The moderating role of goal commitment on the goal difficulty–performance relationship: A meta-analytic review and critical reanalysis.

Despite the nearly unanimous view that goal commitment is a vital component of goal setting, few studies have empirically assessed its hypothesized role as a moderator of the goal–performance relationship. In addition, those studies that have examined the moderating effects of goal commitment have presented inconsistent conclusions. To clarify this situation, a meta-analysis was conducted to examine the overall strength of the moderating effect of goal commitment. The results indicated that the Goal Difficulty X Goal Commitment effect accounted for less than 3% of the variance in task performance. Additionally, the type of goal commitment measure used (self-report vs. discrepancy) was a significant moderator of this relationship. Measurement issues and directions for future conceptualizations of the goal commitment construct are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Team Goal Commitment and Team Effectiveness: The Role of Task Interdependence and Supportive Behaviors.

The objectives of this study were to test the relationships between team goal commitment and 3 criteria of team effectiveness (i.e., team performance, quality of group experience, and team viability) as well as to examine the moderating effect of task interdependence and the mediating role of supportive behaviors. Data were gathered from a sample of 74 teams working in 13 Canadian organizations. Results indicated that team goal commitment is positively related to all 3 criteria of team effectiveness. In addition, task interdependence moderates the relationship between team goal commitment and team performance. Furthermore, supportive behaviors mediate the relationships that team goal commitment has with team performance and the quality of group experience. Implications of these findings and future research needs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Goal commitment and the goal-setting process: Problems, prospects, and proposals for future research.

The purpose of this article is to examine the role of goal commitment in goal-setting research. Despite Locke's (1968) specification that commitment to goals is a necessary condition for the effectiveness of goal setting, a majority of studies in this area have ignored goal commitment. In addition, results of studies that have examined the effects of goal commitment were typically inconsistent with conceptualization of commitment as a moderator. Building on past research, we have developed a model of the goal commitment process and then used it to reinterpret past goal-setting research. We show that the widely varying sizes of the effect of goal difficulty, conditional effects of goal difficulty, and inconsistent results with variables such as participation can largely be traced to main and interactive effects of the variables specified by the model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An attributional analysis of commitment.

C. A. Kiesler (1971) suggested that commitment to an act can be equated with feelings of self-responsibility for that act. This analysis implies that factors affecting attribution of self-responsibility for an act should also affect commitment. Two studies with a total of 93 male undergraduates supported the notion that attribution of self-responsibility for an act increases commitment to that act. Increasing self-focus (Exp I) increased commitment, and increasing the number of plausible causes present (Exp II) decreased commitment to a chosen act. Furthermore, in an effort to determine the role that perceived choice plays in the attributional process leading to commitment, perceived choice was also manipulated. Results indicate that choice clearly affected attribution to self and thus commitment, but choice did not appear to be absolutely essential to that process. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job involvement and organizational commitment as longitudinal predictors of job performance: A study of scientists and engineers.

A study of 532 scientists and engineers from 4 industrial research and development organizations showed that as hypothesized, the scientist–engineer distinction had a moderating effect on the relationships between job involvement and 1-year-later job-performance ratings and on counts of patents and publications. Scientists had stronger relationships between job involvement and each of the performance measures taken 1 year later than did engineers. No moderating effect was found for the scientist–engineer distinction on the relationships between organizational commitment and the performance measures. Moreover, no moderating effect was shown for an interaction term of job involvement and organizational commitment on the performance measures. Implications are discussed for theory building of the construct of job involvement and for the differential management of scientists versus engineers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Goal commitment and the goal-setting process: Conceptual clarification and empirical synthesis.

Goals are central to current treatments of work motivation, and goal commitment is a critical construct in understanding the relationship between goals and task performance. Despite this importance, there is confusion about the role of goal commitment and only recently has this key construct received the empirical attention it warrants. This meta-analysis, based on 83 independent samples, updates the goal commitment literature by summarizing the accumulated evidence on the antecedents and consequences of goal commitment. Using this aggregate empirical evidence, the role of goal commitment in the goal-setting process is clarified and key areas for future research are identified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dynamics of self-regulation: How (un)accomplished goal actions affect motivation.

Two factors increase the motivation to adhere to a goal: goal commitment and lack of goal progress. When people ask about commitment, focusing on what they have accomplished (to date) signals to them high commitment and increases motivation. Conversely, when commitment is certain and people ask about goal progress, focusing on what they have yet to accomplish (to go) signals to them lack of progress and increases motivation. Accordingly, 4 studies show that emphasizing to-date information increases goal adherence when commitment is uncertain--that is, when participants study for a relatively unimportant exam, consume luxuries, fulfill a desire, and make first-time contributions to a charity. Conversely, emphasizing to-go information increases goal adherence when commitment is certain--that is, when participants study for an important exam, consume necessities, fulfill a need, and make repeated contributions to a charity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work--family conflict, perceived organizational support, and organizational commitment among employed mothers.

