Page 225 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

demands influence performance 209
TABLE 10.1 (continued)
Author(s) and
publication date Type of paper Major findings

Task-specific strategies
Chesney and Locke Laboratory For complex tasks, strategy had a stronger effect on
(1991) performance than that of goals.
Earley et al. Field Individuals with a high goal setting composite
(1990) (specific/difficult) were more likely to develop work
strategies than those with a low goal setting composite.
Latham et al. Laboratory Participation in goal setting was completely mediated
(1994) by task strategy and self-efficacy.
Smith et al. Laboratory Lagged improvement in performance for highly
(1990) complex tasks was the result of strategy development.
Earley et al. Laboratory Lagged improvement in performance for highly
(1992) complex tasks was the result of strategy development.
Goal commitment was found to be a curvilinear
function of goal difficulty.
Audia et al. Laboratory Lagged improvement in performance for highly
(1996) complex tasks was the result of strategy development.
Both learning and motivation were required for
performance even for simple tasks that offer multiple
paths to accomplishment.
Locke Review Performance was regulated by goals that lead to the
(2000) discovery of task knowledge as well as task knowledge
that was not associated with goals.

MODERATORS
Ability and task complexity

Mathieu and Button Laboratory Past performance as a proxy for ability influenced
(1992) future self-set goals.
Boyce and Wayda Laboratory Assigned goals lead to higher performance than self-set
(1994) goals on tasks where the requisite knowledge had not
yet been acquired.
Kanfer Laboratory In the absence of requisite ability, specific difficult
(1990) outcome goals decreased performance relative to those
told to do their best.
Polzer and Neale Laboratory Specific difficult goals decreased an individuals’ ability
(1995) to integrate new information.
Bouffard et al. Laboratory For complex tasks, learning goals lead to increased
(1995) performance through the development of effective
self-regulating strategies.
Winters and Laboratory For complex tasks, specific high learning goals were
Latham related to increased performance more so than urging
(1996) people to do their best. Moreover, urging people to do
their best generated higher performance than specific
difficult outcome goals.
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