“Do not involve everyone in goal‑setting

💎 Stephen Robbins, in his book 53 Principles of Managing People, writes: Modern managers, during their university studies, become familiar with the concept of “involving others in goal‑setting.” For example, Peter Drucker considered involving others in determining organizational goals essential, calling it management by objectives.

🔹 As a result, over the past 40 years, unilateral and authoritarian management has declined, giving way to participative management.

🔹 Yet, when faced with research findings in this area, you may be surprised. These studies show that there is little difference between goals set by a manager alone and goals set with employee participation.

🔹 In fact, research indicates that participative goal‑setting has only a minor impact on employee performance, commitment, and motivation.

🔹 Therefore, in some situations, goals set collaboratively are executed better, while in other situations, goals set solely by the manager and communicated to employees yield better results.

🔹 This raises the question: why don’t people try harder to achieve goals when they are involved in setting them?

🔹 The answer lies in certain conditions that are essential for participative management to be effective. For participative management to work, sufficient time must be allocated to the process.

🔹 Moreover, the issues in which employees’ opinions are sought must align with their interests and benefits.

🔹 In addition, the employees themselves must possess adequate intellectual, academic, experiential, and skill levels.

🔹 The reality is that these conditions are absent in many workplaces. That is why many employees prefer their share in the organization to be doing the work rather than participating in setting goals.

This post is also available in: Persian