Undesirable Effects of Goal Setting on Perceived Fairness, Commitment, and Unethical Behavior

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Keith

Abstract. The positive effects of goal setting on motivation and performance are among the most established findings of industrial–organizational psychology. Accordingly, goal setting is a common management technique. Lately, however, potential negative effects of goal-setting, for example, on unethical behavior, are increasingly being discussed. This research replicates and extends a laboratory experiment conducted in the United States. In one of three goal conditions (do-your-best goals, consistently high goals, increasingly high goals), 101 participants worked on a search task in five rounds. Half of them (transparency yes/no) were informed at the outset about goal development. We did not find the expected effects on unethical behavior but medium-to-large effects on subjective variables: Perceived fairness of goals and goal commitment were least favorable in the increasing-goal condition, particularly in later goal rounds. Results indicate that when designing goal-setting interventions, organizations may consider potential undesirable long-term effects.

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Presslee ◽  
Thomas W. Vance ◽  
Alan Webb ◽  
Scott Jeffrey

2020 ◽  
pp. 109634802097101
Author(s):  
Eojina Kim ◽  
Juan Luis Nicolau

The Menu Labeling Act (MLA), which requires restaurants to provide customers with nutritional information, has encountered implementation difficulties for more than 8 years, owing to the imposition of administrative costs on restaurant firms. By investigating the market value of 46 restaurant firms that publicly trade in the United States, this research analyzes the impact of MLA-related announcements on the market value of foodservice firms. Announcements associated with restrictions tend to reduce restaurant market value by 0.29% per day (market value is defined as the number of shares times the share price), whereas announcements related to flexibility increase such market value by 0.80%. The final guideline and compliance date announced by the Food and Drug Administration has provoked significant negative effects on restaurant market value. Meanwhile, the congress’ proposed opposition act has elicited great positive effects. This study provides important implications for policy makers and practitioners in the food service industry.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-79
Author(s):  
Andrea L. Ruiz ◽  
Gabriel A. Acevedo ◽  
Raquel R. Marquez ◽  
Marcos Marquez

Despite the strong empirical evidence linking childhood abuse to negative mental health outcomes later in life, a number of questions remain regarding race variations in this association. Moreover, less is known about the salience of protective factors that can offset or ameliorate the negative effects of abuse on adult mental health, and whether these factors work differently by race. Using three waves of panel data from a nationally representative survey of American adults, the present study examined the long-term effects of childhood abuse on adult mental health over a span of 20 years. In addition, we assessed social support as a protective factor, and examined its differential effects on mental health outcomes for Whites and non-Whites. Results indicate that despite frequent childhood abuse, social support is associated with less depression for Whites—its positive effects being most pronounced for those with the most severe abuse experiences. However, social support is associated with worst depression for non-Whites—its negative effects being most pronounced for those with severe abuse experiences. These findings demonstrate that the factors commonly considered as protective and beneficial for adult victims of abuse work differently across racial groups and in fact, may be detrimental for non-Whites.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 128-137
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. DiMartino ◽  
Susan M. Schultz

As technology advances across the United States, schools should consider not only the benefits of using screened devices but also the short- and long-term effects on student health. Both the positive and negative effects of using devices are often intensified for students in rural schools, as online learning and the use of e-therapy becomes more prevalent. The purpose of this study was to investigate stakeholders’ perceptions of device use in one eighth-grade cohort in a rural school, differences between device use by students with and without disabilities, and to provide an awareness of student screen time exposure and its potential consequences. Basic qualitative methods were used to assess student, teacher, and parent perceptions of screen time use and perceptions of the recommended daily allowance of screen time in an eighth-grade cohort in a rural western New York school. Findings suggest that students, parents, and teachers perceive screen time as “excessive.” Implications for practice and future inquiry are reported.


2013 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 1805-1831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Presslee ◽  
Thomas W. Vance ◽  
R. Alan Webb

ABSTRACT: The use of tangible rewards in the form of non-cash incentives with a monetary value has become increasingly common in many organizations (Peltier et al. 2005). Despite their use, the behavioral and performance effects of tangible rewards have received minimal research attention. Relative to cash rewards, we predict tangible rewards will have positive effects on goal commitment and performance but will lead employees to set easier goals, which will negatively affect performance. The overall performance impact of tangible rewards will depend on the relative strength of these competing effects. We conduct a quasi-experiment at five call centers of a financial services company. Employees at two locations earned cash rewards for goal attainment while employees at three locations earned points, with equivalent retail value to cash rewards, redeemable for merchandise. Results show that cash rewards lead to better performance through their effects on the difficulty of the goals employees selected. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Data Availability: The data used in this study are available upon request.


