John R. Hollenbeck

Goal Commitment and the Goal-Setting Process: Problems, Prospects, and Proposals for Future Research

The purpose of this article is to examine the role of goal commitment in goal-setting research. Despite Lockes (1968) specification that commitment to goals is a necessary condition for the effectiveness of goal setting, a majority of studies in this area have ignored goal commitment. In addition, results of studies that have examined the effects of goal commitment were typically inconsistent with conceptualization of commitment as a moderator. Building on past research, we have developed a model of the goal commitment process and then used it to reinterpret past goal-setting research. We show that the widely varying sizes of the effect of goal difficulty, conditional effects of goal difficulty, and inconsistent results with variables such as participation can largely be traced to main and interactive effects of the variables specified by the model.

Goal commitment and the goal-setting process: conceptual clarification and empirical synthesis.

Goals are central to current treatments of work motivation, and goal commitment is a critical construct in understanding the relationship between goals and task performance. Despite this importance, there is confusion about the role of goal commitment and only recently has this key construct received the empirical attention it warrants. This meta-analysis, based on 83 independent samples, updates the goal commitment literature by summarizing the accumulated evidence on the antecedents and consequences of goal commitment. Using this aggregate empirical evidence, the role of goal commitment in the goal-setting process is clarified and key areas for future research are identified.

Cooperation, Competition, and Team Performance: Toward a Contingency Approach

A passive, reusable visual amusement or warning device includes a handle and a number of light diffracting strips bearing an embossed holographically generated diffraction pattern. The diffraction pattern in the foil is produced in a planar format, and the strips bearing the pattern are displayed and viewed in a curved format. Ambient light striking the strips is diffracted to produce a dynamic, kaleidoscopic readily noticed display of brilliant colors.

Team learning: collectively connecting the dots.

This article tests the degree to which personal and situational variables impact the acquisition of knowledge and skill within interactive project teams. On the basis of the literature regarding attentional capacity, constructive controversy, and truth-supported wins, the authors examined the effects of cognitive ability, workload distribution, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and structure on team learning. Results from 109 four-person project teams working on an interdependent command and control simulator indicated that teams learned more when composed of individuals who were high in cognitive ability and when the workload was distributed evenly. Conversely, team learning was negatively affected when teams were composed of individuals who were high in Agreeableness. Finally, teams using a paired structure learned more than teams structured either functionally or divisionally. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as possible limitations and directions for future research.

Backing up behaviors in teams: the role of personality and legitimacy of need.

In this article, the authors developed several hypotheses regarding both the main and interactive effects of 2 types of team inputs on backing up behaviors in teams: (a) team composition characteristics in terms of the personality of the members of the team and (b) team task characteristics in terms of the extent to which the nature of the task is one that legitimately calls for some members of the team to back up other members of the team. Results from a study of 71 4-person teams performing a computerized tactical decision-making task suggest that the legitimacy of the need for back up has an important main effect on the extent to which team members provide assistance to and receive assistance from each other. In addition, the legitimacy of the need for back up also has important interactive effects with both the personality of the back up recipient and the personality of the back up providers on backing up behaviors in teams.

Investigation of the construct validity of a self-report measure of goal commitment.

The purpose of this research was to develop an etficient, construct-valid measure of goal commitment. Drawing from a set of 9 unidimensional items, a 4-item unidimensional scale was developed that exhibited a .71 internal consistency estimate of reliability. This scale showed statistically significant relationships with 3 alternative measures of the same construct: force to attain the goal, self-set goal-assigned-goal discrepancy, and actual goal change. With respect to other constructs in the goal commitment nomological net, the results indicated that the scale was consistently related to performance. Moreover, the pattern of the results with expected antecedents such as goal publicness, monetary incentives, need for achievement, locus of control, and task involvement were statistically significant and in the predicted direction. The major finding emanating from goal-setting research is that difficult goals lead to higher levels of performance than do easy or vague goals (Locke, Shaw, Saari, & Latham, 1981). This finding is predicated on the assumption, however, that there is commitment to those difficult goals. Lockes emphasis on the critical role played by goal commitment has not diminished

