Goal-Setting Theory

Goal setting is the development of an action plan meant to motivate and guide a person or group toward a goal, more deliberate than a mere desire or momentary intention because it commits a person's thought, emotion and behavior toward closing the gap between a current state and a desired future one. Studies by Edwin Locke and, most notably, Gary Latham found that specific and ambitious goals produce more performance improvement than easy or general goals, with difficult goals ideally set around the ninetieth percentile of performance, and that goal difficulty and task performance hold a positive linear relationship as long as the person accepts the goal, has the ability to attain it, and holds no conflicting goals.