The role of task-goal attributes in employee performance.
Abstract
While many studies have demonstrated the relatively successful performance implications of formalized goal-setting programs in organizations, these findings typically do not identify the specific factors behind such techniques which are largely responsible for their success. The six 'task goal attributes' are: goal specificity; participation in goal-setting; feedback; peer competition; goal difficulty; and goal acceptance. While goal specificity and goal acceptance were found to be most consistently related to performance, several intervening variables on performance. The findings are discussed within a motivational framework and it is argued, based on the data, that performance under goal-setting conditions is a function of at least three important variables: the nature of the task goals, additional situational-environmental factors, and individual differences. (Modified author abstract)
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Certain properties of goals, such as their specificity and level, help to provide clear standards of adequacy.
“Certain properties of goals, such as their specificity and level, help to provide clear standards of adequacy (Latham & Yukl, 1975;Locke, 1968;Steers & Porter, 1974).”
From Cultivating competence, self-efficacy, and intrinsic interest through proximal self-motivation. (1981) · cites this paper as Steers & Porter, 1974
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 95 · Cited by 238
- Authors
- Steers, R. M., & Porter, L. W.
- Affiliations
- Oakland University (US)
- ORCID
- Steers, Richard M.
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 1974-07
- Volume
- 81
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 434-452
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- OpenAlex
- W1998844911
- Cited by
- 238
- References
- 95
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 30.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Employee Performance and Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Employee Performance and Motivation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Keywords
- goal setting, employee performance, goal specificity, goal acceptance, feedback, peer competition, goal difficulty, motivation, individual differences, situational factors
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
