The Interactive Effects ofEx PostGoal Adjustment and Goal Difficulty on Performance

Abstract

Despite the common use of performance goals to motivate employees and the use of ex post goal adjustments to filter out the effects of unforeseen and uncontrollable events, minimal research has examined the consequences of employing them jointly. We predict that the availability of ex post goal adjustments will have a positive effect on performance and that this effect will be stronger when the ex ante goal difficulty level is moderate rather than difficult. Moreover, we predict that these effects will be mediated by perceptions of procedural justice. Results from an experiment completed by 142 undergraduate students support our predictions. The availability of ex post goal adjustments has positive effects on procedural fairness perceptions and performance under the moderate goal, but has no such effects under the difficult goal. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

The impact of procedural and distributive justice on satisfaction and manufacturing performance: a replication of Lindquist (1995) with a focus on the importance of common metrics in experimental design

“…Finally, Lindquist (1995) finds no performance effects for any measures of procedural justice. While some extensions concur (e.g., Kelly et al 2015), Libby (1999) does find performance enhancements when voice is combined with an explanation for unattainable performance standards. Note again, though, that she operationalized voice differently than Lindquist (1995) and uses a mentalbased experimental task.…”

“…Further, Lindquist's (1995) seminal work, which pioneered justice research in accounting (Indriani 2015), is broadly cited. That may explain why a number of authors have already crafted experimental studies to try to extend it and investigate the impact of justice on varied dependent measures (Libby 1999;Libby 2001;Chow et al 2001;Libby 2003;Byrne and Damon 2008;Francis-Gladney et al 2008;Nahartyo 2013;Kelly, Webb and Vance 2015;Gomez-Ruiz and Rodriguez-Rivero 2018). Also, numerous other authors have developed field studies and surveys to further investigate the impact of justice issues in accounting (Lau and Lim 2002a;Lau and Lim 2002b;Lau and Tan 2005;Lau and Tan 2006;Chong and Strauss 2017;Zainuddin and Isa 2019;Sudarwan 2019;Habran and Mouritsen, 2020;Safkaur and Pangayow 2020).…”

How Do Budget Level and Type of Incentives Influence Performance?

“…only over the compensation received based on the compensation contract (Lambert, 2007).The role of incentive to individual performance has been investigated by previous researches (Kelly et al, 2015;Al-Nsour, 2012;Anthony and Govindarajan, 2007;Bouwens and Lent, 2006;Bonner and Sprinkle, 2002;Bailey et al, 1998). Incentive became the most powerful factor that been predicted could influence performance (Hossain, 2014;Guymon et al, 2008;Burggen and Moers, 2007;Fargher et al, 1998).…”

Experimental Examination of the Relationship between Relative Performance Information, Goal Setting and Performance

“…Goal setting theory (Locke, 1996) posits that a goal would be effective if it is explicitly stated, challenging and considered to be attainable. If a goal is explicit, challenging but considered to be unattainable from an individual's viewpoint, then the goal may not be effective as the individual perceive that the goal is out of reach (Kelly et al, 2015;Lee, Keil, & Wong, 2015). Furthermore, from the perspective of goal setting theory it is also outlined that individuals are concerned with the outcome of their effort in the goal attainment process, since it would in turn determine their commitment to achieve the goal (Locke & Latham, 2002;2006).…”

“…The reason is because it may in turn affect employee's effort, motivation and eventually performance (Hannan, McPhee, Newman, & Tafkov, 2013;Newman & Tafkov, 2014). In addition, the level of goals assigned by firms to their employees is also regarded as an important factor that needs to be considered strategically, as it may motivate or demotivate employees (Kelly, Webb, & Vance, 2015).…”