Much evidence exists that supports the use of goal setting as a motivational technique for enhancing task performance; however, little attention has been given to the role of task characteristics as potential moderating conditions of goal effects. Meta-analysis procedures were used to assess the moderator effects of task complexity for goal-setting studies conducted from 1966 to 1985 (n = 125). The reliability of the task complexity ratings was .92. Three sets of analyses were conducted: for goaldimculty results (hard vs. easy), for goal specificity-difficulty (specific difficult goals vs. do-best or no goal), and for all studies collapsed across goal difficulty and goal specificity-difficulty. It was generally found that goal-setting effects were strongest for easy tasks (reaction time, brainstorming), d ~ .76, and weakest for more complex tasks (business game simulations, scientific and engineering work, faculty research productivity), d = .42. Implications for future research on goal setting and the validity of generalizing results are discussed.Twenty years of empirical research has established that specific, challenging goals lead to higher levels of task performance than no goals, vague goals, or easy goals (Locke, Shaw, Saari, & Latham, 1981;Finder, 1984). Interest is now turning to identifying the theoretical limits of goal setting, for example, the variables that moderate the positive performance effects of goals (e.g., Austin & Bobko, 1984;Locke et al., 1981;Naylor & Ilgen, 1984).One variable of potential importance to the theory of goal setting is task complexity. Tasks are an integral part of all studies of human performance, and task characteristics have been suggested as moderators in a diverse range of areas, including job design (Hackman & Oldham, 1980), personnel selection (e.g., Peterson & Bownas, 1982), information processing and decision making (e.g., Streufert & Streufert, 1978), and psychomotor activities (Fleishman, 1975). Locke et al. (1981) have speculated that goals will have less direct effects due to effort, attention, and persistence on complex tasks, and that indirect effects due to strategy development will become more important to performance. Further, Wood (1985) has argued that specific, challenging goals may lead to suboptimal search procedures on complex tasks (e.g., Baumler, 1971;Huber, 1985). From this literature we hypothesize that goals, on the average, will have less pronounced performance effects on complex tasks than on simple tasks.The study of characteristics such as complexity has suffered

A meta-analytic study was conducted involving primarily published research from 1%6 to 1984 and focusing on the relationship between goal-setting variables and task performance. Two major sets of studies were analyzed, those contrasting hard goals (goal difficulty) versus easy goals, and those comparing specific hard goals (goal specificity/difftculty) versus general goals, "do best" instructions, or no goal. As expected, strong support was obtained for the goal difficulty and goal specificity/difficulty components of E. A. Locke's (1968a, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 3, 157-189) theory. A two-stage approach was employed to identify potential moderators of the goal difficulty and goal specificity/difficulty-performance relationships. Setting (laboratory versus field) was identified as a moderator of the relationship between goal specificity/difftculty and task performance. Two supplemental meta-analyses yielded support for the efficacy of combining specific hard goals with feedback versus specific hard goals without feedback and for participatively set goals versus assigned goal setting (when goal level is held constant), although this latter finding was interpreted as inconclusive based on the limited studies available. Implications for future research are addressed.

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Developed by Tony Buzan in 1970, mind mapping is a revolutionary system for capturing ideas and insights horizontally on a sheet of paper. This paper illustrates the technique of mind mapping, and highlights its specific applications in a variety of contexts based on our work in executive education and in management development consulting. Positive outcomes of the approach are described as well as reactions of executive students to mind mapping. We conclude with a rationale of why we believe mind mapping works with executives.In our Executive MBA (EMBA) program, which was established in 1973 and is one of the ten oldest in the USA, students must skillfully balance a full-time job, social life, and full load of graduate courses simultaneously for the duration of the two-year program. Professors strive to continuously improve the content of their courses by having student teams design marketing studies, consult with small businesses (Lamond, 1995), run simulated international businesses (Nicholson, 1997), and design information systems for local businesses. Educators in management development programs also strive to enhance the process, the way in which courses are delivered ( i.e. team taught, crossfunctional, distance learning). We are actively involved in discovering (through consulting and reading) and applying active learning methodologies developed for industry or the military to enable students to become more effective at analyzing, integrating, and consolidating new information. We also strive to increase the effectiveness and quality of our students' learning in order to provide them with a competitive advantage in the marketplace.Storyboarding, a creativity-enhancing and problem-solving technique (Humes et al., 1995) taught to our students, was developed by Walt Disney in 1928 and extensively and successfully applied in a total quality management effort by utility company Florida Power and Light. This was the first American company to win the coveted Japanese Deming prize (Hart et al., 1989). Another active learning method used at our school (all the work reported here was accomplished when all three authors were affiliated with Loyola College) since 1991, is mandatory development of lessons learned by each student based on his or her learning from and reflection on class assignments, team projects, and

It was hypothesized that one possible explanation of moderator effects is that they are due to different degrees of homogeneity with respect to a causal variable among different subgroups. This hypothesis was tested in a laboratory experiment in which performance was predicted from ability using motivation as the moderator. Ability was measured with a work sample and motivation was varied by assigning goals with different degrees of difficulty and specificity. It was found that ability predicted performance better in groups which were homogeneous with respect to motivation that in those which were motivationally heterogeneous. A moderated regression analysis showed that most of the differential validity was reducible to main effects, but significant interaction effects were found. One of them was caused by the fact that in one low motivation condition the variance in performance was reduced, thus decreasing the slope of the regression line.THERE has been persistent controversy over the issue of whether motivation and ability interact to produce performance ( P ) . If ability ( A ) is defined as the capacity to perform (i.e., knowledge and skill), and motivation ( M ) is defined as the desire to perform (i.e., effort), then the interaction hypothesis is that P = A X M. A second hypothesis, except for cases where A or M equal 0, is that A and M combine additively, thus P = A + M . A third alternative is to combine the first two, so that P = A + M + ( A X M ) .Since numerous studies have shown evidence for the main effects of both A and M, the real controversy is over the existence of the interaction term in the additive model.

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Quality circle (QC) programs instituted in two Department of Defense (DOD) organizations were evaluated within the framework of a nonequivalent control group design. Two waves of survey data were collected from 107 members of a military maintenance organization and 165 employees of a medical facility located on the same DOD installation. Analysis of covariance procedures on data from the maintenance sample isolated significant treatment group effects on 7 of the 20 criterion variables used in the study. However, QC treatment effects were not apparent in the covariance results for the hospital personnel. Subgroup analyses on the data provided by active QC members identified different patterns of responses from individuals in the two samples. Active circle members from the maintenance organization tended to evaluate their situation more favorably as the study progressed. In contrast, responses provided by active QC group members from the medical facility tended to take an increasingly more negative tone over the course of the study. Qualitative differences between the two organizations in the conduct of the QC intervention are reviewed in an effort to identify potential moderating variables conditioning the degree of program success.