目标设置和工人动机

生产率提高

组织往往将工作目标与奖金结合起来,一旦目标实现即支付奖金。在上述环境里,工人不仅可以受目标本身驱动,还可以受金钱奖励前景驱动。连与货币奖励无关的目标都可非常有效提高生产率。在最近的实验室实验中,工人角色主体不得不执行劳累数学任务,需要近距离努力1.5小时[5].每种正确解决方案产生收入,工人和管理员平分工人解决的问题越多,工人和管理员的收入越高。任务耗时长并需要近距离集中,工人们可以选择休息参加一些在职休闲活动。工人们随时可以探索互联网,某些管理者可以数例正确解决问题的形式分配目标实现或未实现目标不影响所得工人的数量,管理者无法解雇未实现目标的工人。

在这一设置中,目标对工人的最终收入没有直接影响。可选择设定目标时,管理者会这样做,设定挑战性但平均工人可实现的目标。工人响应目标增加输出并减少在职休闲活动目标似乎是向工人传递管理者期望的手段,工人响应分配工作目标不影响工资,但通过提高生产率间接提高工人及其管理者的收入Goals were effective in boosting productivity even when monetary incentives were already high—even when workers were already being paid a high sum for each correct solution.

分派工作目标提高生产率的有效性在实地实验中也得到了确认。现场实验中,主体在实际工作环境观察,同时不知道自己参与科学实验现场实验允许执行精密操作 对象不感知实验者审查研究所库中实施了一项现场实验,需要重组[1].重排列期间,大约35,000本书籍不得不从一个架子移到另一个架子上受聘从事这一一次性工作的临时工是目标设定实验中不为人知的参与者

图书管理员分配目标 书籍数定位并转置与实验研究发现一致,目标提高工人生产率-在本案中比无目标基准案例提高15%-说明性上p.i/工人们在开始工作前可自由选择目标目标提高工人输出15%发现目标由管理员分配或由工人选择产生相同积极效果[1].

研究还调查目标产生货币后果时和不产生货币后果时效果变化[1].In one experiment, workers with self-chosen goals received the same piece-rate pay as in the baseline experiment, and goals were chosen independently from this payment scheme.另一项实验自选目标会产生货币后果:工人们只有在达到目标后才能得到奖金。图1平均时间查找一本书工人们实验期间提高,完成任务平均所需时间下降工人们从头到尾都比较快, 并需要少点时间查找书籍。目标是否产生货币后果不影响完成任务所需的时间

自选或分配目标和目标设置精度

现场实验还提供点趣味深入了解自选目标与分配目标之间的差异以及目标难点效果[5].自选和分配目标同样提高平均生产率,但结果产出分布不一。

输出差异比自选目标小得多自选目标大为多样化,结果产生出一套更多样化产出当所有工人都分配同一目标时,每个工人都有相同的评估成功参考点因此,大多数输出将接近此引用点The effectiveness of the goals thus depends on whether this reference point is motivating for the average worker—whether the goal falls in the sweet spot between too demanding and too easy.现场实验中,分配目标相对于基线中无目标工人平均生产率选择使用此信息可识别并分配求易目标与无目标基线相比,生产率随高要求目标而大幅提高,但下降至基准水平下并易目标下说明性)[1].

图2显示目标并显示库研究中观察到的相应输出[1].曲线表示目标难度(目标大小)和输出估计关系从易目标开始(fewer书籍),输出随目标难提高达一定点:目标越难实现,工人生产力越高关系非线性逆U形曲线显示,虽然输出最初随目标难度增加,超出一定难度度,对输出的积极影响下降

工作环境实验中,平均输出量为200书与平均输出量不大差百书最大平均输出实现目标150书籍This result underlines the finding that a goal should be in a reasonable range of a worker's ability level—neither too easy nor too demanding.如果目标太容易实现,它就不能激励工人,因为一旦目标实现,它就不再提供继续努力工作的额外理由因此,简单目标不大可能导致产出比无目标情况高得多。然而,如果目标太难实现,工人一旦发现目标无法实现即不再感到受目标约束效果与先前报告的实验室证据一致[5].

