Page "Industrial and organizational psychology" Paragraph 69

Goals for individual contributors have been shown to be motivating when they contain three elements: ( 1 ) difficulty, ( 2 ) acceptance, and ( 3 ) specificity ( Lock & Latham, 1990 ).

In the team setting, goal difficulty is related to group belief that the team can accomplish the tasks required to meet the assigned goal ( Whitney, 1994 ).

This belief ( collective efficacy ) is somewhat counterintuitive, but rests on team member perception that they now view themselves as more competent than others in the organization who were not chosen to complete such difficult goals.

This in turn, can lead to higher levels of performance.

Goal acceptance and specificity is also applicable to the team setting.

When team members individually and collectively commit to team goals, team effectiveness is increased and is a function of increased supportive team behaviors ( Aube & Rousseau, 2005 ).