Goal commitment and the goal-setting process: conceptual clarification and empirical synthesis.

Goals are central to current treatments of work motivation, and goal commitment is a critical construct in understanding the relationship between goals and task performance. Despite this importance, there is confusion about the role of goal commitment and only recently has this key construct received the empirical attention it warrants. This meta-analysis, based on 83 independent samples, updates the goal commitment literature by summarizing the accumulated evidence on the antecedents and consequences of goal commitment. Using this aggregate empirical evidence, the role of goal commitment in the goal-setting process is clarified and key areas for future research are identified.

Prevalence and prediction of positive discrepancy creation: examining a discrepancy between two self-regulation theories.

The conflicting perspectives of control theory (CT) and self-efficacy theory (SET) concerning positive discrepancy creation (PDC) were tested and are discussed. According to CT, discrepancies between past performance and future goals are continually reduced. This is contrary to SET's focus on setting future goals higher than past performance levels. Participants performed several trials in a multitask environment, during which they did as many or as few problems as they chose on each of 4 intellectual tasks. Results suggest that PDC is not uncommon in a multitask environment, even after extensive task experience. Regression decomposition techniques identified 2 types of PDC: goal driven and performance driven. Need for achievement, instrumentality, and expectancy predicted the 2 types of PDC with varying success across the 4 tasks. The 2 types of PDC reflect the different theoretical approaches and these 2 self-regulation theories.

Work and the quality of life.

Wilensky's (1960, 1961) proposition that the integration of work into one's total life is contingent upon the technological and social organization of the work was tested in a national probability sample of approximately 1,025 men and women. In line with Wilensky's arguments, it was found that a composit measure of job complexity and occupational status moderated the job satisfaction-life satisfaction relationship. Specifically, the relationship between job- and life satisfaction was greatest for individuals with occupations characterized as complex and high in status. The magnitude of the detected moderating effects, as well as that of job satisfaction per se, on life satisfaction, were small, however. It is argued that the scope of variables considered in attempts to understand the relationship between life- and job satisfaction should be expanded and suggestions for future research are offered.