Short‐Term Goal Setting for Construction
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 119, Issue 3
Abstract
Goal setting is one of the motivational techniques used in manufacturing and service industries to improve the productivity of the workforce, and previous studies have shown that goal setting can result in up to 20% increase in productivity. However, this technique has not been applied to construction projects due to the inherent characteristics of the construction industry and difficulties in implementing the technique at construction sites. To study the applicability of goal setting in construction, three experiments were performed over a period of 14 months. In all three experiments, the groups with a goal outperformed the groups without a goal. This increased performance is shown by higher expected profits at each experimental site. Comparison of all three experiments allows conclusions to be advanced that: (1) Goal setting induced increased productivity of unionized groups with a goal; and (2) short‐term goals resulted in higher productivity than long‐term goals.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Bandura, A., and Simon, K. M. (1986). “The role of proximal intentions in self‐regulation of refractory behavior.” Cognitive Therapy and Res., 1(3), 177–193.
2.
Campbell, D. T., and Stanley, J. C. (1963). Experimental and quasi‐experimental designs for research. Rand‐McNally Co, Chicago, Ill.
3.
Carrier, R. E., Hensey, M., and Popovich, R. (1986). “Anatomy of successful productivity effort.” J. Mgmt. in Engrg., ASCE, 2(1), 47–56.
4.
Cook, T. D. and Campbell, D. T. (1979). Quasi‐experimentation, design and analysis issues for field settings. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass.
5.
Hadavi, A. (1991). “Improvement in construction productivity through goal setting in a unionized environment,” PhD dissertation, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, Ill.
6.
Locke, E. A., Shaw, K. N., Saari, L. M., and Latham, G. P. (1981). “Goal setting and task performance: 1969–1980.” Psychological Bull., 90(1), 125–152.
7.
Locke, E. A., and Latham, G. P. (1990). A theory of goal setting and task performance. Prentice‐Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
8.
Ryan, M. M., and Sebastianelli, S. R. (1987). “Team goal setting—key to successful productivity effort.” J. Mgmt. in Engrg., ASCE, 3(4), 325–334.
9.
Thomas, R. H., Kramer, D. F. (1988). The manual of construction productivity measurement and performance evaluation. The Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, Pa.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 119 • Issue 3 • September 1993
Pages: 622 - 630
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 7, 1992
Published online: Sep 1, 1993
Published in print: Sep 1993
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.