细节判断目标是否易实现或难实现取决于工作环境特征和个体工人能力管理者可以尝试调整目标 适应每个工人的能力水平But different goals and different bonus payments could result in dissension and unfavorable comparisons in the workplace, which could jeopardize the positive effects of individualized goal setting.此外,单项调整可能高执行成本,管理需要精确测量每个工人的能力

工人们若决定自身目标,如果工人能力大相径庭,结果就会在选择目标和输出方面产生更大的差异。With self-chosen goals, high-ability workers will choose demanding goals and excel at the task, while low-ability workers might choose goals that are below average.向从事相同任务的所有工人分配同一目标将降低产出差异并减少预期总输出不确定性Yet, for the goal to be attainable by a large share of a diverse work group, it has to be set at a relatively low level, making it easy to attain for high-ability workers and thus discouraging high performers from excelling in productivity.同时,它将有助于激发低功能工人并有可能提高他们的输出量。

自选目标或分配目标优先机制取决于管理者目标Self-chosen goals should be used if the manger wants to encourage high-ability workers to excel in their performance and if it is acceptable that low-ability workers produce significantly less than the average.目标应使用以减少产出差异为代价提高低能力工人输出值以抑制高性能

目标可能导致错误焦点和低工作质量

性能支付计划用于集中工人们注意力工作的重要部分同一控件对分配目标适用工人们会忽略任务大维For example, workers with output quantity goals might focus their attention on the quantity dimension and disregard the quality of the output as less important.类似地,如果管理层只为公司设定收入目标,利润可能得不到足够的重视。In some cases, an intense focus on defined goals might result in a failure to notice the need to revise some tasks to improve efficiency or quality, for example, or to correct faulty procedures, revise job descriptions, or innovate on the task[12].目标可能导致僵硬的官僚行为,而不是良好的表现和良好的组织公民意识

防止过于狭隘焦点的显性解决办法似乎是定义范围更广的目标,覆盖多维度,而不仅仅是一个维度缺陷是多重目标可能要求目标取舍以多重目标为例,人们通常多加关注最易测量目标[6].In an experiment, people whose goals were to select stocks for investments based on quality and quantity dimensions exhibited precisely this shift of attention from quality to quantity.Stock quality, which had to be determined from a stock's rating, previous dividends, previous profits, and long- and short-term trends, was much harder to measure than the number of stocks selected.难入难出两个目标,参与者更多注重数量,忽略难计量质量减少评估投资质量的努力最终可能导致财政损失

高目标可增加冒风险

损失可能来自选择风险过大策略和忽略某些目标或忽略其他目标

经验性证据表明目标可直接影响到个人冒风险的意愿[8].In inherently risky environments, individuals will be more risk seeking if they are assigned high financial goals than if they are simply told to do their best.发现性强应用到讨价还价环境中的战略决策 并应用到选择安全选项 风险博彩In bargaining situations, people given a high goal were less likely to adjust their offer, even when it meant not closing on a mutually beneficial deal.In the case of a risky investment, where the choice was between a safe option and a risky lottery, 37% of people who were told to do their best favored the safe option, whereas only 11% of people given demanding goals chose this option[8]其余选择风险大彩票

个人目标比集团目标可减少合作

良好的组织公民感涉及超出工作期望并涉及与同事有效互动当工人专注于实现个人目标时,这也可能影响组织的社会环境经讨论后,目标提高性能,同时减少用于与目标无关活动的时间某些形式的合作活动在一个组织中是可取的,但并非简单目标所捕捉因此,目标可以减少工作场所的合作,如果单心实现难目标的工人倾向于帮助同事较少7.如果目标伴之以实现目标奖金,问题就会加剧

目标可鼓励不道德行为,如欺骗和误报

本文触及目标的一些负面影响,例如高收费客户实现不合理的销售目标和其他不道德行为Setting goals can also lead to misreports about performance measures, for example, by falsifying the time worked on a project or the number of billable services performed.Laboratory evidence suggests that in work environments with self-reported performance measures, workers with unmet goals tend to overstate their performance while workers charged with doing their best do not exhibit such behavior[9].研究向参与者支付执行实战任务所需的报酬任务完成后,请参与者评价自身结果并提交研究人员评价参与者保证匿名性,因此研究者可以查看自评无法与特定工人连通Comparing the incidence of overstatements for participants who were assigned a goal without monetary consequences with those for participants who were told to do as good a job as they could revealed significantly higher misrepresentation of performance among participants who were assigned a goal.

误报发生环境保证匿名排除此行为受希望打动他人驱动的可能性最有可能的是,参与者试图保持正面自我图像添加对每个完成目标的奖赏放大误报数高报个人性能不仅影响自我感知,接近实现目标的参与者最愿意不诚实地行为研究复制这些发现 重复实验 不同层次目标难[13].在此背景中,参与者为最高目标生成最高输出低目标导致生产率下降比强制令做最大功用生产率提高的反面是不道德行为同时增加Compared with the easy goal and with a do-your-best environment, in a high goal environment, participants were three times more likely to overstate their own performance.