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This paper responds to ongoing calls to develop alternative management theory to guide management practice. In particular, the purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the merit of developing sustainable management theory and organizational practices that parallel conventional management theory and practices. Sustainable theory is based on a variation of virtue theory that seeks to achieve multiple forms of well-being for multiple stakeholders in the immediate as well as distant future. To illustrate the approach, the authors develop a sustainable variation of goal setting theory.

The paper includes three parts. First, the authors establish the need for developing sustainable management theory (based on virtue theory) that parallels conventional management theory. Second, the authors identify and briefly review the main tenets of goal setting theory and then describe a Sustainable variation of this theory. Finally, the authors discuss the implications of the paper for management and organization theory and practice.

The conceptual arguments for a sustainable version of goal setting theory based in virtue are supported by research and practitioner examples.

Although there is growing concern regarding the shortcomings of management theory and practice based on a materialist-individualist moral-point-of-view, few alternatives have been discussed in detail. This paper presents an alternative based in virtue theory and illustrates how it relates to goal setting theory and practice.

The purpose of this study is to propose and examine an integrated learning model for improving training effectiveness in workplace learning. Specifically, this study investigated the effect of achievement goal-setting intervention across three groups of new employees from a multinational medical company. During a three-day remote training program, the role of each achievement goal orientation (AGO) in goal setting intervention and their relations with trainees’ applied learning strategies were examined. This study proposed and validated an integrated training model for improving remote workplace learning effectiveness.

This study was based on two data sources, the pre- and posttests scores; time on task (deep learning: completing reflective practice) and time on content learning (surface learning: watching tutorials) retrieved from an adaptive learning platform. A total number of 133 participants were recruited in this study, and they were randomly assigned to three interventional groups. The intervention was grounded from the AGO theory and goal setting theory. A series of statistical analysis were conducted to examine the effect of each type of achievement goal setting as a prompt for new employees’ learning behavior and performance.

Results indicated that setting mastery goal at the beginning of the training program leads to productive learning outcomes. Compared with the groups being required to set performance goal (final rank) or not to set any goal for the training purpose, trainees’ who were assigned to set a mastery goal (final performance score) performed statistically significantly higher than the other groups. Additionally, learners who set mastery goal spent higher proportion of time on deep learning than learners from the other groups. The results proved mastery goal setting as an effective prompt for boosting workplace learning effectiveness.

Organizations and institutions can take setting mastery approach goals as a prompt at the beginning of the training to increase learning effectiveness. In this way, trainees are promoted to apply more deep learning strategies and achieve better learning outcomes while setting mastery goal for their training purpose.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study was the first to combine the intervention of goal setting and types of AGOs into workplace learning. This study adds to previous research on goal setting theory and AGO theory for the practical application and proposes an effective model for learners’ adaptive remote learning. Findings of this study can be used to provide educational psychological insights for training and learning in both industrial and academic settings.

As an increasingly important variable in the career field, career sustainability has received particular attention, yet few empirical studies have been conducted to examine its antecedents. The authors propose a moderated mediation model based on the goal-setting theory and the wise proactivity perspective for exploring when and how self-goal setting can influence career sustainability.

The authors use a time-lagged design and collect three waves of data from 1,260 teachers in basic education schools in China. The authors test the proposed hypotheses with SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.3.

The results show that self-goal setting positively relates to career sustainability and that career crafting plays a mediating role in this relationship. This relationship is strengthened when perceived organizational goal clarity is high.

The authors extend the application scenarios of the goal-setting theory to the field of career research and find out that self-goal setting is also a self-initiated and wise antecedent of career sustainability. From a wise proactivity perspective, the authors examine the mediating mechanism of career crafting to make positive career outcomes. Furthermore, the authors consider the impact of perceived organizational goal clarity as a boundary condition and broaden the understanding of “when to wise proactivity” from the goal-setting theory.

Introduced into the literature a decade ago, grit originally defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals has stimulated considerable research on positive effects primarily in the academic and military contexts, as well as attracted widespread media attention. Despite recent criticism regarding grit’s construct and criterion-related validity, research on grit has begun to spill over into the work context as well. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of the initial theoretical foundations of grit as a motivational driver, and present newer conceptualizations on the mechanisms of grit’s positive effects rooted in goal-setting theory. Furthermore, the authors also draw attention to existing shortcomings of the current definition and measurement of grit, and their implications for its scientific and practical application. After establishing a theoretical understanding, the authors discuss the potential utility of grit for human resource management, related to staffing and recruitment, development and training, and performance management systems as well as performance evaluations. The authors conclude this chapter with a discussion of necessary and potential future research, and consider the practical implications of grit in its current state.

The purpose of this research is to empirically examine the efficacy of setting multiple goals targeting complex competencies with a variety of time horizons pursued across a number of years. Most research conducted in the areas of goal setting examines an individual's ability to achieve a single goal targeting a simple skill or behavioral change within a short time period.

In this longitudinal study competency development is assessed over time periods ranging from nine months to four and half years and examined using both self‐reported change and behavior change demonstrated through critical incident interviews.

Progress over the study reveals that establishing learning goals is particularly important to the development of competencies. Subjects developed significantly more on competencies for which they set goals than on other competencies. They also demonstrated greater competency development when goals were remembered.

Subjects were studied during a specific life change event – completion of an MBA program. Their particular education environment was designed to support and encourage change. It undoubtedly contributed to their development during the study. Results therefore may not generalize to broader populations. However, the results reveal clear implications for management education in both academic and corporate education settings.