This study investigated the impact of work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW) on women's organizational commitment and examined both the direct and moderating effects of their perceive& organizational support. Participants were 143 professional employed mothers with at least 1 preschool-age child. The study found that WIF was positively related to continuance organizational commitment but unrelated to affective commitment, and FIW was not related to either form of organizational commitment. Results also indicated that perceived organizational support exhibited a main effect on both types of commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-regulation of goal-setting: Turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals.

Fantasy realization theory states that when people contrast their fantasies about a desired future with reflections on present reality, a necessity to act is induced that leads to the activation and use of relevant expectations. Strong goal commitment arises in light of favorable expectations, and weak goal commitment arises in light of unfavorable expectations. To the contrary, when people only fantasize about a desired future or only reflect on present reality, expectancy-independent moderate goal commitment emerges. Four experiments pertaining to various life domains supported these hypotheses. Strength of goal commitment was assessed in cognitive (e.g., making plans), affective (e.g., felt attachment), and behavioral terms (e.g., effort expenditure, quality of performance). Implications for theories on goal setting and goal striving are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Panel analysis of the moderating effects of commitment on job satisfaction, intent to quit, and health following organizational change.

Examined the moderating effects of organizational commitment on the relationship of stress with job satisfaction, intent to quit, and health during organizational turmoil. Panel data were provided by hospital employees surveyed before and after a major divisional consolidation. Findings indicated that commitment buffered the relationship between stress and job displeasure (a canonically derived variate combining residualized job satisfaction, intent to quit, and irritation). Stress increased job displeasure only when commitment was low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Commitment and the role of ability in motivation: Comment on Wright, O'Leary-Kelly, Cortina, Klein, and Hollenbeck (1994).

Wright, O'Leary-Kelly, Cortina, Klein, and Hollenbeck (1994) claim that Tubbs (Tubbs & Dahl, 1991; Tubbs, 1993) has advocated the personal-goal–assigned-goal discrepancy as being the best measure of commitment, whereas they argue that a self-report assessment such as the one they have developed is the superior measure. However, because several conceptually distinct motivational concepts have been confused in the literature on commitment, the idea that any one measure can cover all of the discussed issues is inadequate. Further, although Wright et al. are correct that understanding and modeling the role of ability in motivation is an important concern, the solution they suggest is inappropriate. Future research should more clearly distinguish the several, often confused, concepts in the literature on commitment and more carefully consider both the manner in which motivation and ability influence behavior and the means by which we empirically model these relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thought-induced attitude change: The effects of schema structure and commitment.

Conducted 4 studies with 218 undergraduates in an attempt to integrate hypotheses about the effects of thought and schema complexity on attitude polarization proposed by P. W. Linville (see record 1982-25791-001) and the 2nd author and C. Leone (see record 1978-09847-001). Linville's work showed that more extreme attitudes were associated with simpler cognitive schemas for construing the attitude object. The 2nd author and Leone demonstrated that thought with a complex schema resulted in greater attitude polarization than thought with a simple schema. Study 1 validated the present author's schema complexity manipulation. Study 2 tested and found support for the hypothesis that 1 moderating variable was motivational: The 2nd author and Leone's effect was obtained in the presence of commitment to an initial evaluation, and there was a tendency toward the Linville effect in the absence of commitment to an initial evaluation. Study 3 tested and found support for the hypothesis that another moderating variable was structural: The Linville effect was obtained when there was little correlation among the dimensions of the cognitive schema, and the 2nd author and Leone's effect was obtained when there was substantial correlation among the dimensions; thought tended to increase the correlation among dimensions. Study 4 tested and found support for the hypothesis that commitment affects cognitive structures in a way that could account for its moderating effect on attitude polarization. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Escalating commitment to a failing course of action: Separating the roles of choice and justification.

The escalation of commitment to a failing course of action is often attributed to self-justification motives that presumably are evoked by personal responsibility for initiating the original action (e.g., B. M. Staw; see record 1976-27199-001). Nevertheless, personal responsibility, operationalized as choice, has been confounded with public justification, which might engender self-presentation concerns. The present laboratory experiment extended past research by examining the impact of choice on escalating commitment with and without justification that was either public or private. Results show that escalating commitment was not significantly different in conditions of public or private justification but that justification was necessary in addition to choice itself. The data suggest that justification of past choices may be necessary for escalating commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the meaning and measurement of goal commitment.

