Goals Motivation and Performance

Title:

Name:

Institution:

Introduction

The strategic management process of an organization determines the direction the organization is going to take which is postulated in the vision and mission of an organization. Further, the process determines how the various organizational resources are going to be applied in getting the organization to the desired direction. The organization’s goals and objectives are derived from the vision and mission, cascaded down to different functional areas and further broken down to team and individual goals which set standards for expected performance standards (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2012).

Goals, Employee Motivation and Performance

When goals are broken down to departmental, team and individual goals, they form a basis for the performance standards and expectations of the organization on the employee, team, and the organization in general (Jennings, & Hyde, 2012). It is on the basis of these performance standards as predetermined in the goals and objectives that performance evaluation is conducted to gauge the level of achievement of the employee’s vis-à-vis the expectation as stipulated in the goals. In light of this, since goals set the minimum expectations of the organization on the employee, the employee should work towards achieving these minimum acceptable performance standards. Thus, due to the fact that the goals act as a minimum acceptable level of performance, they should be a motivating factor for the employees as they strive to actualize on the set goals and objectives (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2012).

From the perspective of an individual, it is important for an employee to set individual goals that they intend to achieve in a specified period of time, which should be aligned to organizational goals for employed individuals (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2012). This will play the role of a guiding beacon for the employee in pursuit of good performance and general career growth. Personally, I have both short term and long term goals. In the short term, my goal is to finish my studies up to post graduate and doctoral level in the next six years. On the other hand, I objectivise to rapidly rise up the career ladder in my place of work and ultimately aim to hold a senior management position in a fortune 500 company in the next 10 years. This will be achieved through actualizing on both my short term and long term goals. In this regard, it is important to note that goals in my case play the role of a motivating factor and thus a good basis for me to always ensure good performance as per minimum standards set by the organization.