Chapter 4Motivating Self and Others 149OBAT WORK5.Prioritize goals.When you have more than one
goal, it’s important to rank the goals in order of
importance. The purpose of prioritizing is to encour-
age you to take action and expend effort on each
goal in proportion to its importance.
6 .Rate goals for difficulty and importance.Goal set-
ting should not encourage people to choose easy
goals. Instead, goals should be rated for their diffi-
culty and importance. When goals are rated, indi-
viduals can be given credit for trying to reach
difficult goals, even if they don’t fully achieve them.
7.Build in feedback mechanisms to assess goal
progress.Feedback lets you know whether your level
of effort is sufficient to attain the goal. Set deadlines
for when you will evaluate how you are performing.
You should review your progress frequently.
8.Link rewards to goal attainment.It’s natural for you
to get discouraged when working toward your
goals. Link rewards to the achievement of goals to
help encourage you more.Source: Based on S. P. Robbins and D. A. DeCenzo, Fundamentals of
Management,4th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004), p. 85.
Assessing Skills
After you’ve read this chapter, take the following Self-
Assessments on your enclosed CD-ROM.
1 0. What Motivates Me?
11. What Are My Dominant Needs?
1 2. What Rewards Do I Value Most?
1 3. What’s My View on the Nature of People?
1 4. What Are My Course Performance Goals?
1 7. How Sensitive Am I to Equity Differences?Practising Skills
Tammie Arnold worked her way through college while
holding down a part-time job bagging groceries at the Food
Town supermarket chain. She liked working in the food
industry, and when she graduated she accepted a position
with Food Town as a management trainee. Over the next
three years, Arnold gained experience in the grocery store
industry and in operating a large supermarket. About a
year ago, Arnold received a promotion to store manager at
one of the chain’s locations. One of the things she has liked
about Food Town is that it gives store managers a great
deal of autonomy in running their stores. The company pro-
vides very general guidelines to its managers. Top manage-
ment is concerned with the bottom line; for the most part,
how the store manager gets there is up to him or her. Now
that Arnold is finally a store manager, she wants to use
goal setting to motivate her employees. She likes the idea
that everyone should have clear goals to work toward and
then be evaluated against those goals.
The store employs 70 people, although except for the
managers most work only 20 to 30 hours per week. There
are 6 people reporting to Arnold: an assistant manager; a
weekend manager; and grocery, produce, meat, and bakery
managers. The only highly skilled jobs belong to the butch-
ers, who have strict training and regulatory guidelines.
Other less skilled jobs include cashier, shelf stocker, mainte-
nance employee, and grocery bagger.
Arnold has come to you for advice on how to design a
goal-setting program for her store. Specifically describe how
she should go about setting goals in her new position.
Include examples of goals for the jobs of butcher, cashier,
and bakery manager.Reinforcing Skills
1 .Set personal and academic goals you want to
achieve by the end of this term. Prioritize and rate
them for difficulty.
2.Where do you want to be in five years? Do you
have specific five-year goals? Establish three goals
you want to achieve in five years. Make sure these
goals are specific, challenging, and measurable.