In today’s fast-paced life, performance matters a lot and every team members and employees are continuously expected to give their best performance and yield noticeable results to their organization. To let it happen, the managers and the leaders of the entities need to foster them and maintain overall conditions leading to motivating them and making their employees more productive.
As a leader, if you wish all your employees to stay motivated and move forward, you must understand the Goal Setting theory which is an employee engagement tactic that shows the connection between setting challenging goals, motivating them, and hence increasing the performance level of the employees.
In this write up, we will delve deeper into the intricacies of the Goal Setting Theory of motivation. Without any further ado, let’s get into it.
What is Goal Setting Theory of motivation
Goal Setting Theory is a well-researched theory that describes the strong link between goal setting and task performance. Goal setting theory demonstrates that creating more specific, measurable and a bit difficult goals works effectively to enhance employee performance.
Understanding this theory will be very beneficial for the organization that desires to motivate employees and unlock their potential performances. It enables leaders and managers to set robust goals for their organization and implement goal-setting programs for better performances of the workforce.
The concept of goal-setting theory was developed by Edwin A. Locke an American psychologist
In 1968, he published an article named “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives” and revealed the Goal Setting Theory of motivation.
The theory was first published in organizational behavior and human performance and discovered the relationship between goals and task performance. Setting a difficult goal can motivate employees towards a higher level of performance with a “Do your best” approach than easy goals.
Benefits of Goal Setting Theory
- Enhance Employee Enagagement: Every employee is committed to serving their best to achieve the main objectives of the organization and setting a proper goal can dramatically improve employee engagement and performance which ultimately benefits the entire organization.
- Higher Level of Performances:
When the goals is difficult, it is pretty challenging for employees to hit their goals regularly When they do so by giving their best and hitting the specific goals, they enhance their productivity and performance. By doing so, employee can impor the ability to accomplish their work efficiently within the given time frame.
- Adherence to Deadlines and Metrics: Goal Settings theory sets measurable goals, encouraging employees to accomplish their work on time within the given timeframe. It can help the employees to strictly adhere to the defined metrics.
- Broaden applications: This high-performance goal-setting theory can be used for different purposes it can be applied to achieve personal goals, individual goals, team goals, learning goals, or achievement goals.
However, the setting theory offers numerous benefits like high performances of the employees, adherence to the on-time delivery of projects, and many more, but it also has some negative aspects too.
If the goal is set beyond the employee’s skill set, then it is hard to achieve the goals resulting in a drop in performance of the employees contributing to achieving the goals of the entities.
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