McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Managing Performance Managing Performance through Job Design and through Job Design and

Goal SettingGoal Setting

Chapter ElevenChapter Eleven

Learning Objectives

• Discuss the background of job design as an approach to managing for high performance.

• Define the job enrichment and job characteristics approaches to job design.

• Present the quality of work life (QWL), sociotechnical, and high-performance work practices (HPWPs) approaches to job design.

• Explain goal-setting theory and guidelines from research.

• Describe the application of goal setting to overall systems performance.

Introduction

• Meta-analytic research findings support conventional wisdom:– Good old work experience is related to job

performance

• Research and practice perspective:– Certain job designs and goal setting can

enhance performance

Job Design

• Various approaches

Job Design Continued

• Background on job design– Job rotation– Job enlargement– New challenges

• Job enrichment

Job Design Continued

• Job characteristics approach to task design - Hackman-Oldham model of work motivation

Job Design Continued

• Diagnosing and measuring task scope– Motivational potential score (MPS)

Job Design Continued

• Practical guidelines for redesigning jobs

Job Design Continued

• Engagement, disengagement, and social information processing– Three psychological conditions: engagement

• Perceived meaningfulness, safety, and availability

– Psychological disengagement: “going through the motions” while at work

– Social information processing – causes of attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors:

• Cognitive perceptions of the real task environment• Past actions, reinforcements received, and learning

experiences• The information provided in the immediate social context

Quality of Work Life, Sociotechnical Design and HPWPs

• Quality of work life (QWL)

• Sociotechnical design

• High-performance work practices (HPWPs)

Goal Setting

• Theoretical background of goal setting– Locke’s theory

• People strive to attain goals in order to satisfy their emotions and desires

• Goals provide a directional nature to people’s behavior and guide their thoughts and actions

Goal Setting Continued

– Major dimensions of goal-setting theory

Goal Setting Continued

• Refinements of goal-setting theory

• Research on the impact of goal setting– Importance of specific goals– Importance of difficult and challenging goals– Goal acceptance, participation, and

commitment– Self-efficacy and goals

Goal Setting Continued

• Model for relating goals to performance and satisfaction

Goal Setting Continued

• Research on the impact of goal setting (continued)

– Objective and timely feedback– Other moderators in goal setting– A word of caution regarding goal setting

Goal Setting Continued

• Other theoretically related and performance management techniques– Goal orientation

• Learning goal orientation• Performance goal orientation

– Benchmarking– Stretch targets– Goal source

Goal Setting Continued

• Application to organizational system performance

– Management-by-objective (MBO)

Goal Setting Continued

• Impact on the psychological contract– Goal setting – in general and management-

by-objective in particular• Create psychological contracts employees

Questions