Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation

The authors summarize 35 years of empirical research on goal-setting theory. They describe the core findings of the theory, the mechanisms by which goals operate, modera-tors of goal effects, the relation of goals and satisfaction, and the role of goals as mediators of incentives. The external validity and practical significance of goal-setting theory are explained, and new directions in goal-setting research are discussed. The relationships of goal setting to other theories are described as are the theory’s limitations. In the 1950s and 1960s, the study of motivation inNorth American psychology was not considered a re-spectable pursuit. The field was dominated by behav-iorists, and “motivation ” was argued by them to lie outside the person in the form of reinforcers and punishers. When internal mechanisms were acknowledged, as in drive re-duction theory, it was said that they were primarily physiological