This study highlights important elements in the development process that when included enhance competency development and provide insight into the mechanisms underlying intentional change theory.

The research evaluates the complexity and difficulty involved in competency development. It provides empirical evidence to support goal setting and intentional change theories.

The aim of this study is to find out whether managers can facilitate employee understanding of the pay system through a goal‐setting process. The paper draws from Thierry's largely untested Reflection Theory to study employee pay satisfaction.

Based on the theory, it is posited that managerial goal setting improves employee pay satisfaction through increased employee knowledge and perceived meanings of pay. The hypotheses are tested with survey data from one municipal health care organization.

The results of the study show that both knowledge and meanings of pay mediate the effects of goal setting on pay satisfaction. The paper finds support for the somewhat distinguishable roles of instrumental and symbolic meanings of pay. The regression analyses show that the former fully mediates the effect of pay level and the latter fully mediates the effect of goal setting on pay satisfaction. Even though the analyses do not provide evidence that common method variance would explain the results, it remains a potential issue.

Future research is needed to establish the dimensionality of meanings – positive as well as negative – a pay system can convey, and to explore the degree to which they can be managed.

The results of the study suggest that organizations can promote their ROI of pay systems by paying attention to the employees' interpretations of messages conveyed by the pay system implementation process. More specifically, the results demonstrate that managers can contribute to employee pay satisfaction via a goal‐setting process that informs employees about the functions of the pay system and use the system to give feedback on the job.

The study provides a unique but preliminary test for Reflection Theory.

Due to the popularity of mobile devices and the development of artificial intelligence (AI), AI-powered mobile fitness applications (MFAs) have entered people's daily lives. However, the extant literature lacks empirical investigations that explore users' continuance usage intentions regarding AI-powered MFAs. To fill this research gap, this paper employs goal-setting theory to establish a research model for exploring how AI-enabled features (i.e. intelligence and anthropomorphism) affect users' perceptions of goal difficulties and goal specificities, which in turn affect their MFA continuance usage intentions.

This paper uses a survey method to analyze the research model, and a total of 223 responses are collected. The partial least squares (PLS) technique is utilized for data analysis.

The results show that intelligence and anthropomorphism affect the continuance usage intention of MFA users through their goal difficulty and specificity. Both intelligence and anthropomorphism positively influence goal specificity, whereas they negatively affect goal difficulty. In addition, goal specificity increases users' MFA continuance usage intention, whereas goal difficulty decreases users' continuance usage intention. The findings of this study provide theoretical contributions for AI technology adoption research and offer practical strategies for firms to retain MFA users.

Based on goal-setting theory, this study reveals that as two primary AI features of contemporary mobile fitness apps, intelligence and anthropomorphism, can increase comprehension of users' perceptions regarding goal difficulty and specificity in the context of users' continuance usage intentions toward AI-powered MFAs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how individual perceptions by employees of a goal‐setting program and personality traits influence job satisfaction and goal commitment.

Using the German version of Locke and Latham's goal‐setting questionnaire, 97 production employees judged the quality of the goal‐setting program in their company with regard to content‐related problems of goals (e.g. goal clarity), process in dyad (e.g. supervisor support), and setting‐related aspects (e.g. rewards). Data were also collected on the participants' conscientiousness and neuroticism.

The results showed that job satisfaction is predicted by content and setting‐related aspects, whereas content‐related aspects affected goal commitment. Conscientiousness explained variance in goal commitment independent of individual perceptions of the goal‐setting program, whereas neuroticism affected job satisfaction indirectly via the perceptions of goal content.

Performance management programs that incorporate goals belong to the most widely used management techniques worldwide. The study provides evidence on critical success factors from the view of staff members, which helps to design or optimize current goal‐setting programs. Furthermore, the study implies practical consequences in terms of person‐job fit based on personality traits.

The study helps to build a more comprehensive picture of how content, process, and setting‐related perceptions of a goal‐setting program influence job satisfaction and goal commitment. In addition, it provides important insights into the processes through which individual differences affect work behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to give evidence of effective, large-scale, and time-sustained goal setting through the use of performance indicators (PIs) in managing a fairly large and decentralized social-security organization, despite indications that the motivational effects of goal setting are hard to sustain in the long term.

The authors analyze five years of monthly organizational performance data across 30 regional offices and five activities to identify the links between PIs and productivity.

The authors identify correlations that demonstrate a cycle where low performance scores on indicators increase productivity in the next period, but high performance decrease it, thus renewing the cycle.

While long-term gains in the productivity are not the direct product of goal setting, the close relationship between goals and productivity illustrates the motivational potential of communicable targets and close feedback that led to a culture of performance within the organization.

The case studied demonstrates how a performance management system can be designed and managed so that long-term fatigue is avoided while maintaining a dynamic workforce that adapts in the face of environment change by increasing its efforts as needed.

This paper answers a call to connect management control studies with managerial work done in practical settings.

We develop an integrative conceptualization of how firms set and alter strategic goals, incorporating insights from goal-setting literatures across the disciplines of marketing, management, and psychology. Our framework accounts for the internal and external forces that impact the content of a firm's goals as well as the dynamic processes by which these goals are formed and changed over time. By proposing this framework, we strive to offer insights into the “black box” of organizational goals that connect firm resources and environmental context to firm strategies. Illustrative data to support our framework are provided from a case study of a Fortune 100 communication firm's entry into an emerging, high-technology, new product marketplace.