Picked this up from the BusinessPundit's Blog where he quotes a Wharton research:
"From childhood on, individuals are told that setting goals for themselves will make them more diligent, more focused and generally more successful in whatever they set out to do - whether it's win tennis games, ace their exams or become CEO of their company.
But goal-setting also has a dark side to it, according to a recent research paper by a Wharton faculty member and two colleagues. In addition to motivating constructive behavior, goal setting - especially when it involves rewards - can motivate unethical behavior when people fall short of the goals they set or that are set for them. The relationship between goal setting and unethical behavior is particularly strong when people fall just short of reaching the goal."
That means that managers have to be sensitive to such fact and either hire really honest people or set targets that are more flexible and concentrate not just on the what of achievement but also on the how of the achievement!
Hi I am an HR Online Student here in the United States and I just did an assignment on how to motivate a clerical assistant who is going to be facing a large workload, and what you had to say about making achievable goals is a great idea, because if they aren't able to meet it by ethical means, I can see where someone could or would do something unethical. Like to cut corners. There was this one story in our textbook that talked about a airline carrier that cut a corner and their plane ended up going down and all of the people died just because a 9 dollar item was not used.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you had made that point, about the unethical behavior, it makes a lot of sense too. So it is something that should also be kept in mind.
Thanks,
Melissa
Hi Gautam;
ReplyDeleteIs there anything like an illegal question in an interview in India? I know from the Canadian HeadHunter blog that most questions we get here are illegal according to global standards. Why arent we following them?