SMART And Goal Setting Assumption 1

An organization, it is said, is only as good as the employees that work in it. In order for these employees to carry out their duties effectively, they need a strong desire and motivation to want to work for the organization where they are employed. When an organization’s goals and needs are in line with the employee’s, this leads to an increase in motivation and willingness to achieve more, which ultimately leads to the overall growth and success of the organization. Motivation is the choice to exert effort and to persist, drawing on knowledge and skill, until a desired goal is attained (Latham & Locke, 2007). The desire for more knowledge and easier access to this knowledge was what motivated the founders of Google and what lead to the birth of one of the biggest companies in the world today. When the founders of Microsoft wanted everyone to have easy access to a personal computer, they had a goal in mind, and were motivated to create a platform to make this happen.

The absence or presence of motivation in an organization can be explained through a number of factors. The theory of motivation to be explored in this paper to explain these factors is the Goal Setting Theory of Motivation. According to the Goal Setting Theory, there is a goal or point to most actions carried out by human beings, and these conscious goals are the most direct and immediate regulator of much human action. According to the findings of the goal-setting theory, the harder the goal set, the higher the motivation and hence, the better the overall performance.

Locke’s work on goal-setting theory was inspired by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, who lived more than 2300 years ago. Aristotle proposed that change in a person be achieved through motivation, or rather, that it can be caused through diligent action and that identifying an end-goal or purpose can be a catalyst for action. This to say that there is a two-way relationship between goals and effort – goals encourage effort; effort

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