2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Robinson

This paper considers how the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is likely to affect labour movement power in Canada and the United States. The paper is divided into four parts. It first defines the concept of « labour movement power », breaking it down into its component parts. It next considers why we should care about what happens to labour movement power. It then outlines the principal negative and positive effects that the NAFTA is likely to have on labour movement power. Attention is also given to the beneficial consequences that the fight against the NAFTA has already had for the labour movement. It is argued that the NAFTA 's negative impacts are likely to outweight its positive ones in the short run and that the positive effects could substantially outweight its negative effects over the medium to long run. Whether it does will depend upon choices made in the next few years by labour movement leaders and activists.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Mayer ◽  
Nina Gerber ◽  
Ronja McDermott ◽  
Melanie Volkamer ◽  
Joachim Vogt

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of goal setting in organizations, especially regarding the mitigation of conflicting productivity and security goals. Design/methodology/approach This paper describes the results of a survey with 200 German employees regarding the effects of goal setting on employees’ security compliance. Based on the survey results, a concept for setting information security goals in organizations building on actionable behavioral recommendations from information security awareness materials is developed. This concept was evaluated in three small- to medium-sized organizations (SMEs) with overall 90 employees. Findings The survey results revealed that the presence of rewards for productivity goal achievement is strongly associated with a decrease in security compliance. The evaluation of the goal setting concept indicates that setting their own information security goals is welcomed by employees. Research limitations/implications Both studies rely on self-reported data and are, therefore, likely to contain some kind of bias. Practical implications Goal setting in organizations has to accommodate for situations, where productivity goals constrain security policy compliance. Introducing the proposed goal setting concept based on relevant actionable behavioral recommendations can help mitigate issues in such situations. Originality/value This work furthers the understanding of the factors affecting employee security compliance. Furthermore, the proposed concept can help maximizing the positive effects of goal setting in organizations by mitigating the negative effects through the introduction of meaningful and actionable information security goals.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Dillard ◽  
Chun Yang

Fear of infectious disease has the potential to damage local economies, disrupt health care delivery systems, and diminish immune functioning, whether or not the risk is objectively high. The appearance of Ebola in the United States offered an opportunity to study the causes of fear in a real-world event. Shortly after the death of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, survey data were gathered (N = 849) from residents of Dallas and U.S. citizens outside of Texas. Fear was positively associated with age (younger), gender (female), and ethnicity (non-White), but not geographic proximity (Dallas vs. not Dallas). Exposure to Ebola-related information via interpersonal channels (friends/family, acquaintances/coworkers) corresponded with higher levels of fear, but the findings for media channels were more varied, showing positive effects (newspapers/magazines), negative effects (Internet), and null effects (TV/radio). The study provides insight into the personal, interpersonal, and media correlates of fear of Ebola.


1994 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
ICR Holford ◽  
GJ Crocker

Eight experiments on acidic soils of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales were carried out to measure lime effects on clover-based pastures and their response to fertilizer phosphate (P). Each experiment lasted 3 years. The seven soils deficient in P all responded to lime in the first year, and pasture yield responses were associated with lime-induced increases in isotopically exchangeable or soluble soil P or both. Three of these soils were also relatively high in soluble aluminium (Al) or manganese (Mn), and the lime-induced suppression of these toxic cations probably also contributed to the beneficial effects of lime. Negative effects of lime on fertilizer P response were more frequent than positive effects, and tended to occur on higher A1 soils. Lime eliminated the need for fertilizer P on at least three P-deficient soils during the 3 year period of the experiments, and this was also associated with increases in availability and uptake of soil P. Lime suppressed P sorptivity in all soils, but this caused an increase in fertilizer P effectiveness in only two soils (in the first year). Hence, the positive effect of lime on soluble soil P, which occurred on all soils and which would tend to lower fertilizer P effectiveness, seemed to be dominant over its negative effect on soil P sorptivity. Residual effects of lime and fertilizer P were similar, both declining after the first year, with five soils still responsive in the third year.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhou Cheng ◽  
Kai Li ◽  
Ching-I Teng

PurposePush notification service (PNS) is an important approach to distribute personalized information to users timely and is getting more and more popular. However, users' privacy concerns are a major inhibiting factor in their continuance usage of PNS. This study investigates the effect of privacy protection functions provided by PNS sites in enhancing users' perceived fairness on the basis of justice theory to mitigate users' concerns of information privacy. The mechanism underlying such influence on users' continuance usage of PNS comprises privacy concern and privacy-control self-efficacy.Design/methodology/approachFour scenario-based surveys are conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. The authors test the research model with a sample of 360 participants by ANOVA and PLS.FindingsResults show that the proposed privacy protection functions have direct positive effects on users' privacy-control self-efficacy, negative effects on privacy concern and indirectly affect their continuance usage of PNS. Furthermore, the interaction effects between two approaches have different impacts on users' privacy concern and privacy-control self-efficacy.Originality/valueThis study provides some suggestions and guidance for PNS providers to design effective privacy protection technologies.


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