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Achievement goal theory traces people's behaviors, thoughts, and emotions in achievement situations to the broad goals they pursue in that activity, whether in education, sports, work, or other achievement domains (Dweck, 1986; Maehr & Midgley, 1991; Nicholls, 1984). Two goals have featured prominently: mastery goals (also sometimes called learning goals) and performance goals (also called ego goals or ability validation goals). Both goals concern the pursuit of competence and the assessment of one's own skill level, yet they do so in distinct ways. People pursuing a mastery goal strive to develop their skill or expertise, while those pursuing a performance goal instead strive to demonstrate and validate their existing skill, typically by outperforming peers. As such, those pursuing mastery goals typically use self-referential standards to define success versus failure, while those pursuing performance goals instead use normative standards to define success versus failure.

Despite the literature on subordinates' destructive responses to abusive leadership, an emerging body of literature proposes that subordinates may react constructively to abusive supervision under certain conditions. The authors contribute to this line of research by proposing and testing the moderating effects of performance-approach and -avoidance goal orientation on the relationship between abusive supervision and task performance, and by testing work effort as a mechanism underlying this moderating effect.

The study hypotheses were tested in two studies. In Study 1 (field survey, N = 230), the moderation hypotheses were tested. Study 2 (experiment, N = 116) extended Study 1 and examined the mediated moderation model.

The study empirical evidence from the two studies showed that (1) abusive supervision was more positively related to an employee's task performance when that employee's performance-approach goal orientation was high (vs low), (2) abusive supervision was not more positively related to task performance when performance-avoidance goal orientation was high (vs low) and (3) the employee's work effort mediated the moderating effect of performance-approach goal orientation.

This research suggests that organizations and subordinates should be aware of the positive contextual role of performance-approach goal orientation, which may shape subordinates' subsequent work behavior in response to supervisors' hostility, and should invest more time and effort in reinforcing subordinates' performance-approach goal orientation.

This study has identified a new condition and offers new evidence of the potential functional effect of abusive supervision. Specifically, the study finding of the positive moderating role of performance-approach goal orientation adds to the literature examining when abused subordinates respond constructively to abusive supervision. The study analysis of the mediating effect of work effort further reveals the mechanism of this effect.

This study aims to empirically test the effects of key characteristics of performance-based contracting (PBC) (i.e. reward/payment scheme, increased supplier autonomy and transfer of responsibilities) on supplier goal commitment.

This study developed a conceptual model applying goal-setting theory (GST), expectancy theory (ET) and job characteristics theory (JCT). Survey data were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to establish a validated measurement instrument for testing the hypotheses.

The findings revealed that PBC positively affects supplier goal commitment due to its unique characteristics, which translates into improved supplier performance. Furthermore, this study validated the mediating role of goal alignment and felt accountability operating between PBC characteristics and supplier goal commitment.

This study explored the buyer–supplier relationship from the supplier's standpoint. Using a more inclusive data set, future research may involve a dyadic analysis and focus on the effects of the following factors on the supplier goal commitment: relational aspects (e.g. trust and collaboration), the risk transfer from the buyer to the supplier, different incentive schemes and successful PBC implementation factors.

This study presents new, validated insights for contract selection, design and management. It underlines the importance of choosing the proper contract, having the appropriate contract design based on the desired outcomes and effective contract management by exhibiting the psychological/behavioral effect of fundamental PBC characteristics.

PBC represents an active research stream, but its psychological/behavioral implications are understudied. Therefore, this research puts forth a conceptual framework with multiple testable hypotheses illustrating the relationship between PBC and supplier goal commitment.

Goal theory research has made an important contribution to understanding managers’ behaviour within organisations but most of this research has focused on single goal settings. Given the recent popularity of implementing balanced scorecards in organisations, generalising this research to multiple goal settings is important but problematic because multiple goals can complicate a manager's decision making which, in turn, can potentially affect the manager's job‐related tension and performance. Moreover, where multiple goals are pursued, the relative importance of those goals is also likely to affect job‐related tension and performance. These relationships are tested using questionnaire data gathered from interviews with managers. The results suggest that job‐related tension and performance deteriorate as managers pursue multiple goals although the relationship seems to be non‐linear. The relative importance of goals does not appear to be important. Some comments provided by the managers during their interviews offer some insights that help to explain these results.

This study aims to examine the connection between strategy‐linked outsourcing goals and measures of outsourcing performance. The strategies of growth, cost, and differentiation (core competence) are examined in terms of their relationship with goal achievement and cost performance measures.

Regression analysis and ANOVA were applied to survey data collected from 165 purchasing executives.

