Goal-Setting Theory
In the 1960s, Edwin Locke proposed that intentions to work toward a goal are a major
source of work motivation. This theory has been supported in more than one thousand
studies with all types and levels of employees. To motivate, goals must
have specificity, commitment, challenge, and feedback.
Goals need to be specific enough to answer the who, what, when, where, why, and
how of any expectations of the goal. Employees perform better when given specific
goals than they do when given vague or abstract goals. For instance, a manager tells
a stockroom worker to aim to unpack ten boxes by lunchtime rather than telling the
worker to do as much as he can. The specificity of the goal now acts as an internal
stimulus, and the stockroom worker has a specific objective to attain. One common
approach is SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic, and time-bound.
The first step in creating motivation is creating commitment to a goal.
Goal commitment is the degree of determination a person uses to achieve an
accepted goal, and there are two main factors that determine it: importance and self-
efficacy. The reasons a person has for attaining a goal, including expecting certain
outcomes, comprise importance. A person’s belief that he or she can achieve a goal
is self-efficacy. If you commit to a goal, your performance will always be higher.
A goal is meant to present a challenge to an individual, but it should still be attainable.
The level of challenge should be specific to each person to increase their motivation.
The more challenging a goal is, the more focused you become on the task and the
easier it is to avoid unnecessary distractions. You will be energized to work harder
toward the difficult goal. For example, imagine a high jumper training for the Olympics.
With one month left before the trials, her personal best is one-quarter inch away from
the qualifying height. With the goal in sight, she’s energized to train hard over the next
month. People persist longer to attain difficult goals. Finally, and most importantly,
difficult goals will allow us to develop strategies that help us perform more effectively.
Committing to a goal is one way athletes motivate themselves.
Feedback on a goal is an ongoing requirement to be aware of progression or
regression. An employee will require feedback on how well he or she is progressing
toward his or her goals. Feedback can help an employee determine what she has
done and what she wants to do. The easier it is for an individual to monitor his or her
own progress, the quicker the individual will be able to make adjustments, if needed,
or continue without hesitating for feedback.
Reinforcement Theory
In contrast to some other motivational theories, reinforcement theory ignores the inner
state of the individual. Instead it focuses on what happens to an individual when he or
she performs some task or action. Reinforcement theorists see behavior as being
environmentally controlled. Rather than internal thoughts or desires, the theory is that
behaviors are controlled by reinforcers—any consequence that, when immediately
following a response, increases the probability that the behavior will be repeated. For
example, you decided to work over the weekend to finish a project early for your boss.
When your boss finds out about your extra effort, she thanks you and buys you lunch.
Assuming your boss’s reactions were favorable to you, you will be more likely to do
similar deeds in the future. If your boss said or did nothing to acknowledge your extra
work, you would be less likely to demonstrate similar behavior in the future.
Regardless of the simplicity of reinforcement theory, there are lessons to be learned
from proper and improper reward or recognition for behavior. Think of how you would
react if you consistently went above and beyond at work and received no
reinforcement. Is it possible that you might start believing that you were wasting your
time? Or what if a teammate is consistently disruptive and disrespectful, even to the
boss, yet is never reprimanded? Might that teammate continue, even increase, his or
her disruptive behavior?
Reinforcement theory can be useful if you think of it in combination with other theories,
such as goal-setting. If you worked on a team at Microsoft in the 1990s, you were
given difficult tasks to create and ship software on a very strict deadline. Because you
knew the requirements of working there, and you loved the opportunity to challenge
yourself, you were energized to perform. Because Microsoft valued shipping software
on time, you were “fabulously rewarded,” which could mean hundreds or even
thousands of stock options, if you completed your work.
Although reinforcement theory seems straightforward, a manager who uses
reinforcement risks offending his employees. Employees might feel the manager is
treating them like children or dogs and not giving them the respect due an adult. This
video clip from the Big Bang Theory television show illustrates reinforcement. Notice
that Leonard forbids Sheldon from using reinforcement on Penny and himself.
VIDEO LINK [Link]
