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DA6. Goals and Objectives in Management

Statement

  • In what ways do goals and objectives help managers control processes within an organization?
  • How do specific and measurable goals affect employee motivation and promote organizational performance?
  • Provide an example from your own experience when a specific goal or objective provided beneficial control over a process.
  • Describe the beneficial control and how it positively influenced organizational performance.

Answer

In what ways do goals and objectives help managers control processes within an organization?

Carpenter et al. (2010) state that “goals and objectives can provide a form of control since they create a feedback opportunity regarding how well or how poorly the organization executes its strategy. Goals and objectives also are a basis for reward systems and can align interests and accountability within and across business units”; so by measuring the performance towards objectives of a goal, managers control processes within an organization by:

  • Providing feedback: managers can identify if we are on track or not.
  • Rewarding systems: employees who do well can be rewarded; thus, will be motivated to work harder.
  • Accountability: employees who do not make the effort can be held accountable.
  • Aligning efforts: everyone is working towards the same goal, and if you depend on the work of some other teams, you can always track their progress.

How do specific and measurable goals affect employee motivation and promote organizational performance?

Specific and measurable goals affect employees as follows:

  • Focus on the objectives: employees just work on what is needed to achieve the goal.
  • Less time spent on unnecessary tasks: the time spent working on wrong tasks due to ambiguity is reduced.
  • Less time lost in thinking/communicating: employees know what to do and how to do it, they don’t need to spend time figuring out what to do.

According to Brandman University (n.d.), when employees know the exact end to a milestone, and verify that they are on track, they will be motivated to put a final push to move further; this also helps people to feel fulfilled and satisfied with their work.

Also, Carpenter et al. (2010) anticipate that a motivated employee who is working towards a verified and useful goal will be more productive and efficient, which in turn will promote organizational performance.

Provide an example from your own experience when a specific goal or objective provided beneficial control over a process. Describe the beneficial control and how it positively influenced organizational performance

In the organization I work for, we ran low on investments; so we needed to increase our income to keep cash flow positive. The organization is a tech company that provides software solutions for real estate agencies and tenants. We set first a broad goal to sell more properties to renters, and we tried out for a while but it didn’t work out.

Later, we set a company-wide meeting where we broke down the goal into objectives. We set the following objectives:

Objective Measures
Increase the number of tenants signing up Weekly: How many new tenants
Increase the number tenants who buy Weekly: How many tenants buy
Increase the number of properties listed Weekly: How many properties listed - Monthly: How many new agencies we sign contract with
Find new income streams Monthly: ask renters what services they need and record that
Continue looking for investments Monthly: How many investors we meet - Monthly: how are our numbers doing

Each objective was assigned to a team, and the numbers of the previous period were recorded, accessed by everyone, and discussed according to its time frame. We instantly noticed the difference, as each of us worked towards a specific, achievable, and measurable goal. Each team focused on its objectives without worrying about the overall revenue goal; but combining the results of all teams, our revenue was increasing, and the positive numbers also motivated employees and investors alike, which in turn promoted organizational performance.

References

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