Some issues associated with the use of moderated regression

Abstract In recent years, some degree of controversy has arisen over the methods that researchers should employ in the detection of moderating effects. More specifically, both M. R. Blood and G. M. Mullet (1977, Where have all the moderators gone?: The perils of type II error, Tech. Rep. No. 11, College of Industrial Management, Georgia Institute of Technology) and H. J. Arnold (1982, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 29, 143–174) have challenged the use of “conventional” moderated regression (e.g., S. Zedeck (1971, Psychological Bulletin, 76, 295–310) as an appropriate method for the analysis of moderating effects. Blood and Mullet, for example, have argued that conventional moderated regression is an overly “conservative” technique that is generally incapable of detecting moderating effects—even in data bases “constructed” so as to have strong interaction components. To remedy this problem, they suggest a “backward entry” regression analysis in which the interaction term is the first variable entered into the regression. Also critical of conventional moderated regression, Arnold argues that the same analytic strategy is inappropriate in instances where the researchers concern is to demonstrate differing “degrees” of correlation between two variables for moderator variable based “subgroups.” The purpose of the present paper is to show that both the arguments of Blood and Mullet and those of Arnold are incorrect. The difficulties associated with the backward entry procedure are demonstrated through the use of Monte Carlo simulation methods. Results of the simulations revealed that the moderated regression analytic procedure is well suited to the detection of statistical interactions (i.e., moderating effects)—even in data bases constructed so as to have (a) very strong main effects for both the independent variable and the moderator variable, (b) dependent variables having large error components, (c) independent and moderator variables having only modest reliability levels, and (d) partially redundant (multicollinear) independent and moderator variables. The errors inherent in the recent arguments of Arnold are shown to result from (a) an unduly restrictive definition of the “degree of relationship” concept, and (b) a seeming belief that differences in correlation coefficients have necessary implications for the accuracy with which scores on one variables can be predicted on the basis of knowledge of scores on another variable. Implications of the present studys analyses are offered.

Structural contingency theory and individual differences: Examination of external and internal person-team fit

This article develops and tests a structurally based, integrated theory of person-team fit. The theory developed is an extension of structural contingency theory and considers issues of external fit simultaneously with its examination of internal fit at the team level. Results from 80 teams working on an interdependent team task indicate that divisional structures demand high levels of cognitive ability on the part of teammembers. However, the advantages of high cognitive ability in divisional structures are neutralized when there is poor external fit between the structure and the environment. Instead, emotional stability becomes a critical factor among teammembers when a divisional structure is out of alignment with its environment. Individual differences seem to play little or no role in functional structures, regardless of the degree of external fit.

The effects of individual differences and goal origin on goal setting and performance

Abstract The purpose of this study is to clarify the roles played by individual differences and goal origin in the goal setting process. In order to accomplish this objective this study (a) briefly reviews the existing empirical evidence on individual differences in the goal setting literature, (b) develops a model of the goal-setting process that specifies different roles for individual differences depending upon goal origin, and (c) tests hypotheses generated by this model in a laboratory setting. The results indicate that under self-set conditions variables associated with self-perceptions of task-specific ability, but not generalized self-esteem, are related to the difficulty of the goals selected, with more difficult goals being set by individuals high in task-specific ability perceptions. Furthermore, when goals are self-set, regardless of individual differences, the expectancy and valence of goal attainment tends to be high and invariant relative to assigned conditions (i.e., the motivation to pursue the goal is high), and a strong goal difficulty-performance relationship is in evidence for all subjects. Under assigned goal conditions, individual differences determine the reaction to the assigned goal. Individuals high in task-specific self-esteem have stronger expectancies for attaining the goal relative to those low in this trait; and, individuals high in generalized self-esteem exhibit higher valence for goal attainment than those low in generalized self-esteem. In assigned conditions, there was a positive goal difficulty-performance relationship only for individuals high in generalized self-esteem. Some evidence actually suggested that for subjects low in generalized self-esteem, it is better to assign low goals. Low goals seem to increase the self-perceived task-specific ability of these subjects which relates positively with performance.

Asymmetric adaptability: Dynamic team structures as one-way streets

This study tested whether teams working on a command and control simulation adapted to structural change in the manner implied by contingency theories. Teams shifting from a functional to a divisional structure showed better performance than teams making a divisional-to-functional shift. Team levels of coordination mediated this difference, and team levels of cognitive ability moderated it. We argue that the static logic behind many contingency theories should be complemented with a dynamic logic challenging the assumption of symmetrical adaptation.