Unlocking Motivation: The Power of Goal-Setting Theory

The concept that human behavior is inspired and controlled by objectives and aspirations has long been acknowledged by psychologists. Goal-Setting Theory can be traced back to Edwin Locke and Gary Latham; they elaborated on the basic notion of setting goal and have actually described how this drives habits in organization. Goal-setting theory helps to discuss specific differences in inspiration and efficiency. Goals are specified as the wanted outcomes in regards to level of performance to be obtained on a job rather that the desire to take particular area (Muchinsky, 2005).

It is thus an individual's intent to achieve industrialized objectives that can act as a principal factor of inspiration. For circumstances, as a student I have an objective of achieving an A grade on this subject which would encourage me to study well and get involved more in class in order to attain my goal. According to Locke, goals have motivational worth for three reasons which are: objectives serve to direct and focus our attention particular direction; objectives help us to preserve task perseverance; and the presence of goals tends to help with the development task techniques.

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Attributes of goals that make them motivating are the difficulty, acceptance, specificity and feedback to motivate performance. It has been viewed that goals that are difficult are more motivating than easier goals. For instance, a salesperson is going to be more motivated if he has a goal of making $10,000 in commission, rather than a goal of $5,000. The second attribute is the goal acceptance, wherein a person would believe that he can attain a particular goal set to him or by him.

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Goals are much more motivating when they are specified in a particular level of performance, example, an individual must be able to sell 10 units of apartments in the next month rather than ‘be a good salesperson’ which is very vague motivation. Attaining a goal is often a hard process; thus it is important that employees receive feedback regarding their progress and once a goal is accomplished a pleasurable emotional state called job satisfaction will be experience. Principles of goal-setting theory has been a very influential approach and one of the most valid and practiced theories of employee motivation in organizational psychology.

Updated: Nov 20, 2023
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Unlocking Motivation: The Power of Goal-Setting Theory. (2016, Nov 06). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/goal-setting-theory-essay

Unlocking Motivation: The Power of Goal-Setting Theory essay
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