Date of Award

4-1-1995

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication

Abstract

Setting goals through Management by Objectives and offering rewards for meeting or accomplishing these goals may have an impact on an individual's overall performance and productivity on the job. It is assumed that, when goals are set and people are challenged to meet these assigned goals, productivity, morale and quality of employee relationships are increased (Murphy, 1987). Through past research, it is evident that goal setting is the fundamental process in any MBO program. Often times, goals are set by higher levels of management and given to lower levels of management to obtain. In an organization, the MBO process is also an accountability tool used to encourage management to achieve or meet their assigned goals. Communication plays a major role in setting these goals and may also have an impact on motivating these managers to achieve goals assigned by their superiors. Management by Objectives, or setting goals, and communication amongst members of the management team go hand in hand in many organizations. When goals are set by those in the upper echelon of management, are lower level managers as motivated to meet these assigned goals than they would be having had the opportunity to set their own personal work goals? The question that needs to be answered is: When goals are set by management, are lower level managers motivated to accomplish them? No tools, surveys, or questionnaires that can accurately answer this question have been found in the literature. Through my personal studies, I have also found no tool to accurately measure the elements of both personal and assigned goal setting and the elements of motivation and their impact on each other. There have been no tools developed that accurately measure the relationships these factors share with each other.

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Department of Communication and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha. Copyright 1995, David Rees Watkins, Jr.

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