Book Review: Management by Objectives: Application and Research

Management by Objectives: application and research Stephen J. Carroll Jr. and Henry L. Tosi Jr. Macmillan, 1973, 209pp. , £2.50 (paper back), £4.50 (hard back). This study is an important contribution to the literature on MBo-of interest to the operating manager, the MBO specialist and to some extent to the behavioural scientist. The main text of 144 pages is succinct and readable, though there is some repetition. The practising manager and the MBO adviser will find in it much useful and practical guidance based on earlier research and the authors' investigation of MBO in the Black and Decker Company. The behavioural aspects of MBO are given more place than is usual in writings on this subject, which reflects the authors' research orientation. A useful summary of earlier research studies on goal setting, feedback and participation is followed by two chapters reporting the research in Black and Decker and chapters on setting goals (used synonymously with "objectives"), the review process, integrating MBO with other systems and the present and future of MBO. At Black and Decker, after the introduction at fairly short notice of an MBO programme by a new Vice-President of Personnel, 50 managers from Vice-President to lower management were interviewed in depth and a questionnaire was mailed to 150 managers from various levels. A favourable response to MBO was found, not surprisingly, to depend on setting clear and relevant goals and priorities, frequency of feedback, support of top management and the example of the next two higher levelsof management. Difficult goals led to higher effort from managers who were self assured and mature and had a supportive boss, and vice versa. The degree of influence of subordinates in the goal setting process did not seem to be an important factor in the perceived successof the programme except where participation was already part of the management style. The results of this first study were fed back to top personnel managers and a new programme oflearning and implementation was undertaken, the main features of which were: feedback and training for top management; a new form designed to be used as a working instrument; and a series of cascading meetings for goal setting on a tight time schedule. A second study was undertaken, with the same methods and instruments as before and as far as possible with the same managers, about a year after the new programme had been instituted. This provided some evaluation of what is admitted to be a formalized, rigid strategy of implementation. The intensive goal setting effort established better understanding and communication, but did not increase the influence of lower-level personnel in goal setting. In the short term, the influence of MBO on management style was found to be limited. The chapter on carrying out the review process contains a number of suggestionsfor the conduct of interviews in this context and the chapter on integrating MBO with other systems considers its relationship to systems for performance appraisal, management development and compensation. Although there is considerable discussion of the development of personal objectives and the behavioural implications of MBO, there is no reference to the criticism of MBO voiced by Levinson in the Harvard Business Review, July-August 1970, or to the concern that MBO establishes inadequate yardsticks by which to judge performance in a job of substantial scope.