1.

0 INTRODUCTION

In the late 1960s, Locke and Latham’s pioneering research into goal setting and motivation gave

us our modern understanding of goal setting. The Goal Setting Theory was proposed by Prof. Edwin

Locke and Prof. Gary Latham. In a 1968 article "Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives,"

they showed that clear goals and appropriate feedback motivate employees. They went on to highlight

that working toward a goal is also a major source of motivation – which, in turn, improves performance.

Their research showed that the more difficult and specific a goal is, the harder people tend to work to

achieve it.

In one study, they reviewed a decade's worth of laboratory and field studies on the effects of goal

setting and performance. He found that, for 90 percent of the time, specific and challenging (but not too

challenging) goals led to higher performance than easy, or "do your best," goals. For example, telling

someone to "try hard" or "do your best" is less effective than saying "try to get more than 80 percent

correct," or "concentrate on beating your best time." Likewise, having a goal that's too easy is not

motivating. Hard goals are more motivating than easy ones, because it feels more of an accomplishment

to achieve something you've worked hard for. Goals can motivate people toward accomplishing them

based on the extent to which they have clarity, challenge, commitment, feedback, and task complexity.

Below is a short explaination of the five principles of Goal Setting:

1) Clarity- Clear goals are measurable and unambiguous.When a goal is clear and specific,with a

definite time set for completion,there is less misunderstanding about what behaviors will be rewarded.

2) Challenge-When setting goals,make each goal a challenge.If an assignment is easy and not viewed as

very important and if you or your employee doesn”t expect the accomplishment to be significant.Then the

effort may not be impressive.

 3) Commitment-Goals must be understood and agreed upon if they are to be effective.The harder the

goal,the more commitment is required.If you have easy goal,you don”t need a lot of motivation to get it

done.

4) Feedback-Feedback provides opportunities to clarify expectations,adjust goal difficulty,and gain

recognition.Its important to provide benchmark opportunities or targets,so individuals can determine for

themselves how they are doing.

5) Task complexity-For goals or assignments that are highly complex,take special care to ensure that the

work doesnt become too overwhelming.

In addition to the goal setting theory the SMART theory is often used together. The Smart theory was

developed by a man by the name of Peter Drucker. SMART goal setting brings structure and trackability

into your goals and objectives.  Every goal or objective, from intermediary step to overarching objective,

can be made S.M.A.R.T. and as such, brought closer to reality.S.M.A.R.T stands for Specific,

Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.

a) Specific - When it comes to Specific, it means that the goals that need to be achieved needs to be

specific. There are certain questions that one may ask themselves, for example

 What exactly do I want to achieve?

 Why exactly do I want to reach this goal? What are possible alternative ways of achieving the

same?

b) Measurable - Measurable goals means that you identify exactly what it is you will see, hear and

feel when you reach your goal. It means breaking your goal down into measurable elements . 

c) Attainable - Goals that are set needs to be realistic to be achieved whether it’s be a person or a

group of individuals that wishes to obtain it.

d) Relevant - Goals that want to be attained by the individual or group of people need to be

according to the the task at hand it should not be extraneous.

e) Timely -Goals should be performed and achieved in a timeline that is achievable. It has to be

realistic and should be achieved in a timeframe that is relevant.

2.0 FIVE PRINCIPLES OF GOAL SETTING THEORIES

2.1 Clarity

Clear goals are measurable and unambiguous. When a goal is clear and specific, with a definite

time set for completion, there is less misunderstanding about what behaviors will be rewarded. You know

what's expected, and you can use the specific result as a source of motivation. When a goal is vague – or

when it's expressed as a general instruction, like "Take initiative" – it has limited motivational value.

Clarity is about knowing exactly what you are trying to achieve and by when. When goals are specific we

mean that they are measurable, that is we are able to measure the goal’s outcomes. When goals that are

vague, such as lose some weight, they are not motivating or easy to achieve. An example of a clear goal is

“to lose 10 kilograms in the next six months“. A clear goal is measurable and time-bound. Measurable

goals remove ambiguity and help you focus.

Clear goals focus your attention. Without them you become distracted, your attention is dispersed and

scattered. When goals are vague and unclear they create misunderstanding and confusion. The lack of

clarity makes it difficult to identify your next steps and what needs to get done. The result is you lose

focus, waste time and energy. When goals are clear tasks and activities are easy to identify.

Setting clear and specific goals then, are an important first consideration for effective goal setting. Next

time you are setting goals take time to write your goals down and for each goal include a measurable and

time-bound description.

How to use Clarity in our daily life (Student)?

  Write your goal down and be as detailed as possible. Use SMART, and consider putting your

goal into the form of a personal mission statement for added clarity.

 Think about how you'll measure your success toward this goal. What specific metrics will you

use?

 Once you've set your goal, examine how it makes you feel. Are you excited? Does the challenge

motivate you? If you don't feel strongly about the goal, you might need to clarify it or change it

entirely.

 Set clear goals that use specific and measurable standards. For example, "reduce job turnover by

15 percent."

 Write down the metrics that you'll use to measure your team members' success. Be as specific as

possible, and make sure that everyone on your team understands how you'll measure success.

2.2 Challenge

What are challenges? A challenge is the situation of being faces with something or someone. In

this context, it’s how an individual takes his or her challenge into hand and how thy deal with it. Using

the SMART goals, challenges falls under the realistic and relevant category. This simply means that the

challenges set by an individual must be practical, achievable for a fact. As for relevant, the challenges set

by an individual must be related to their goal and not run off. How individuals should apply this to their

daily lives? For students, these group should focus first and foremost on their capability.