Findings support a positive relationship between goal intensity for a single strategy and achievement of goals related to that strategy. Findings also suggest that firms with high commitment to growth and cost strategies tend to achieve cost‐related performance at higher levels than firms with a lower commitment to same. Finally, the findings also suggest that firms pursuing a single or dominant strategy achieve lower levels of cost saving performance, as compared with firms pursuing a “balanced” approach that emphasizes two or three different strategies in roughly equal measure.

This study relies on very limited performance variables, mainly cost reduction. Additional variables that addressed growth and core competence would provide additional insight on the link between outsourcing and performance.

Goal intensity is positively related to higher performance on desired outsourcing outcomes. Firms demonstrated greater success in their ability to pursue multiple outsourcing strategies over firms pursuing a single strategy.

The link between strategy and outsourcing performance had not been empirically established.

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of goal setting in improving performance in an emerging economy, Barbados.

There is a substantial body of literature which has shown that goal setting improves performance in the developed world, but there is relatively little research examining these relationships in emerging economies. This experimental study sought to extend understanding of the impact of goal setting by testing goals in a carefully controlled environment in an emerging economy. The study considered assigned goals and performance, as well as the moderating impact of personal and cultural characteristics.

Results supported the hypothesis that specific, difficult goals improve performance. Personal characteristics did not moderate the relationship, but the cultural characteristics of individualism and uncertainty avoidance (UA) did.

The results of this study are limited because of the experimental nature of the study and the student sample, however, the results encourage further research and provide practical guidance for managers in Barbados.

The results suggest that, similar to developed countries, specific and difficult goals result in better performance, and that higher levels of individualism and lower levels of UA result in better performance under the individual assignment conditions of this research.

The research extends the goal‐setting approach to a new environment and provides a foundation for future research, and it provides evidence for managers in organizations in emerging countries that goal‐setting has a positive impact on performance.

Current approaches to measuring family business performance have limitations: failing to acknowledge the entire family business holistically, and lacking recognition of the idiosyncratic nature of family business goals. By applying organizational effectiveness and the achievement of desired organizational outcomes, the purpose of this paper is to develop a scale to measure performance based on a family business’ idiosyncratic goals.

This study applies mixed methods, including qualitative research, two surveys and structural equation modeling.

The authors develop a scale employing 21 items, representing six goal dimensions, to measure the family business performance.

The family business performance measurement scale from this study responds to multiple calls for a scale gauging family business performance in a manner including both financial and non-financial outcomes.

To describe the conduct and outcomes of a field experiment in a US manufacturing facility using goal setting and feedback as productivity improvement tools.

Initial studies were conducted to determine a baseline of performance. A two‐month field experiment was utilized to test and measure productivity. The field experiment involved the implementation of changes to three manufacturing cells for a six‐week period and the training of supervisors and staff. Researchers performed the collection of data, implementation of changes and training of workers.

Findings suggest that goal setting and timely feedback will lead to improved work performance, greater efficiency, and the establishment of more challenging goals. In addition, findings suggest that information systems which facilitate goal setting and feedback are more effective than traditional supervision systems at improving performance.

Several limitations of this study should be noted. First, the time frame for the intervention was limited to two months. A longer data collection period could ensure the longevity of the conclusions of this analysis. Second, all subjects received verbal feedback followed by the addition of graphic feedback. Therefore, sequence effects cannot be ruled out. On an overall basis, though, the findings of this study can clearly be applied to a wide range of manufacturing organizations

The study is useful for all managers seeking a competitive advantage through improved productivity. It provides significant insight into ways to improve productivity through the use of goal setting and performance feedback implemented by information systems.

This paper fulfills a need for insight into methods for improving productivity, as well as offering practical aid to managers in the manufacturing industry.

Goal orientation shapes employees’ approach to and interpretation of workplace aspects such as supervisors’ behavior. However, research has not fully examined the effect of goal orientation as an antecedent of abusive supervision. Drawing from victim precipitation theory, this study aims to fill this research gap by investigating how employees’ goal orientation influences their perception of abusive supervision.

Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Study 1, 181 employees in 45 departments participated in the survey, and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis, two-level path model and polynomial regression were used. In Study 2, 108 working adults recruited from a professional online survey platform participated in a two-wave time-lagged survey. Confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical linear regression and polynomial regression were used.

This study found that employees’ learning goal orientation was negatively related to their perception of abusive supervision. In contrast, performance-avoidance goal orientation was positively related to their perception of abusive supervision, whereas performance-approach goal orientation was unrelated to this perception. Moreover, employees’ perception of abusive supervision was greater when learning and performance-approach goal orientation alignment occurred at lower rather than higher levels, and when performance-avoidance and performance-approach goal orientation alignment occurred at higher rather than lower levels.

This research identified two novel victim traits as antecedents of abusive supervision – employees’ learning goal orientation and performance-avoidance goal orientation. Furthermore, adopting a multiple goal perspective, the authors examined the combined effects of goal orientation on employees’ perception of abusive supervision.