Masters Thesis

Flexibility in goal attainment: the role of overachievement goals in performance matrices

There are few studies in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM) that examine the effectiveness of individual goal setting components (O’Hora & Maglieri, 2006). For instance, some versions of the Performance Matrix, an employee behavior scorecard, allow employees to achieve points above a specified goal level (overachievement) for certain behaviors to make up for other goals that are not met, even though there is no evidence to justify doing this (Daniels & Daniels, 2006). While some versions of the Performance Matrix are used frequently in applied settings, little research regarding their utilization is available (Plowman, 2005). As such, the current study examined the effect that eliminating the possibility of overachievement on a Performance Matrix would have on the safe driving behavior of six fork lift drivers at a ceramics manufacturing company. The overachievement and non-overachievement matrices were compared in a counterbalanced ABACX and ACABX reversal design. Results of the study showed that both versions of the Performance Matrix significantly increased the safe driving behaviors of all participants. However, there was little difference in the level of improvement when comparing the non-overachievement scorecard vs. the overachievement scorecard. The non-overachievement scorecard did cost slightly less to implement but the participants were split between which of the scorecards they preferred, suggesting it may be more beneficial to choose the version that best fits the particular organization.

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