As growing individuals, they should set a bar higher than their capability not too far off from

what they can achieve. Many individuals in this group tend to set an expectation or a goal that is far off

their capability which leads to disappointment and demotivation. For I individuals that are involved in the

working industry, they should not interrupt their goals at work and goals out of work. These individual

should firstly know the difference on organization goals and individual goals. This will help them manage
and set their challenges appropriately. Then these individuals can apply the same method, setting a bar

that does not exceed the capability by much but slightly.

2.3 Commitment

Goals must be understood and agreed upon if they are to be effective. Employees are more likely to

"buy into" a goal if they feel they were part of creating that goal. The notion of participative management

rests on this idea of involving employees in setting goals and making decisions. According to Locke and

Latham, group or individual commitment can be achieved by ensuring that everyone/ the individual

knows exactly what is happening and what to do. Besides that, they can also be rest assured that by not

going

One version of SMART – for use when you are working with someone else to set their goals – has A

and R stand for Agreed and Realistic instead of Attainable and Relevant. Agreed goals lead to

commitment.

How to use Commitment in our daily life (Student)?

 Commitment has to be rational and also at the same time, emotion friendly. Students can use

‘Commitment” by treating themselves after completing a task. This will motivate them and make

them look forward to a completed task and also a treat.

How to use Commitment in our work life?

 Project manager and his or her team of engineers decide the expected outcome in a meeting

depending on the subordinate’s capability. By doing this employers can ensure that their

capabilities are not gone to waste and also, employees will know how to the job at ease.
  As you use goal setting in your workplace, appropriate effort to include people in their own goal

setting. Encourage employees to develop their own goals, and keep them informed about what's

happening elsewhere in the organization.

2.4 Feedback

In addition to selecting the right goals, one should also listen to feedback, so that one can gauge

how well one and one’s team are progressing. Feedback gives one the opportunity to clarify people's

expectations and adjust the difficulty of their goals. Keep in mind that feedback doesn't have to come

from other people. One can check how well one is doing by simply measuring a persons own progress.

Actually, feedback is only information, that is, data, and as such has no necessary consequences

at all. Like any fact, its effect on action depends on how it is appraised and what decisions are

subsequently made with respect to it. Studies of the effects of feedback typically show positive

effects, but this is because people often set improvement goals when given information about

their past performance. To improve one’s skills and grow professionally, it's essential that one get

feedback on the work that one do. After all, one can't fix something that one don't know is broken! Doing

this can help one to improve one’s performance and boost one’s career prospects. It may even lead to a

promotion or to other opportunities down the road. A persons self-confidence will grow, and it

demonstrates to oner boss that one truly care about a persons work.

On the other hand, not getting any feedback can make one think that a person’s contributions

aren't valued or noticed. This can make one question the importance of the work that a person’s doing and

a person’s overall competency. It can also damage a person’s morale and self-esteem. This is why it's

important for one to take the initiative in asking for feedback, especially if the people one need it from

aren't offering it on a regular basis. (For instance, some managers may only provide detailed feedback

during annual performance reviews.) An additional benefit is that when one ask for feedback, one do it on
a person’s terms. A person’s mentally ready to hear the good and the bad, and a person’s open to working

hard to improve.

How to use in Feedback our daily life(student)

 Schedule time once a week to analyze a person’s progress and accomplishments. Look at what

has and hasn't worked, and make adjustments along the way.

 * Learn how to ask for feedback on a person’s progress from others.

 Use technology to track and measure a person’s progress. Apps like Lift are a good place to start.

 * Measure progress by breaking difficult or large goals down into smaller chunks, and seek

feedback when one reach each milestone.

How to use Feedback in work life.

 Learn how to give one’s team members feedback that's objective, useful and positive.

 Create a timetable to schedule regular feedback for a person’s team.

 Use the Stop – Keep Doing – Start model for quick feedback sessions.

2.5 Task Complexity

The last moderator is task complexity. As task complexity increases, it usually becomes increasingly

difficult to use previously acquired skills and established routines during the early stage of learning,

before relevant higher level skills have become automatized. This is because, as a task gets more and

more difficult, people may become more reluctant to do the job. When this were to occur, It is important

to make sure that the person has enough time to reach the goal. An unreasonable time of achieving it will

make a person overwhelm themselves with work and become less effective as the stress level increases.
 However, they can often push themselves too hard if measures aren't built into the goal

expectations to account for the complexity of the task. It's therefore important to do the following:

 Give the person sufficient time to meet the goal or improve performance.

 Provide enough time for the person to practice or learn what is expected and

required for success.

The whole point of goal setting is to facilitate success. Therefore, you want to make sure that the

conditions surrounding the goals don't frustrate or inhibit people from accomplishing their objectives.

This explains that the “Attaintable” part of the SMART theory.

3.0 Conclusion

In a nutshell, the four of us would like to encourage every individual to apply the Locke and Latham’s

challenging theory into their daily lives. Why? This theory has proved right for the four of us and we

would like to further encourage more individuals to make use of this theory to make sure they are able to

experience a better and controlled lifestyle than before. As the saying goes, “ There was never a good

knife made of bad steel. “ quoted by Benjamin Franklin. Hence, we should always strive to improve

better to produce better results in our lives.