This Focused Performance Weblog started life as a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective, but is in the process of evolving towards primary content on interactive and mobile marketing. Think of it as about Focusing marketing messages for enhanced Performance. If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Goal setting and Cheating -- From one of my regular reads, Knowledge@Wharton, the current Operations Management ariticle points out that...
"...goal-setting [...] has a dark side to it, according to a recent research paper by a Wharton faculty member and two colleagues. In addition to motivating constructive behavior, goal setting – especially when it involves rewards – can motivate unethical behavior when people fall short of the goals they set or that are set for them. The relationship between goal setting and unethical behavior is particularly strong when people fall just short of reaching the goal."
Goldratt says "Tell me how you'll measure me, and I'll tell you how I'll behave." My friend Tony Rizzo is a bit more frank when he translates it to "Tell me how you'll measure me, and I'll tell you what damn fool things I'll do to make those numbers look good." Apparently, some of those "damn fool things" skirt the borders of ethics from time to time.
The article talks about people failing to reach goals by a small margin being more likely to lie about reaching them. I know I've also seen (and probably committed, myself) instances of self-deception as well, along the lines of "I really reached the goal, but was cheated by someone else's failure." Holding people accountable for goals when those goals are inextricably intertwined with others' behavior and performance will eventually lead to such behavior.
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