Autonomy In The Workplace

“Goal setting implies a discontent with one’s present condition and desire to attain an object or outcome” (E.A Locke & G.P. Latham, 2006). In other words, when one knows he wants something else from life, he builds a map of his journey. In a study conducted by Harvard Business School on what constitutes a failure or a success for a group of similar background and education, they found that only 3% are successful, and 30% are moderately successful, the remainder are watching the world go by. The difference between these two first groups is that the 3% one had specific goals, whereas the 30% group had a general idea of the direction they need to reach but didn’t formalize it. ‘Setting goals gives you long term vision and short-term motivation’ (Mind Tools, 2009). When setting goals, one will often hear that goals need to be (1) Specific, (2) Measurable, (3) Achievable, (4) Realistic and (5) Time bound. The SMART objective of goals ensures proper monitoring and outcome. Short-term goals are the smaller steps to reach the long-term goal and can be seen as the first level of to-do list.

1. Goal Theory: Goal setting as a means to improve performance. Specific goals lead to higher performance than general goals. Additionally, this strategy is useful because others are depending on one another to achieve goals for the greater good.

It is widely known that goal setting is a vital part of achieving success and improving overall performance. Our modern understanding of goal setting came from Dr Edwin Locke’s research in the late 1960’s. In his 1968 article, “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives”, he showed that employees are motivated and their performance improves when they are set clear, achievable goals, and receive appropriate feedback. He found specific, challenging goals lead to the highest performance, as long as the goals are not too challenging.

The first pro of goal setting is too increase performance. The specific challenging goals increase performance more than the unchallenging goals (Ordóñez et al., 2009, p.3). So why does setting specific challenging goals increase performance? “So long as a person is committed to the goal, has the requisite ability to attain it, and does not have conflicting goals, there is a positive, linear relationship between goal difficulty and task performance” (Ordóñez et al., 2009, p.3). Workers committed to goals will try harder to complete the goals because there is a path to follow, they can develop plans to achieve goals, and with goals there is more focus to the goals that it must be achieved so the workers work harder to complete them. There is also more effort and the workers become persistent in completing the goal. Another benefit of goal setting is that people are more committed to completing challenging goals because they company sets them and it will benefit the company. For example,

Then there is the autonomy. Within my job, there is a high autonomy. The individual does the majority of work without micromanagement. The only time we are looked over is during the process of a critical medication or chemo. My job is great when it comes to feedback. The pharmacist lets the individual know if something is not done right and when an individual does a great job. Lastly, there is the task significance. The healthcare field is a place that has a massive impact on people. Within the pharmaceutical area, we are responsible for getting the patients the correct medications and correct dosing when processing the orders.

: Given the right set of circumstances, it does seem possible for self-actualization to be supported by employers/supervisors. For example, in the article by Holman et al. (2012) from discussion question three, the authors discuss the use of job design such as job control, which is one way of providing autonomy to employees for the timing and methods of work tasks. This workplace autonomy would likely provide growth opportunities for employees and may offer an avenue for them to explore the realization of their full potential. Autonomy in work environments does have empirical support for promoting higher levels of self-determination for both employees and managers, which in turn implies personal development and self-actualization (Arnaud &

In this case, principles of Goal setting principles have been applied to represent an alternative to working harder, which is working smarter. The citation below shows has been achieved:

Edwin Locke and Gary Latham will be the first ones to openly admit there are active limitations with the goal setting theory. It is not uncommon for individual goals to conflict with organizational goals. Moreover, research has proven complex goals have sparked motivation in teams to implement strategies with substantially high amounts of risk (Knight, Durham, & Locke, 2001). Sometimes people will believe higher risk strategies produce the greatest returns, yet high-risk goals consistently result in failure as well (Knight et. al, 2001). Additionally, when individuals simultaneously create two goals there is a greater chance they exert too much energy and focus on achieving just one of those goals. This can lead to one of the goals not receiving enough attention, which can potentially result in the person failing to reach the end result in either goal. In short, these are three common limitations of goal setting that typically draw concerns from other researchers and theorists. However, it is important people are aware of the limitations that do not receive as much attention, such as team goal setting, unethical behavior in high performance goals, and subconscious goals.

Goal setting is one of the cornerstones of self-improvement and achieving success. In fact, it's pretty much impossible to reach your maximum potential without setting goals and putting them down in writing. Every successful business in America knows this to be true. Every publicly traded corporation issues regular reports to their shareholders, and they always include specific, tangible goals for the next reporting period. Every department head at that business will also have goals for the coming quarter and year. But many individuals who try goal setting fail. Why is that? Because they do not understand how to write a personal goal statement.

The Path-Goal Model follows a directive path in the implementation of the theoretical model. The model asserts that everybody is always motivated by empowerment following an excellent performance. In the analysis, it is clear that some employees tend to focus their performance on the star that will follow such performance. According to Vrooms Expectancy theory, expectations rule our effectiveness in various fields of operation (Achua and Lussier, 2013). The leaders usually analyze the behavior of the employees then try to relate them to the proposed plan of

Layman’s HIS case study article did not explicitly discuss goal-setting. However, thoughtful goal-setting is a well-advised practice for many jobs as it has been shown to increase motivation and performance (Carpenter and Erdogan, 2009). There are four major reasons why goals motivate employees to perform better. The first reason is that goals give direction

To motivate employees, goals must take into consideration the degree to which each of the following exists: clarity, challenge, commitment, feedback and task complexity. If all five of these elements are present, goal theory says that we will be motivated to produce to a maximum. The specificity of the goal acts as an internal stimulus, the more difficult the goal, the higher the level of performance. Difficult goals energise us because we have to work harder and persist to attain them.

Goal setting is one of four components of a company’s development planning process. A company establishes the development planning process, or career management system, as a means to retain their better employees. The development planning process may also be a motivation for all employees to improve their value to the employer. The employer may look for employees who have potential to advance up the career ladder within the company, or simply allow the employee to move to a different department that is aligned with his or her interests.

Well-defined goals make it easier to monitor individual and organizational progress, make necessary changes and address issues before they become threat. Goals setting establish clear job performance which becomes easier for managers for training and support of employees. Therefore; Malcomn Fieschner and J.D. Holzgrefe in Selling Power stated that whether writing long or short term goals, one should follow “SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound” (Lewis, 2000). Additionally; managers might need to provide

Goal-Setting Theories have evolved since the 50s and have an impressive documented literature. The Goal-Setting Theory addresses the issues that goal specificity, challenge, and feedback have on performance (Robbins, 2009, p185). Setting goals and motivating employees are always an important issue for a manager, however in certain cases it is difficult to make it operational. A more systematic way to utilize goal setting is with the management by objectives program (MBO), which introduced the system of SMART method of goals that