THE ROLE OF COMMITMENT IN THE SUCCESS OF GOAL SETTING AS A MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUE

THOMAS L. RAKESTRAW, Purdue University

Abstract

The expressed intention of this investigation was to demonstrate the importance of commitment in Locke's (1968) description of goal setting as a motivational technique. Although numerous researchers in this area have described commitment as a necessary mediating variable in the link between goal levels and subsequent performance, no one has been able to find statistically significant relationships among all of the variables in this process. This failure has been primarily due to an inability to discover or create the variability in commitment which is necessary to adequately test Locke's model. The current investigation varied two factors which were believed to be prominent determinants of individuals' goal commitment, expectations and values of success, with respect to assigned goals on an anagram task. After a brief description of the task, subjects were presented with an easy, moderate or difficult goal. A high valence for goal attainment was created for approximately half of the subjects by informing them that successfully reaching their assigned goal would make them eligible for a lottery with a prize of fifty dollars. The remaining subjects were told that the task was under development for use in future research and no mention was made of the lottery. As a third independent variable, the subjects' task instructions included information concerning the experimenter's expectations of them reaching their assigned goal. Approximately half of the subjects were told that the experimenter felt there was a low chance of them reaching their goal while high expectations of goal attainment were transmitted to the remaining subjects. Main effects were found for both goal attractiveness and expectations of goal attainment on the subjects' goal commitment. Furthermore, as was expected, the subjects' goal commitment was significantly related to the amount of time they spent working on the task. Goal commitment was also significantly correlated with the subjects' task performance, however, this effect was minimal in relation to the direct effect of task goals on the number of anagrams the subjects solved. Goal level was the only independent variable to have an impact on task performance in the analysis of variance of the total number of anagrams the subjects successfully solved. Additionally, the relationship between goal level and performance was not affected by partialling the variance due to commitment.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Occupational psychology

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