Multiple goal pursuit

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

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It is normal to pursue multiple goals at work and in our everyday life. Consider the case of college professors, who may set themselves several specifi c, diffi cult goals: publishing three articles in one year in high-impact journals with a high rejection rate, earning course evaluations from students of say 5.0 on a 7-point scale, and serving on two committees. Similarly, CEOs of business organizations have to pursue multiple goals, for example, market share, strategy implementation, innovation, customer service, cost control, ethical actions, the hiring and development of talent, legal issues, the organization’s profi tability, and more. The issue of multiple goals had not been well researched at the time of Latham and Locke’s 1990 book; most goal setting studies at that time concentrated on the effect of single goals on various types of task performance (Latham & Locke, 2007 ). Recently, there has been a growing body of research examining multiple goals. In this chapter, we review the major fi ndings generated from these studies spanning more than 20 years.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationNew Developments in goal setting and task performance
EditorsEdwin Locke, Gary Latham
Number of pages18
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherRoutledge Taylor & Francis Group
Publication date01.01.2013
Edition1
Pages177-194
ISBN (print)9780203082744
ISBN (electronic)978-0415885485
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2013