Goal Clarity, Task Significance, and Performance: Evidence From a Laboratory Experiment
Goal Clarity, Task Significance, and Performance: Evidence From a Laboratory Experiment
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DOI：
10.1093/jopart/muv019
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发表时间：
2016-04-01
影响因子：
4.2
通讯作者：
Stritch, Justin M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Anderson, Derrick M.;Stritch, Justin M.
本文探讨了任务目标清晰度、任务重要性和个人水平任务绩效之间的关系。虽然目标和任务意义在现存的公共管理研究中都很重要，但需要对变量进行理论整合。本研究在理论上解释了这些变量如何在公共组织中协同工作。除了研究任务目标清晰度和绩效之间的关系，我们考虑如何任务的意义可能条件的关系。有理论上的理由来提出一个积极和消极的条件效应。采用3 × 2析因设计，我们进行了一项实验室实验，214名受试者参加了一个任务性能的练习。这项研究提供了实验证据，任务目标清晰度与绩效呈正相关。然而，一个有趣的关系出现的任务意义的条件效应。当一个人认为他们的表现具有更高的任务意义时，证据表明这会降低他们的表现水平。这些发现为我们理解任务目标清晰度和绩效以及我们理解任务意义和绩效之间的关系提供了重要的细微差别。
This article examines the relationships among task goal clarity, task significance, and individual-level task performance. While both goals and task significance are important in extant public-management research, a theoretical integration of the variables is needed. This study makes the theoretical contribution of explaining how these variables might work together in a public organization. In addition to examining the relationship between task goal clarity and performance, we consider how task significance might condition the relationship. There are theoretical reasons to suggest both a positive and negative conditional effect. Utilizing a 3x2 factorial design, we conducted a laboratory experiment on 214 subjects participating in a task-performance exercise. This study provides experimental evidence that task goal clarity is positively related to performance. However, an interesting relationship emerges with respect to the conditional effect of task significance. When an individual is primed to believe their performance has a higher level of task significance, the evidence suggests that this will decrease their level of performance. The findings provide significant nuance to our understanding of both task goal clarity and performance, as well as our understanding of the relationship between task significance and performance.