preview

Management by Objectives

Decent Essays

Management by Objectives

Motivating employees seems to be a challenge for managers - Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the MBO program and provide at least one example to support your discussion.

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 …show more content…

As an example I could refer to the Texas state government, who initiated the management by objectives program in 1978 and ten years later analyzed the results (Lee, 1989, An Analysis of the Implementation and Effectiveness of Management by Objectives (MBO) in Texas State Government). As it was already mentioned beforehand this method has also its advantages and disadvantages, but let’s see which they were in this specific case.

On the whole the analysis highlighted that there was a common agreement that the main elements of the MBO program are practiced at managerial levels. Managers pointed out that their units and divisions became goal and result oriented, the work objectives were clearly defined and were put in writing. There were sufficient checkpoints established and opportunities to meet with the superiors to review

Get Access