title: Negative Effects of Goal-Setting and Goal-Failure at Work
Creators: name: Höpfner, Jessica
Publisher: name: UNSPECIFIED
Year: 2022

description: Increasing work motivation and performance is one of the main topics in organizational psychology with goal-setting theory as one of the best-established and well-researched methods. Despite overwhelming evidence that high and specific goals have desirable effects on work performance, recent research raised concerns about possible pitfalls when setting high and specific goals; for example narrowed-down attention or unethical behavior. One widely-overlooked potential pitfall of setting high and specific goals is that high goals inevitably lead to a large group of individuals who will fail those goals. Little is known about the effects of falling short on an assigned high and specific goal. The “high-performance cycle” postulates that high and specific goals lead to increased performance, the goals are attained and subsequent motivation is increased. However, the “high-performance cycle” does not take potential (and highly likely) goal-failure into account. In this dissertation, we propose that goal-failure of a high and specific goal has detrimental effects on important organizational and individual factors that are also potentially crucial for the recursive loop suggested by the “high-performance cycle”; meaning that impairing those factors might also impair subsequent motivation and performance. Additionally, we suggest a paradox when setting high and specific goals: We expect that high goals lead to better performance, but also to more goal-failure which, in turn, will harm subsequent performance as we explained. In Chapter 2 of this dissertation, we focus on the immediate consequences of goal-failure of a high and specific goal on affect, self-esteem and motivation. We conducted two experiments (Study 1: N = 185; Study 2: N = 86) in which we manipulated goal-failure through fictitious feedback and task-difficulty. As expected, participants who failed their assigned goal showed a more negative affect and lower self-esteem and motivation than participants who attained their assigned goal. In Chapter 3, we sought to replicate and extend the results from Chapter 2 by replicating the found effects in a longitudinal field study and examining additional factors that could potentially be relevant for the “high-performance cycle”. Hence, we focused on the effects on affect, self-esteem, goal-commitment and perceived fairness in the field with an authentic work goal stated by the participants (N = 313) which they either attained or failed in the given time-frame. As expected, we found support that participants who failed their work goal showed a more negative affect, lower self-esteem, lower goal-commitment and lower perceived fairness than participants who attained their work goal. In Chapter 4 of this dissertation, we finally investigated the consequences of goal-failure for subsequent performance. We expected that goal-failure would ultimately mediate the goal – outcomes relationship and examined the effects on performance and affect. We conducted two online-experiments in which participants (Study 1: N = 199; Study 2: N = 146) received a high and specific goal and had to solve three rounds of a matrix task. In Study 2, the goal was adjusted to individuals’ abilities in practice rounds. Regardless of the method used for goal-setting, we found support that goal-failure mediated the high goals – outcomes relationship and that high goals lead to better performance, but also to more goal-failure. In turn, goal-failure lead a decrease in performance and affect, canceling out the positive effect of high goals. With these studies, we aim at shedding light on a potentially problematic downside of setting high and specific goals which could actually counteract the well-documented positive effects of goal-setting for motivation and performance. Our insights can be used to sensitize employers and employees for undesirable effects of setting high and specific goals and give important implications and propositions on methods to prevent them.