Principles of Organizational Behavior, 3rd Edition

5Motivate Employee Performance Through Goal Setting

GARY P. LATHAM

Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, 105 St. George Street Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3E6email: [e-mail]: [phone]

Goal setting theory (Latham and Locke, 2007, 2018) provides a framework that specifies the most valid and practical ways of increasing employee motivation. This conclusion has been reached by multiple authors working independently (e.g. Earley and Lee, 1992; Miner, 1984; Pinder, 2008). The conclusion is based on the fact that the theory has been used effectively in more than 1000 studies to predict, influence, and explain the behavior of thousands of people in numerous countries (e.g. Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, England, Germany, Israel, Japan, and the United States), in both laboratory and field settings, involving more than 100 different tasks in occupations that included logging, word processing, engineering, and university scholarship (Locke and Latham, 1990; Mitchell and Daniels, 2003). Although developed as a theory of motivation in the workplace, it has been used effectively in leadership, entrepreneurship, sports, negotiations, and to increase creativity as well as the academic performance of university students (Locke and Latham, 2013). The theory has even been found useful for promoting the motivational processes of brain-injured patients (Gauggel, 1999; Prigatano, Wong, Williams, and Plenge, 1997).

MAIN PRINCIPLE

The theory states that the simplest ...