Performance Management: Putting Research into Action

Team Goals

The rise of teamwork and team-based organizational forms has created a shift in how managers understand and practice goal setting. Many of the basic fundamentals of individual goal setting can be translated to groups of people. Team goals that are specific and difficult have consistently positive effects on team performance (O’Leary-Kelly, Martocchio, & Frink, 1994). These difficult team goals also improve performance through the same mechanisms of increased focus, effort, persistence, and developing new strategies for complex tasks (Weingart, 1992). While team goals function in similar ways to individual goals, there are also several unique issues that make goal setting more complex in team settings.

When specific difficult goals ...