17.6 Employees' Responses to Planning

Employee motivation and goal setting are crucial for organizational success. Setting specific, challenging goals leads to higher performance and boosts employee satisfaction. Effective goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, providing clear direction and focus for employees.

Control systems monitor and regulate employee behavior, impacting performance and engagement. While they ensure accountability and consistency, excessive controls can limit autonomy and creativity. Balancing the benefits and drawbacks of control systems is essential for maintaining a positive organizational culture and fostering employee commitment.

Employee Motivation and Goal Setting

Goal setting and employee outcomes

Top images from around the web for Goal setting and employee outcomes

• 

  Frontiers | Intrinsic Rewards and Employee's Performance With the Mediating Mechanism of ... View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Early Theories of Motivation | OpenStax Intro to Business View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Managerial Responses to Motivation | Organizational Behavior and Human Relations View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Frontiers | Intrinsic Rewards and Employee's Performance With the Mediating Mechanism of ... View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Early Theories of Motivation | OpenStax Intro to Business View original

  Is this image relevant?

1 of 3

Top images from around the web for Goal setting and employee outcomes

• 

  Frontiers | Intrinsic Rewards and Employee's Performance With the Mediating Mechanism of ... View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Early Theories of Motivation | OpenStax Intro to Business View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Managerial Responses to Motivation | Organizational Behavior and Human Relations View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Frontiers | Intrinsic Rewards and Employee's Performance With the Mediating Mechanism of ... View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Early Theories of Motivation | OpenStax Intro to Business View original

  Is this image relevant?

1 of 3

• Specific, challenging goals lead to higher performance than easy, vague, or no goals
  • Provide clear targets for employees to aim for
  • Require more effort and motivate employees to work harder
• Achieving goals boosts sense of accomplishment and satisfaction
  • Employees feel more motivated when they see progress towards their goals
  • Attaining goals enhances self-efficacy, the belief in one's ability to succeed
• Goal commitment is essential for goal setting to be effective
  • Employees must accept and be dedicated to their goals
  • Participative goal setting, where employees are involved in setting their own goals, can increase commitment
• Feedback on goal progress is important for maintaining motivation
  • Regular feedback helps employees track their progress and adjust their efforts if needed
  • Positive feedback reinforces good performance and encourages continued effort
• Intrinsic motivation plays a crucial role in goal pursuit
  • Employees who find their work inherently rewarding are more likely to persist in achieving challenging goals

Characteristics of effective organizational goals

• Effective organizational goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound
  • Specific goals clearly define what needs to be accomplished (increase sales by 10%)
  • Measurable goals have quantifiable targets that can be tracked (reduce defects to less than 1%)
  • Achievable goals are realistic and attainable given available resources (launch new product within 6 months)
  • Relevant goals align with the organization's mission and strategy (expand into new market segment)
  • Time-bound goals have deadlines that create a sense of urgency (complete project by end of Q3)
• Clear, well-defined goals provide direction and focus for employees
  • Understand what is expected of them and can prioritize their tasks
  • Reduces ambiguity, minimizing confusion and wasted effort
• Challenging but attainable goals motivate employees to perform at their best
  • Encourages stretching their abilities and developing new skills
  • Success in achieving difficult goals leads to greater sense of accomplishment
• Aligned goals ensure individual efforts contribute to organization's overall objectives
  • Employees see how their work fits into the bigger picture, increasing their sense of purpose
  • Enhances coordination and collaboration between employees and departments

Organizational Control Systems

Control systems' impact on employees

• Control systems monitor, evaluate, and regulate employee behavior and performance
  • Examples include performance appraisals, budgets, and quality control measures
  • Ensure employee actions align with organizational goals and standards
• Positive impacts:
  • Provide feedback on performance, allowing employees to identify areas for improvement
  • Create sense of accountability, encouraging employees to take responsibility for their work
  • Maintain consistency and fairness in how employees are evaluated and rewarded
  • Protect organization from errors, fraud, or other harmful actions by employees
• Negative impacts:
  • Excessive or overly rigid controls can limit employee autonomy and creativity (employee empowerment)
    • May feel micromanaged or untrusted, reducing motivation and job satisfaction
    • Innovation may be stifled if not given freedom to experiment and take risks
  • Poorly designed or implemented controls can be seen as unfair or arbitrary
    • Inconsistent application can lead to perceptions of favoritism or discrimination
    • Controls that are not clearly communicated or understood can cause frustration and resentment
  • Overemphasis on quantitative measures may neglect important qualitative aspects of performance
    • Employees may focus on meeting numeric targets at expense of other important goals
    • Intangible contributions, such as teamwork or customer service, may be undervalued
• Balancing benefits and drawbacks of control systems is crucial for maintaining positive organizational culture
  • Design and implement controls in a way that supports rather than hinders employee performance
  • Regularly review and adjust control systems to ensure they remain effective and appropriate

Employee Engagement and Performance

• Organizational commitment influences how employees respond to planning and control systems
  • Highly committed employees are more likely to embrace organizational goals and accept control measures
• Job satisfaction is closely linked to how employees perceive and interact with planning processes
  • Employees who feel their input is valued in planning are generally more satisfied with their work
• Performance management systems should align with organizational culture to be most effective
  • When control systems reflect company values, employees are more likely to view them positively