Recent research by Tubbs and Dahl (1991) and Tubbs (1993) has proposed that discrepancy measures of goal commitment are superior to self-report measures. We explore the theoretical, practical, and empirical problems with discrepancy measures of goal commitment. We reanalyzed some of the relationships discussed by these authors using their data and demonstrate that the failure to control for ability leads to incorrect conclusions regarding the relative usefulness of discrepancy versus self-report measures. In addition, we conducted a separate study to further compare the usefulness of these different measures. Finally, we discuss the meaning of goal commitment and the role of goals in the motivational process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational commitment: A further moderator in the relationship between work stress and strain?

In recent years, a growing interest in the relations between organizational commitment of employees and their experiences of job strain can be noted. Besides main effects on these consequences, two competing hypotheses have postulated moderating effects of commitment on the relationship of work stress to measures of strain. According to the first hypothesis highly committed employees experience the adverse effects of stress more than less committed employees, whereas according to the second hypothesis commitment operates as a buffer in the stress-strain relationship. Data from 506 staff members of a municipal administration provided evidence in favor of the buffer hypothesis. The effects of high stress on the burnout dimensions of exhaustion and depersonalization were reduced with increasing commitment to the organization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behaviour of nitric oxide synthase in rat cerebellar granule cells differentiating in culture

Differentiation commitment events are essential for the initiation of hemopoiesis and, in one form or another, occur continuously during adult hemopoiesis. The most studied type of differentiation commitment decision a hemopoietic cell can make involves the alternative choice of self-renewal versus the formation of progeny destined for maturation. Aberration in this commitment choice is a key abnormality necessary for the formation of a leukemic population.     

Comparison of participatively set and assigned goals in the reduction of alcohol use.

The effects of setting goals on goal commitment, self-efficacy for goal achievement, and goal achievement in the context of an alcohol use intervention were examined using an experimental design in which participants were randomized to participatively set goals, assigned goals, and no goal conditions. One hundred and twenty-six heavy-drinking college students received a single cognitive-behavioral assessment/intervention session and completed measures of goal commitment, self-efficacy for goal achievement, and alcohol use. Results were consistent with, and expanded upon, previous research by demonstrating that having a goal for limiting alcohol consumption was predictive of lower quantity and frequency of alcohol use relative to not having a goal. Participation in goal setting yielded greater goal commitment and self-efficacy for goal achievement than assigned goals, but did not result in significantly greater reductions in alcohol use relative to assigned goals. Goal commitment and self-efficacy explained unique variance in the prediction of alcohol use at follow-up. Findings support the importance of goal setting in alcohol interventions and suggest areas for further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning and conversation.

Informal arguments take place when individuals exchange views on whether it is worthwhile to believe some assertion or take some action. Debates between friends or family members, classroom sparring about an idea, scientific exchanges about empirical results or theories, and critical discussions and responses in many fields can all be instances of arguments. This article describes the structure of these arguments in terms of the conversational moves that participants can make within them—for example, asking for a justification, giving a reason, offering an objection, or conceding a point. The central part of the article proposes a model for the way people determine to which of the argument's claims each participant is committed. According to the model, commitment is the result of rules defined over the sequence of conversational moves. A participant's commitment to claims that occur later in the argument has well-defined implications for commitment to claims that occurred earlier. Predictions from the model compare well with people's judgments of commitment over a range of argument types. The analysis of argument commitment also illuminates concepts such as burden of proof that are difficult to define within current reasoning theories that treat just a single side of an issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectancy?×?value effects: Regulatory focus as determinant of magnitude and direction.

The authors propose that a promotion focus involves construal of achievement goals as aspirations whose attainment brings accomplishment. Commitment to these accomplishment goals is characterized by attempts to attain the highest expected utility. In contrast, a prevention focus involves construal of achievement goals as responsibilities whose attainment brings security. Commitment to these security goals is characterized by doing what is necessary. The different nature of commitment to accomplishment goals versus security goals is predicted to influence the interactive effect of goal expectancy and goal value on goal commitment, as evident in both task performance and decision making. Four studies found that the classic positive interactive effect of expectancy and value on goal commitment increases with a promotion focus and decreases with a prevention focus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group beliefs, ability, and performance: The potency of group potency.

Although it is clear that group members' attitudes, beliefs, and abilities are factors that contribute to group success, the interplay among these factors has received little attention. This study examined the impact of group potency, group goal commitment, and group ability on group performance. One hundred forty-three Officer Cadets, working in 51 groups, participated in this study. Consistent with our hypothesis, group potency contributed to the prediction of group performance over and above group ability. In contrast, group goal commitment did not have a strong relation with group performance. On the basis of these results, it seems that "thinking we can" is an important factor in its own right, regardless of the group's ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)