
Bandura, a past president of the American Psychological Association, and a past honorary
president of the Canadian Psychological Association, addressed a classroom of
executives as follows:
We know that intelligence is fixed. You either have it or you don’t. We are going to
put you through a simulation consisting of tasks that you typically confront as CEOs.
I know you will fi nd these tasks frustrating and seemingly impossible.
In an adjoining room, he addressed the other half of the class of executives as follows:
We know that intelligence is not fixed. Intelligence is the ability to apply what you
have learned on previous tasks to present ones. We are going to put you through a
simulation consisting of tasks that you typically confront as CEOs. I know that you will
fi nd these tasks challenging and fun.
Several hours later he pushed back the dividing wall. The people in the second group
were laughing among themselves as to how similar the simulation was to their daily work
lives, and how much they had learned from their experiences that afternoon. The people
in the first group were truly angry and frustrated. They demanded to be allowed to go
through the same simulation as the second group before their four weeks of executive
education at Stanford came to a close. The simulation that they had gone through, they
claimed, was not similar at all to what they encountered on their jobs, and hence was a
waste of their time.
In short, both groups behaved in accordance with Bandura ’s expectations of them,
despite the fact that the simulation was identical for both groups. In less than a minute,
Bandura ’s expectations of one group of executives ruined their afternoon and for the
other group he had the opposite effect.
A coach may or may not be a significant other for the person who is being coached.
Thus a role of you as a coach is to determine the identity of the person’s signifi cant other,
and have that individual or individuals communicate, if true, why they believe the person
can attain a specifi c high goal.
The most powerful significant other is one ’ s self. Verbal self - guidance (VSG) or functional
self - talk can increase or debilitate self - confidence in goal attainment. We are often our