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

Abstract

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.

Group Citizenship Behaviour Conceptualization and Preliminary Tests of its Antecedents and Consequences

“…Although research on the OCB–turnover relationship is limited, it has found that employees who exhibited lower levels of OCB were more likely to leave an organization than those who exhibited high levels of OCB (Chen, Hui, and Sego, 1998). With regard to the traditional withdrawal models, most of them point to individual‐level explanations for withdrawal behaviours (e.g., Hom and Griffith, 1991; Mobley, 1977), but some research has found that group factors can account for employees’ desire to withdraw from work through turnover (Abelson, 1983). According to Salancik and Pfeffer's (1978) social information processing theory (SIP), individuals receive cues from the surrounding social environment, form perceptions of the culture of the environment, and then act upon it.…”

The influence of organizational commitment and health on sickness absenteeism: a longitudinal study

“…Burton et al (2002) found no direct relation between (affective and continuance) commitment and overall absenteeism. In studies that consider the relation between organizational commitment and turnover (intention) as well as absenteeism (Angle & Perry 1981, Abelson 1983, Farrell & Petersen 1984, Shore et al 1990, Geurts et al 1999), a significant direct relation with absenteeism was either absent or much weaker than that between turnover and organizational commitment.…”

Business Moral Values of Supervisors and Subordinates and Their Effect on Employee Effectiveness

“…Our findings also provide information for a better understanding of how subordinate business moral values relate to employee effectiveness when taking supervisor business moral values and perceived organizational moral values into consideration (Abelson, 1983;Hunt et al, 1989;Morris and Sherman, 1981). Follow-up research could investigate possible cross-level effects, such as those of organizational moral values, group moral norms, and individual moral values and behavior.…”