Goal Displacement and the Intangibility of Organizational Goals

Warner, W. Keith; Havens, A. Eugene

doi:10.2307/2391532

Cited by 65 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Operational efficiency, for example, may be crucial to a firm's success and even to business success, but it would be a mistake to conclude that efficiency itself is any kind of ultimate firm or business goal. The temptation to do so is real but we need to be alert to the problem of goal displacement as we consider purpose, especially if that purpose is more intangible than many of the means to that end (Warner & Havens, 1968). Consider engines.…”

Section: A Fallacy Of Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a theory of business

Donaldson

Walsh

2015

Research in Organizational Behavior

228

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: A Fallacy Of Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a theory of business

Donaldson

Walsh

2015

Research in Organizational Behavior

228

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Organizations, such as a College of Education or a teacher education program, are more likely to make change when they identify tangible goals with incremental steps toward reaching that goal (Warner & Havens, 1968). Clear and explicit goals-especially when each educator's values and dispositions align with these (Burch, 2007;Kelchtermans, 2005)-can guide people and organizations to implement change, evaluate their progress, and modify their strategies toward making improvements (Van de Ven & Poole, 1995).…”

Section: Explicit Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding Roles: Teacher Educators’ Perspectives on Educating English Learners

Daniel

Peercy

2014

Action in Teacher Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although the underpreparation of teachers to work with English learners is a documented problem in teacher education, little research has addressed teacher educators' perspectives in guiding prospective teachers to educate English learners. This case study of one 13-month elementary certification program highlights teacher educators' efforts and challenges in providing preservice elementary teachers with opportunities to learn about educating students learning English as an additional language. A key finding is that all teacher educators who participated in this study felt responsible for and made efforts to guide teacher candidates to educate linguistically diverse students in elementary classroom settings, but they did not work toward this goal collectively or cohesively. Implications for integrating preparation of teachers to work with English learners in preservice teacher education, such as distributed leadership among faculty, are discussed.

show abstract

“…Goal Change Warner and Havens (1968) discuss two types of goal change. They state goal change occurs &dquo;when the avowed goals are not achieved, but are replaced by different ones&dquo; (p. 541).…”

Section: Posited Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three factors contribute to goal displacement. First, the more abstract and intangible the goals; the more likely the goals will be displaced (Warner & Havens, 1968). Professionals, such as professors, may be requested to &dquo;develop a good product&dquo; or &dquo;be productive.&dquo; Secretaries may be asked to &dquo;do a good typing job&dquo; or &dquo;reorganize the files.&dquo; The abstractness of these goals allows employees to be flexible in how they will attain the goals.…”

Section: Posited Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Goal Change on Prominent Perceptions and Beha viors of Emplo yees

Abelson

1983

Journal of Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A model exploring the hypothesized impact of goal change on employee perceptions and behaviors was examined. Aspects of goal change were found to be significantly related to satisfaction, organizational commitment, and absenteeism. Organizational commitment was found to be related to turnover, but neither satisfaction nor organizational commitment was found to have a significant relationship with absenteeism. The implications of these findings are discussed.There has been a great deal of research concerning both organizational and individual goals within work settings. Much of the organizational goal literature deals with the conceptual development of different types of goals (Etzioni, 1964;Perrow, 1961) or goal models (Barnard, 1938;Etzioni, 1964;Georgious, 1973). The literature on individual goals has primarily dealt with the effective use of goals as motivators (Locke, 1968) or the actual goal setting process (Carroll & Tosi, 1970;Latham & Yukl, 1975). Goals at all levels within work settings are continually changing however. This becomes especially apparent when considering the dynamic corporate and political environment in which we currently find ourselves. These changes may be a function of changes in organizational goals (especially goals in organizations experiencing turbulent environments) or changes in work-related goals. In either instance a necessitated change of behaviors, because of changes in goals, may have some impact on the functioning of staff within organizations.The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of goal change on individual perceptions and behavioral outcomes of individuals within organizations. A brief discussion of goal change is followed by a model which posits the relationship between goal change and prominent perceptual and behavioral variables. The findings of this research and the implications are then explored.

show abstract

Goal Displacement and the Intangibility of Organizational Goals

Cited by 65 publications

References 0 publications

Toward a theory of business

Toward a theory of business

Expanding Roles: Teacher Educators’ Perspectives on Educating English Learners

The Impact of Goal Change on Prominent Perceptions and Beha viors of Emplo yees

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About